: The strangest thing is imagining the "overhead" involved
: in selling these Kias through the fancy auction house -- what
: are the costs of accepting, processing, photographing, printing,
: writing, handling, tracking, displaying, etc. these $400
: watches? Maybe the commissions cover these costs, and the
: auction house gets to say that it sold 400 lots, instead of only
: 325 lots, but it is a very strange sight to see the Kia behind
: the velvet ropes, where we once saw the Bugattis and Aston
: Martins.
Jeff, you made an excellent analogy comparing it to automotive sales. Drawing from a time when I was selling cars in my younger years I can say it is the same concept. During times of the year when sales would be slow sales tactics would change. Slick talking to sell at MSRP was gone. Sell the cars at $200 over cost to get them off the lot. You made a quick $100, the dealership made their holdback fees, and it looked good to the manufacturer that we are selling 200 cars while others are selling 120. So your point of showing higher numbers of lots sold is very plausible as yet another reason why they would be accepting these watches.
Dave
