Talk:Auction chant

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this is the most poorly written wikipedia page ive ever seen. should be re written or deleted. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.132.181.248 (talk) 06:02, 23 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

re: Worldwide view tag[edit]

Is this a uniquely American custom? I've heard auctioneers in the UK use a particular style but the specific chant described here, with specific set filler words, seems to be confined only to the US. --2.216.83.245 (talk) 21:04, 13 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@2.216.83.245: Nope, not only in the US. e.g.: Example

--anon (talk) 20:46, 15 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Perhaps just the US and Canada then? I don't just mean speaking fast and with a particular cadence, I mean the specific chant and culture described in this article. E.g. it mentions the use of terms like "dollar bid" assuming them to be universal, but presumably this term would not be used in the UK. Not to mention outside the English speaking world. I mean, do Chinese auctioneers have a version of this? German? Russian? I wouldn't be surprised, but if they do, it's not covered in this article at all.

The article also talks about competitions with "world champions" - are these truly world champions or is it just a marketing gimmick?

Interestingly the Dutch Wikipedia article claims the tradition is unique to the US and Canada but offers no source. --2.216.83.245 (talk) 19:40, 17 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]

@2.216.83.245:

These auctioneers' chants in the UK and in Australia sound, to me, like the auction chant described in this article, so I would say the Dutch article is wrong if it claims that this style of chant is unique to US/Canada, but I'm pretty sure the style originated from new world colonists in US/Canada so I wouldn't call it a British or Australian "tradition". This more like what I think of for a "traditional" English auction (no chanting).

I didn't find any sources referencing the origin of this style of chant, but if someone does find any, a "History" section could improve the article.

Obviously the word "dollar" isn't going to be used if another currency is being used (this Russian auction in 1969 lacks the chant but is in dollars). The specific filler words used seems a matter of personal style for the auctioneer so it's likely they do vary based on personal background and geographic location, but I don't have a reference to that effect.

I think this wiki article only describes a specific style of English (language) auctioneer's chanting. While I'm sure that Chinese, German and Russian auctioneers can compete in the world championship, I think they would still have to compete in English. I'm sure that there are auctions in different languages, but they would definitely not sound the same, but the chant(if used) may have similarities. In this video a multilingual auctioneer from Mexico does the chant using German, but this German auctioneer does not use the auction chant described in this article.

The style of chanting that this article describes, is not defined by the use of specific words, rather by it's unique and recognizable sound which, imo, is largely a result of the cadence, but also the sort of musicality of the chant. It's not easy to describe in words but easy to recognize when heard.

There is a common baseball taunt that, to me, sounds a lot like the auctioneer's chant but I could not find any sources linking the phonetics.

if anyone might have course notes or other reference material from any academic programs that deal with this auction chant (e.g. the Reading Area Community College (RACC program) it might be useful to improve this article, especially info about "Develop an auction chant appropriate to various auction venues." and if this applies to global venues?

--anon(talk) 09:31, 18 August 2016 (UTC)[reply]