The Numbers Don’t Lie (Even When I Do Math)
You know that moment when you confidently throw out a statistic to reassure someone, and then later realize your math was... creative? Yeah, that was me last week.
We were on an appointment recently, and the potential clients had the concern we hear all the time: "What if everything doesn't sell? What happens to all the leftover stuff?"
Without missing a beat, I told them we have a 97% sell-through rate. "So if you have 100 lots, only 3 don't sell. If you have a 900-lot auction, that's only 27 lots left."
Except... that's not exactly how percentages work, Kara.
Let's Talk Real Numbers
After that appointment, I decided I should probably check our actual 2024 numbers. You know, be professional and stuff.
Here's what I found:
Total lots offered: 18,832
Lots sold: 18,611
Lots that didn't sell: 221
Our ACTUAL sell-through rate: 98.83%
Not 97%. 98.83%.
So if we have that 900-lot auction? We're actually selling 889.47 lots, with only 10.53 lots not selling. Not 27. (My mother would be so embarrassed by my math skills right now.)
What Does This Actually Mean?
These aren't just numbers to throw around at appointments to sound impressive (though they do help). This is 18,611 lots that found new homes in 2024. That's 18,611 items that didn't end up in a landfill or sitting in someone's basement for another generation to deal with.
Could we be better? Sure. If we threw out our three worst auctions and our three best auctions, our average would probably be even higher. But I think 98.83% is pretty dang good.
The Part Where I Admit I Dropped the Ball
Here's the thing: I haven't been tracking these numbers for 2025 yet. At all. So now I have a lot of catching up to do, and apparently I need to set some reminders because these are important metrics when you're in the auction business.
They're important when someone asks "what happens if it doesn't sell?"
They're important when we're evaluating our own performance.
And they're definitely important when I'm doing math in my head during appointments.
The Takeaway
If you're worried about having stuff left over after an auction, here's what our 2024 numbers tell you: there's a 98.83% chance each item will sell. Those are pretty good odds.
And if my math ever seems off again? Just know that somewhere, my brother is probably already writing commentary about it.
