Meares Auctions News

Customer Success Story:  Meares Auction Group
Since 1972, Meares Auction Group has provided auction services for estates, real estate, and specialty collections including firearms, coins and toys.  Based in Pelzer, SC, Meares Auction Group is an established brick-and-mortar operation with a keen understanding of technology’s impact on the auction industry.

The Challenge:  In 2003, Meares Auction Group was listed as a power seller on EBay, but was dissatisfied with the results.  The Company was still facing challenges – how could Meares Auction Group break down geographical borders and increase the number of bidders while reducing the advertising budget?

The Solution:  With EBay churning lackluster results, Meares Auction Group turned to Proxibid to bring its auctions live online.  With Proxibid’s combination of personal account managers, customer service and support and strategic marketing, the decision was an easy one to make.

“We knew we had to do something different to attract a global audience,” said Auctioneer Darron Meares.  “Proxibid approached us in the early stages of its business development, and we’ve grown together in the online auction marketplace.  Today, Proxibid remains our exclusive online provider.”

Meares Auction Group works with a personal account manager who helps facilitate every aspect of the auction.  Not only does the account manager assist with catalog development and invoicing, but she also provides trend analyses of each event to ensure Meares has a clear understanding of auction success.  Each event is different, and Proxibid’s account managers are trained to review auction results and provide feedback to ensure the next auction has even better results than the previous one.

Strategic marketing has had a major impact on Meares’ success with live auction webcasting.  Proxibid is featured prominently on the Meares Auction Group Web site, and the site links directly to the Meares Auction Group splash page on Proxibid, which lists all of the Company’s upcoming auctions.  Meares Auction Group sends direct mail to past bidders to advertise upcoming auctions, and always includes information about online bidding.  

“We are constantly directing bidders to our Web site where they can learn about our auctions and link directly to the auction catalog on Proxibid,” said Meares.  “Every marketing effort directs bidders online.  We know bidders can’t always make it to the live auction, but they can bid online from anywhere in the world and we want to capitalize on that at every turn.”

Bidder support is also important to Meares’ Auction Services.  Proxibid provides bidders with world-class, free support before, during and after every live auction event, ensuring no one is left out of the action.  Proxibid will also assist in resolving bidder disputes if necessary.

The Result:  Thanks to Proxibid, Meares Auction Group has been able to reach a global audience and reduce its advertising costs, while at the same time increasing the number of registered bidders for its events.  The Company averages between 60-62% in online sales at each auction.  The number of online bidders continues to increase at a steady rate, and at times Meares has more online bidders than onsite bidders.  Bidders from as far away as France, Germany and Italy log in to participate in Meares’ auctions, proving that there are no geographical boundaries when it comes to online bidding.

“The best result for us is to take the deal out of the room and put more money in the seller’s pocket,” says Meares.  “Since we started working with Proxibid we’ve been able to consistently spend less money to attract more registered bidders, while realizing higher hammer prices.  We could never achieve these results without Proxibid.”