Bruce Costello, the vice president of operations for Heritage Global Partners, will be directing the auction. On Tuesday, the public was invited to preview the equipment and to register for the auction at the plant until 5 p.m. The facility will be open today at 9 a.m.

The Dove brothers — Ross and Kirk Dove, who are grandchildren of HGP founder Harry Ross and third-generation auctioneers — will lead the auction at New Era.

Click here to read the full article.

Speaking of take offs, check out our website. The thunder is about to be visible. We landed another half dozen great sales this past week. Going on the road to see every deal ourselves is both exhilarating and exhausting. We have 62 potential deals in our pipeline but Kirk and I promised each other to never get so big that we can’t make sure we do each sale perfect. It’s not looking good for his golf handicap, but on the flip side the track season is opening at Del Mar. If we keep winning auctions, I should be in position to use the middle seat savings to take some partners and clients to the upstairs Turf Club without the CFO lecture. Let’s hope for a horse called Heritage or Thunder, either way, it’s a lock to bet with us.

Finally, we owe everyone so much for supporting us with leads and bringing us in as partners. We really appreciate all the support we have received while getting Heritage airborne.

Best to all
RD

The auction industry is a great industry to work in; one day you’re selling microscopes and HPLC’s, and then you dive into another world, and sell Barudan’s, Juki’s, Brothers’ and Singer’s.

Speaking of Brothers, it was fun to again share the podium with mine, as we took turns at full throat. Most sales nowadays are exclusively online, so it is a pleasant change of pace to see the crowd and call the bids in an “Old School” fashion again. The only hiccup was that our speaker system went down at Lot #4, and never came back to life. We just each looked at each other, shook our heads, and said, “This is really going to be old school today!”

NAI-Mexico is a an exclusive member of NAI, the World’s leading managed network of commercial real estate firms, serving over 325 markets worldwide.

Heritage Global Partners is a leading provider of Asset Advisory and Auction Services. HGP was founded by Industry pioneers, Ross and Kirk Dove.

To Read more, please click here.

This week we completed a sale for Vion Pharmaceuticals in Connecticut, and once again my belief were reinforced: hundreds of worldwide registered bidders, 150,000 lots views, and 50,000+ Internet bids. These are really impressive numbers, again pointing out to the global appeal of the equipment. As one company departs the scene, sure enough, there are hundreds more to pick up the assets and work on the next dream.

Thanks to our client for acting with complete professionalism throughout the project; Thanks to our bidders, who endured long hours slugging it out with no complaints; and special thanks to all the Universities who participated, including Reno, Michigan, Miami, and of course, Yale. You added some class to the proceedings.

P.S. Hope you like the look and feel of the new site. We’ve got a few more bells and whistles coming soon!

The problem is that we’re now in the thick of it here at Heritage, and the running around of signing and conducting auctions are becoming common course. You have great days when you win one, and tons of medium days when you hear they transferred everything or they’re not ready until 2011, etc. However, I just had that day that demands a blog. 

We concluded our Matisse Network auction in the most fulfilling way for any auctioneer. Our client had told us that our pre-auction estimate was quite bullish in comparison with a big “global company” we were up against. I said, “How bullish?” and he said thirty percent higher. 

That gave pause for reflection, about ten seconds before I responded, we will hit our number, you have a Heritage promise. And yes, we did hit our number, with over 100 registered bidders and with most sales going to end users. Even better: our client is happy, the buyers enjoyed our auction experience and I just got a call from one of the world’s largest telecom firms who watched, and wants to meet. We’re feeling good- and to all of you who have sent us leads and referrals,  please keep them coming. We promise we will deliver. 

On a final note, I am thrilled to announce that our legacy now spans four generation. Today we welcome my oldest son Alex Dove into the business. 

Cheers to all, RD

Ross Dove
Managing Partner

Heritage Global Partners
Asset Advisory and Auction Services
A Legacy Since 1937

2. NAA: What role does the Auctioneer play today?
KD: The auctioneer’s role should be that of a service provider; I find many companies are very good at buying new; they have Ariba and other spend management tools-they negotiate terms and discounts and have the front end process down very nicely. However, they are relatively poor and inexperienced on the back end disposition process, often relying on a very small pool of trusted, local resellers. The auctioneer can expand that playing field exponentially.

3. NAA: What role will the Auctioneer play in the future?
KD: I think the roles remain the same- service provider, but they expand a bit. For example, my company has built software to help companies internally redeploy an item within the firm, before it is deemed surplus. I believe for large companies with poor internal visibility, this is a great tool. I believe periodic valuation of tools in industries of high obsolescence makes a great deal of sense. Some companies in the technology sectors that warehouse items for later use are making mistakes-they could buy newer models down the road, with greater capacity, at lower costs. They should be selling idle assets much more frequently. A good service provider is doing more than just auctions for his clients.

4. NAA: What role does the Internet play today?
KD: The internet has done wonders for our profession- two in particular: the ability as a seller to provide content, media, streaming data, and information is the essential factor. The technology available to a buyer to search globally for an item has been a huge leap in their ability to find exactly what they are looking for. Prior to the internet, buyers had to rely on published catalogs, and comb trade journals for product-those days are over. Searches are swift and comprehensive nowadays, and that could not have happened 10 years ago.

5. NAA: What role will the Internet play in the future?
KD: Sales will truly be global; as events switch from live to online formats, time differences disappear along with language barriers. As much as an improvement as the “webcasting “ of live auctions were (and we did thousands of them), they could never overcome 3 deficiencies: first-the sale was still auctioned in a single language at a breath neck pace, second-the items came up whenever they came up in a sequence at a local time, third-they were available only for about 1 minute in duration. So, a global buyer that perhaps does not speak fluent English, would be forced to sit up in the middle of the night waiting for lot # 475 to come up; and this non-English speaking bidder would have 30 seconds to bid on the item at 3 am in the morning! My belief is the way of the bid caller is in massive decline on any sale where you need international exposure and bidding . I believe that internet driven software, not a bid caller, will conduct 90% of all auctions within this coming decade.

6. NAA: What areas or segments of Auction Marketing have a promising future?
KD: Anything that helps load content in an easy to read format, will be in demand. Buyers will increasingly not inspect internationally, but instead rely on the content surrounding an asset. We are introducing a service for select buyers, where we will inspect the asset for them for a service fee, so they do not have to travel. We will rate it on condition, remaining useful life, available manuals, service records, etc. Also, any services built around searching for items will become increasingly in demand. Buyer’s want instant gratification-they want their search engines to find their items right away. We are introducing a procurement tool for buyers, who want to purchase select items but are having difficulties finding and negotiating a fair price.

7. NAA: Do you have any thoughts on how Auction Marketing will be used in the future that may not be used today?
KD: I believe there are two sellers and two buyers in the marketplace. On the sell side, You have Seller A- those that have to sell (bankruptcy, plant closure, replacement machines coming, etc.) and Seller B- those that would sell if convinced (the purchasing manager who has his own reseller program, the facility manager who is storing items in overcrowded warehouses, etc). On the buy side, Buyer A- professional resellers in all industry sectors (machine tool dealers, computer brokers, repair houses, etc.) and Buyer B- end users looking to buy used and save some money. The Auctioneer stands squarely in the middle and needs to wear 4 hats: On the sell side: he has to service Seller A by providing an efficient channel outlet for their equipment; and the Auctioneer must prove to seller B that his channel is more effective than other channels that Seller B may be considering.
On the buy side- the Auctioneer must provide continual information to the Buyer A community of the product he has now and will have for upcoming sales (Advance notice to this segment is essential). This is critical, because many dealers and resellers will bid considerably higher if they receive detailed advance notice of a sale. Often, they can come to that sale and have items pre-sold, which allows them to bid in a much stronger capacity. To meet the needs of Buyer B, the Auctioneer of tomorrow will need to dominate in the search engine optimization arena; if the one time end user typing in used CNC lathes gets directed to your website, you will benefit substantially over all others.

There will hopefully be thousands signed over the next years, but the first one is like your very first kiss: it’s the one you always remember. That happened yesterday, and we are very excited to be back in the saddle! A hi-tech facility, in Japan no less!! So it begins: the set up, the marketing, the bidding, the removal. All the little stuff that you used to take for granted, are now very important once again.

One down, a whole lot more to go…

Kirk Dove
Managing Partner

Heritage Global Partners
Asset Advisory and Auction Services
A Legacy since 1937