Penny Auctions

[FreakinDJ]

Penny Auctions

As the pace of foreclosure auctions increased between 1930 and 1932, more and more farmers became desperate. Activists demanded that state legislators halt foreclosure sales. Angry farmers marched on the capitol buildings in several states, including Nebraska.



Some farmers in Madison County, Nebraska, took matters into their own hands. In 1931, about 150 farmers showed up at a foreclosure auction at the Von Bonn family farm. The bank was selling the land and equipment because the family coundn't repay a loan. The bank expected to make hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

As those who were there remember it, the auctioneer began with a piece of equipment. The first bid was 5-cents. When someone else tried to raise that bid, he was requested not to do so – forcibly. Item after item got only one or two bids. All were ridiculously low. The proceeds for that first "Penny Auction" were $5.35, which the bank was supposed to accept to pay off the loan.

http://www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/money_10.html

True sense of community

[Toots]

1. Probably what inspired the "Sealed Bid" auction

:shrug:

[Celebration]

2. Can't the bank bid?

I thought that banks sent their own representatives to bid on properties.

[FreakinDJ]

3. They also can set minimum bids - "if they are solvent"