Distance Courses Hold Their Own Significance in Indian Education Scenario

The education sector in India has been witnessing many noteworthy reforms since independence. The deteriorating education standard can be attributed to the fact that only 12 percent of the school children continue their study up to 10th standard and a mere 10 percent of people become eligible for higher studies. There are hundreds of universities and thousands of colleges in India. So, it is a pity that our educational infrastructure is not being utilized properly. Recently, it has been believed that the launching of various distances courses will revolutionize our education system. But, the question is: Are these courses really capable of bringing about changes?

Distance learning education is profoundly different from conventional class room education. This form of education has grown in stature in the last few years, leading to a large number of distance universities being set up in the nook and corner of the country. Nowadays, students are getting into jobs at a young age even before completing their requisite education. So, they are looking for courses that can facilitate the completion of their desired education without giving up jobs. Here, a distance degree comes to their rescue. The Council of Distance Education oversees the distance learning system in India. It was established under the Indira Gandhi Open University Act, 1985.

There are endless instances of students not being able to finish their studies through conventional means due to several grounds. All these students can bring their career on track by pursuing distances courses offered by many open universities. Since regular colleges and universities have limited number of seats available, more and more students are enrolling themselves in various distance learning programs.

There are many far-flung areas in the country where pursuing higher education is like a dream. But now, people in those areas can pursue their desired courses thanks to the distance learning system. In this mode of education, students receive their study materials in the printed form or online. As the Internet and computers are present everywhere, e-learning is preferred by the majority of students and the number is growing fast.

Coming to the topic of open universities in India, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) is the premier distance university with plenty of courses related to arts, science, commerce, computer applications, management and other allied subjects. It has hundreds of centres all over the country. Students who are pursing its various distance courses can avail learning materials in the form of texts and videos.

Besides IGNOU, students can also acquire a distance degree through other universities like Alagappa University, Annamalai University, Bharathair University, Bharati Vidyapeeth University, Anna University, Utkal University, Patna University, Nalanda Open University, Karnataka State Open University, National Law School of India University, Sikkim Manipal University and many more. All types of educational and professional courses are imparted through these universities. Employers are also valuing these programs during their recruitment processes. Hence, distance learning degree courses have come as a boon for students who want to resurrect their career or work and study simultaneously.

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Internet Home Based Business Tips – How to Avoid Internet Dupes

Are you looking to earn money on the internet and scared of taking actions due to internet scams. Then this article is for you. Keep reading this internet home based business tips for more information on how to identify a legitimate online business.

First of all, you need to bear in mind that there is risk in every thing in life. Even in the brick and mortar world people do get scammed, robbed, business go bankrupt or are we going to stop driving because people get accident every, many mothers have died in child birth and yet that has not stopped many from getting pregnant. I can go on and on but that is the reality, there is risk in everything we do. However, that does not mean you should allow yourself to be victim of internet scams. This is meant to prepare you to accept the fact that there is risk in everything we do and above all we should not be hindered by fear to take positive actions.

Below are some internet home based business tips to help you identify fraudulent sites.

Before you buy anything from a site the first thing you would want to do is contact to see if they will respond. I have seen a lot of well established sites that do not respond to mails and yet they are legitimate. In some cases, you can have a wrong debit on your card and want to do some rectification and your several mails will not be responded to. It pays to contact them first and see if they respond.

Find out how long the company has been in existence. Some companies make this available on there site on the “about us” section. A company that has been in business for over three years is more likely to be around than one that just started a few months ago. You can also use Whois to find out real information about the site.

Google the company official website and check out the information that shows up. If you can’t find information or link relating to the site within the first and second page of your result then you need to have a rethink.

Find a forum related to your niche and sign up with them and ask questions about the company. There is high chance that somebody will know the company and give you some information on his experience whether good or bad.

Check out the page rank of a site. This will tell you how established a site is before you start signing up start signing up for the offer. A page rank begins from 0 to 10 where 0 page rank is the lowest and 10 is the highest. I would recommend dealing with sites with page rank 3. Search the search engine for page rank tool and start from there.

If you follow this internet home based business tips, it can go a long way in identify internet scam companies.

To Your Success,

John Benjamin

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Home Based Business Opportunity Ideas – Top 7 Reasons to Work at Home

Home based business opportunity ideas evolve from skills and expertise that you already possess. Every job has an attached set of skills that can be learned either through experience or education. Those same skills can be adapted to suit other jobs including home based business opportunity.The myth of job security persists in our society in spite of the growing number of people whose jobs are in jeopardy through no fault of their own. When you are working as an employee, your skills are viewed in terms of how they fit with your experience in a job market. When faced with unemployment more people are looking at their skill sets and adapting them to fit with work from home business opportunities.Top 7 Reasons To Work At Home:1. An unstable corporate environment and the threat of job loss2. A desire to make more money than a job provides3. Want to spend more time with family4. The autonomy and variety of interesting work associated with being the boss5. Tired of the rat race and ready to make a change6. Unhappy in their current job7. Have a good idea and want to develop it for themselvesStarting a home based business has become so much easier with the advent of the Internet. You can literally go online anytime of the day or night and be able to find an opportunity that is right for you. Due diligence is important and starting a business is not a spur of the moment decision. Once you have decided to work from home and researched the opportunity, you can virtually be up and running within minutes. You can choose to work part time or full time. There is no need to give up your day job, if you have a choice, until your business is earning enough income to meet your needs.Most people need a reason to consider leave their day job to work at home. When times get tough though, usually because of the economy or in many instances because of bad or deteriorating work conditions, the thought of being your own boss becomes more attractive. Be aware that even though the Internet can springboard your product or service to a level of success that you may never have thought possible, it will still take time. You should be prepared to make a 3-5 year commitment to work at building your home based business opportunity.

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Home Based Business Opportunity – A Wise Decision in These Troubled Economic Times

Anyone starting a home based business opportunity is usually a sole proprietor in that they are running it by themselves. Owning a home business is something that many individuals during these difficult economic times dream of. A note that is important to make is that working from home is not always the easiest thing to do. One might think that a business opportunity is the ideal situation for them, but working at home can, and will be challenging. The main role in choosing your Internet business is the right business opportunity which best suits your earnings.Waiting until you are “ready” to kick off a work at home is really procrastination. The lesson here is that you will never really be ready to begin a home business. A good affiliate business opportunity typically offers a low start up cost, has an established management team, a branded company, and has a great or unique product. If you are ready to take your future into your own hands, it may be time to consider starting your own business opportunity. The majority of home businesses are started by women who typically involve other family members when utilized. Developing a business plan will help you answer essential questions about your Internet business idea before you actually start your affiliate marketing business.Starting a home business is just like any other business. For more and more people, home is not only where the family is; it is where the affiliate business is. More people are starting home and micro businesses than ever before. Hundreds of thousands of individuals decide to commence a home business each year. The amount used to start up depends on the type of business. However, generally it is under one hundred dollars, but can be between $100 and $200. At any rate, it is much, much less expensive than starting a business in the real world as opposed to the Internet.An offer to start a business opportunity on the Internet is made by a network marketing company. Not all of these companies are legitimate; but you will learn very fast how to distinguish between the good and bad opportunities.In conclusion, thousands of individuals before you have started and become successful with a home based business opportunity on the Internet. You should now be able to make an informed decision as to whether or not you choose to accept the challenge.

3 Pillars of a Solid Home Based Business

In this day and age it is almost impossible to maintain a decent standard of living on one paycheck, but in a family where children are involved it is not always feasible for both dad and mom to have a job outside of the home. Daycare expenses, the need for a second car, and too much time away from the children are some common drawbacks. This however is the exact situation that a Home Based Business works to its greatest advantage.Home Based Businesses are great and can be extremely profitable but without the proper knowledge and tools you can waste an incredible amount of time and/or money which defeats the purpose you started out with, namely to make money and have time to do the things you want to do. This article was written to give the average person like you and I a practical guideline to getting started in a home based business the right way, and to save you wasted time and money.My experience has shown me that there are basically 3 main pillars or principles of a solid home based business.Pillar #1: It must have minimal start up cost.A home based business that has a high start up cost will take longer to see a profit, and as we said earlier, time is one of the things we are trying to cut down on. Minimal cost will also make the home based business more assessable to a larger amount of families or individuals who are just starting out.Pillar #2: It must be easy to set up and maintain.The more complicated your home business project, no matter what it is, the more likely you are to give up out of sheer frustration before you see a profit. A business that is easy to set up and maintain will give you confidence and a sense of accomplishment as you complete each simple step in the process.Let’s face it if you enjoyed wasting a lot of time and effort maintaining a home based business you would not be reading this article. This is about freeing you to spend time with your family and doing the things you love, not creating another taskmaster to replace your job! The first two pillars of a solid home based business are necessary for the third to occur.Pillar #3: It must have a quick return on investment. (ROI)You can spend months building a home based business but it there is never any real profit generated in a reasonable amount of time many people may get discouraged and give up. What is a reasonable amount of time? I would plan for a time frame on the order of weeks instead of months. Depending on the type of home based business some people have had a decent ROI within days, and unbelievable as it may sound some businesses that deal with affiliate marketing and sales can see profit as early as 15 minutes from startup!You may be thinking to yourself “that’s too simple!” Let me say that within these 3 pillars there is plenty of detail to keep anyone busy. The business that you choose to start should definitely be something that interests you and possibly even something that you already have a measure of experience in doing. Whatever home based business you get involved in make sure that it is propped up by the 3 pillars listed in this article. Do not make the mistake of over complicating your efforts or you will see very quickly that you will get bogged down with a lot of needlessly wasted time and effort.Here’s to your home based business success.

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How to Buy Multifamily Property For Maximum Income and Wealth

Any rental income property that has more than one family unit is considered multifamily property. The smallest multifamily property being a duplex (two units) and then up from there to larger rental complexes easily consisting of hundreds of apartments.The advantage of purchasing multifamily properties, not unlike all income-producing properties, is that it provides real estate investors with the ability to support debt from the income the property produces.Understood in real estate investing circles as “using other people’s money”, this idea is crucial to buying multifamily properties profitably and therefore must always be kept in mind because the success or failure of the investment depends on the income the property generates to meet debt service and other obligations required to keep the property.Enough said. Let’s look at three elements that contribute to this principal, and discuss why they are crucial to buying multifamily property profitably.Obtain sound financingThe key to buying any income property is for you to establish a sound financing package on the property. You want to obtain a loan that doesn’t place excessive burdens on the property, or yourself. Moreover, because lenders evaluate rental property based on income stream and generally structure a loan based on the property’s financial strength as well as the investor’s, bear in mind the significant role the principal of using other people’s money plays in financing the investment.When applying for a loan on a multifamily property, present lenders with clear and concise cash flow reports because you are more apt to obtain a favorable financing package when the property is represented fairly to the lender and the income and operating expenses are shown to be accurate.Conduct a rental market surveyWhat tenants are willing to pay to occupy a unit in the apartment is the cornerstone of the investment. Therefore, it’s incumbent upon real estate investors to understand local rental market trends for vacancies and rental rates when buying multifamily property. Rental market trends are easy for investors to recognize, just watch the newspaper or drive around the community noting all rental properties that have vacancies. If you see few for rent ads or signs, or surmise that rents are increasing, it probably signals a shortage of rental units, and a favorable opportunity for you. On the other hand, when lots of rental signs start appearing and rents drop, it could spell trouble.The ideal situation to own multifamily property, of course, is when vacancy rates decrease. Property owners can be more selective about the type of tenant they rent to and establish a positive direction for the complex, perhaps even increasing rents. On the other hand, when tenants become scarce, owners might have to become less selective about tenants and perhaps lower the rents just to fill the units.Be sure to conduct a rental market survey when purchasing multifamily investment property and carefully gauge the rents and vacancy rates.Consider economic conversionThere might be money to be made in cases where the former property owners have let the property run down and rents had to be decreased to keep the units filled. If these rental properties are in a good area of town or in an area that is returning to a former higher quality, then the remodeling of a rundown apartment complex can be a profitable venture. Just be careful to ascertain the cost for remodeling and what impact it will have on rental income. Pure window dressing for the sake of appearances only, unless it has a positive influence on occupancy levels or rents, is typically avoided by prudent real estate investors. So get a qualified contractor to give you a bid on remodeling. Otherwise, what you surmised as surface issues when you were buying the multifamily property could in fact be a costly can of worms.In other words, look for an opportunity to upgrade the building and raise rents because it can contribute to a profit, just be sure that you know exactly what you’re getting into.The pros and cons of buying multifamily propertyThe most obvious advantage of buying any income-producing property is real estate investors can grow wealthy in the long run. Simply by holding onto the property and letting other peoples money payoff the debt is what drives people into real estate investing, even if there is no immediate cash flow. Moreover, multifamily properties serve a basic need, which limits the downside risk in that they provide shelters to those who cannot afford or who do not choose to buy real estate.The downside to owning rental income property mostly concerns the management problems associated in dealing with tenants. Apartments can be management intensive, and often the reason why investors who purchase rental property hire the services of a professional property management company to deal with the day-to-day issues of running the property. So you at least have the option to minimize this disadvantage.The bottom line is straightforward. Multifamily property provides investors the opportunity to build wealth. But it’s not unlike the investment you would make in any other investment property, whether land or commercial real estate, it simply requires you to do it correctly, with a careful eye on the elements discussed here. Here’s to your real estate investing success.

Residential Property Management – Finding the Best Tenants

For any residential property management project, having good tenants can make the difference between a profitable financial investment and taking a major loss. Having an experienced property manager assisting with the interviewing and review process of potential tenants is critical to the success- and peace of mind- of leasing a residential property. A professional property management company will have the tools and resources to properly screen a tenant pool to ensure the most responsible and reliable tenants are selected.

Property Owner’s have a lot at stake when it comes to their residential real estate investment, both financially and time commitment. If the wrong tenants are selected, the Owner is potentially left with unpaid bills or excessive, unnecessary house calls or even worse, damage that will require extensive repairs. A qualified property management firm will have minimum standards for tenant qualifications to help mitigate any potential risk for these adverse tenant issues. These standards typically have been established through historical evaluations of successful tenant relationships. These tenant qualifications standards can involve anything from credit scores, to employment history to reference feedback from previous rental contracts.

The time savings a residential property management firm can provide to a property Owner is extensive. An effective residential property manager will know exactly where to post advertisements seeking qualified renters. The residential property management firm almost certainly has pre-existing processes for screening tenants, seeking reference information and reviewing the property with the potential new tenants as well as having a prepared leasing contract that can be modified to accommodate any specific terms set by the property owner. These are all facets of leasing a property that an Owner would have to develop prior to being able to lease their property.

The cost advantages and time savings accrued from working with an experienced residential property management firm will assist an owner with their real estate investment. There are many benefits to contracting with a residential property management firm, including optimizing the outcome of the investment with high quality tenants which will improve the overall experience for a property Owner as well as increasing profits and minimizing the required time investment.

Plan Your Marketing And Advertising Strategies Today For Optimum Business Enhancement

Advertising and Marketing strategies have become an integral part of a business promotional plan. These are powerful tools for attracting new clients and thus it enhances the business of the companies. These days you find hoards of marketing and advertising agencies taking care of the promotions and branding of the clients belonging to various sectors. Earlier this function was completely handled by a separate department meant for Marketing and now this function has been outsourced to these Marketing-Advertising agencies. One can hire these firms for promoting the company brand, its products and services in a planned and systematic manner. They use the latest advertising and marketing tools like online advertising, Newspaper display advertising, Search Engine Optimization and Pay per Click Advertising and Management.

These companies also use the social media for marketing and promotions on the social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc and gain the attention of the website traffic. This method stresses on attractive advertising contents for grabbing the attention of the target audience on the social network. This corporate message spreads from a trusted third party through word of mouth and not from the company directly. This form of advertising depends on word of mouth completely. This is easily accessible through the internet and this helps in promotion of the brand name and enhanced customer care service.

The Online Advertising is an effective method of gaining attention of the targeted audience. Online advertising has a global reach and has become one of the most popular ways of reaching out to the potential clients. It is also called internet advertising, which includes email marketing, search engine marketing, social media marketing, many types of display advertising and mobile advertising. These companies display these ads along with the editorials, so that the client’s attention is grabbed at the right time and mood.

Print Advertising is one of the oldest and reliable tools of Advertising which has wide reach and impact. The ads are published just next to the editorials and are generally for larger budget clients. Contrary to the belief the print advertisement is still way ahead of the new age media of Internet advertising and SEO. Search Engine Optimization stresses on the perfect density of keywords in content, which is displayed on the website. This helps the website to acquire more visibility in the search engines and also improves the ranking of the website, which increases the probability of being viewed by the intended audience.

All these tools are perfectly blended together to form a marketing and advertising mix, which is a kind of strategy to reach out the intended audience at the right time for optimum impact. These companies chalk out the whole marketing and advertising plan for the company keeping in mind their specifications and then implement it through these tools of advertising and marketing. You will find experienced professionals in these firms who have years of experience of handling diverse marketing and advertising campaigns with excellent results for the clients. This will surely assist you in gaining fresh business leads and earn you more profits, so why don’t you contact such an organisation and get your marketing-advertising plan straight.

The Finer Points of Internet Auctions

WHAT IS A PENNY AUCTION?

Penny auctions have exploded in popularity with the massive growth of the internet. However, few people know the true origins of penny auctions.Beginnings actually stretch back to the Great Depression. Those were hard times for everyone, but even harder for farmers. Farmers struggled to bring in steady income because of droughts and crops not selling as well as they had previously. As a result, the banks would foreclose on the farmers who couldn’t keep up with their mortgage payments.

The banks weren’t satisfied with just repossessing the house, they wanted to raise as much capital as possible, so they resorted to selling off the possessions of the owners of the repossessed houses. There was not much the farmers could do about it so they began bidding ridiculously low prices, pennies, on the items while threatening others who dared to bid higher than a few pennies.

The auctions of today hardly resemble their tremulous beginnings. Being part of a penny auction today is exhilarating, fun, and addictive. It combines the selling format of auctioning with a little bit of chance factored in.Auctions are a game of strategy but also a game of luck.

The premise behind penny auctions is giving people the chance to win an item at a drastically reduced price.Auctions make that possible by spreading out the cost of the product among multiple bidders. In order for a person to take part in an auction, they must pay a set price for each bid. For example, if a person wanted to bid on a fifty dollar Amazon gift card then he would spend a dollar for each time a bid placed. If he ended up winning the gift card, then he would only have spent a few dollars for a fifty dollar gift card. Usually penny auctions sell bids in packages.

HOW PENNY AUCTIONS WORK!

The main foundation of penny auctions is the pay-per-bid format. It is the key that allows bidders to win items at the fraction of their retail value and allows the auction owners to keep their site profitable. Most y auction sites run on the same premise: people pay a set amount for each bid, whenever a person places a bid within the closing seconds of the auction time will be added, the last person left with a unique bid after the clocks runs out will win the item. There are a large variety of items that can be won, but they tend to be popular electronics or gift cards to popular stores.

There are two types of auctions: lowest unique bid auction and highest unique bid auction. Lowest unique auction sounds confusing but it is actually quite simple. A unique bid is when only one person has a bid at a certain price. Bids usually start at one penny, a bidder can then place a bid at two pennies. Until another bidder places a higher bid, the most recent bidder will be the lowest unique bid because that was the only bid at two cents and nobody bid higher. However, penny auctions generally don’t stop at one penny. It is not uncommon to find auctions that end up at a couple hundred dollars based on the popularity of the item being auctioned. However, the same principles apply for those auctions. Highest unique bid auctions follow the more traditional auction format such as eBay. The person with the highest bid at the end of the auction wins the item.

Auction site owners turn a profit by selling bids. Say twenty people are bidding on a ten dollar gift card at one dollar per bid, at the end of the auction if there were twenty bids placed in total then the site owner would have made twenty dollars with a ten dollar profit.Auctions do seem like a win-win situation:The site owner makes money while the bidder gets an item for dirt cheap. However, not everyone wins in penny auctions. The people who paid one dollar each bid but left with nothing to show for their investments will not be so happy.

HOW TO WIN!

Penny auction has a lot of chance mixed into it, but one can incorporate strategy that will help raise the chances of winning. Playing smart can make all the difference between gambling and auctioning.

The first crucial tip to winning penny auctions is to know how to manage your bids. Your goal should be to win as much as possible without spending a ton of money buying bids. Managing your bids means that you should already know how much you are willing to risk in order to win an item. The amount of capital you are willing to risk will determine how many bids you can use. Once you know how many bids you have to spend on an item, then you will be better able to manage how and when you place a bid. That will keep you from blowing away all of your bids in the first few seconds of the auction.

The next tip is to practice time management. When fighting in the trenches of penny auctions, you have two enemies: other bidders and time. Knowing when to bid is a must if you want to have success. Placing a bid when there is a lot of time left on the clock is never a good idea. You have to remember that the key to winning a penny auction is being the last one standing when the clock runs out and that each bid increases the amount of time left. It would be a good practice to wait until the last few minutes of the auction before you begin to bid.

The final tip for successful auctioning is to keep your emotions under control.Auctions have a lot of similarities to gambling, and just like gambling, your spending can get out of control. If you keep your emotions level, it will keep you from making rash decisions and blowing loads of cash. Keep your mind clear so that you can gage the behavior of the other bidders and outsmart them.

HOW TO AVOID SCAM SITES!

Penny auctions are a great addition to the web whether you want to win an item that otherwise you wouldn’t be able to afford or if you simply enjoy the thrill that comes with bidding in auctions. Unfortunately, scam sites have tarnished the reputation of the legitimate penny auction sites. However, there are ways that you can protect yourself from scamers and enjoy your auctioning without having to worry about losing your money due to dishonesty.

Checking the reputation of the auction site before you start spending your hard earned money is always a good idea. Chances are other people have tried the site before you and some of them have left reviews. The reviews are your way to gage whether a auction site is trustworthy or not. If a site is getting overwhelmingly negative reviews, then that is a clear indication that you should steer your business elsewhere.

Another tool you can use to protect yourself is checking the Alexia ranks of the auction sites. Alexia rank will give a solid view of how much traffic the auction is getting. If you see a huge difference in the amount of traffic Alexia is projecting and the amount of active bidders on the site, then warning signals should be ringing in your head. Some auction sites have been known to set up robots that automatically bid on projects in order to keep the auction going and inflate the price. That is known as shill bidding. You can sniff out those sites by comparing the traffic the site should be getting to the amount of users using this site.

CONCLUSION!

New legislation may come out later down the road that will officially make penny auctions gambling, but until then, it is a fun, exciting auction that allows one to win the item they’ve always wanted but couldn’t afford.Auctions are also quite lucrative for the site owners because of the pay-per-bid strategy they’ve incorporated. Penny auctions had humble beginnings with farmers who just wanted to get back at the banks who kicked them out of their house. More recently, auctions have enjoyed an explosion in popularity with the rise of the internet.

There are two main formats fora auctions, lowest and highest unique auction, however they both run on the same premise where the last unique bid wins the item. Winning a penny auction will require a certain amount of mental tactic and a bit of luck. However, you can increase your odds of winning by practicing certain techniques such as managing your bids wisely, learning how to work with the time, and keeping a level head and your emotions under control. When you combine those three strategies to your bidding plan, you will find that you win a lot more often.

It is important that you do your due diligence to protect yourself when participating in auctions. Not every auction is run by honest and trustworthy people. There are people out there who just want to take your money. You can protect yourself by ensuring that you only bid on sites that already have a very positive reputation from real users.

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How to Find Great Live Auctions for Resale Items

Hi, my name is Walt. I’m an auctioneer with 25 years of experience in the auction business and licensed in the state of MA. I own Quick Auction Service, a company that specializes in building and running custom auctions, I’m also the webmaster of my own site and have been on eBay for 8 years. Besides eBay, the types of auctions I run most frequently are antiques and on-site estate auctions, although I’ve run everything from business overstock auctions to charity & special event auctions.

I enjoy sharing my knowledge and stories of the auction business. My goal for article is to help folks get the absolute most out of their auction experience.

Whether your fresh out of the package or a seasoned dealer I think I can offer something in this article to help you with your auciton adventures.

There may be as many reasons to attend auctions as there are types of auctions to attend. Maybe you want to attend an auction to buy items for re-sale on eBay, or some other market. Maybe you want to furnish your home with wonderful antiques, or you want to furnish your home as inexpensively without sacrificing quality.Some folks are just looking for a fun night out. With a little perseverance all these things are possible.

There are antiques and estate auctions, auto auctions, overstock auctions, absolute and no reserve auctions, real estate auctions, specialty auctions where only one genre of items are sold, tailgate auctions, live auctions, online auctions, sealed bid auctions, silent auctions, charity and fund raising auctions and many more.

Can you really buy for pennies on the dollar at an auction? You bet! Many times I’ve seen folks buy and re-sell at the same auction on the same night for a good profit, although be advised, this should only be done after the auction is over.

There are a lot of ways to find an auction, but here are some tips on how to find and attend the best ones.

Visit the genre of shops in the area that apply to the type of auction you want to attend. IE: If your looking for a good antique auction to attend, stop in the local antiques shops and ask for what there are for good auctions in the area. Sounds obvious right? But listen to what they don’t say as well as what they do say. Oftentimes when a dealer speaks poorly about an auction he or she attends, it may be likely that they are trying to keep a good thing secret. Think for a moment, why would a dealer keep attending a lousy auction?

Newspaper ads: I personally like to find ads in the classified ad section rather than flashy display ads. Flashy ads are usually indicative of an auction that will be high priced, may have reserves, (a set price on an item), and usually an enormous crowd. While any auction can be profitable to attend, it is usually best to steer clear of the glitzy ones, at least for the beginner.

Here’s the minimum you want to find out before you go. If there is a phone number in the ad, call and ask for the terms of the sale. What forms of payment do they accept? Is it an absolute auction? An absolute auction is one that has no minimum or reserve bids on items. These are the best auctions to attend! Is there a buyers premium? A buyers premium is like a tax that everyone who makes purchases at that auction must pay above the winning bid price. Most auctions these days do charge a buyers premium, 10% is not unreasonable but I feel much more than that is greedy, and the auctioneer that charges over 10% is counting on most bidders not doing the extra math as the bids quicken in pace.

A fair auction will have ample time to inspect the merchandise, usually at least 2 or 3 hours. Find out when inspection starts and make sure to attend! Never attend an auction if you can’t make the inspection, not unless your prepared to gamble. Most auctioneers sell at a rate of about 100 items per hour, which is why they sell “as is”. They simply don’t have the time to give a detailed description of all the items. Since almost all items at auction are sold AS IS, there are sure to be some damaged, refinished, fake and incomplete items at any given auction. Beware of any auctions that offer very little or no inspection time.

Good auctions will usually have 150 to 400 lots. A lot may be one item or a group of items. The exception to this are specialty auctions, auto auctions, real estate auctions etc.

When you attend your first sale, take note of the 1/2 dozen or so dealers that buy the most often. See if you can find out about other area auctions they attend.

When you do find an excellent auction, attend it as often as possible. By frequenting good sales, you help increase the bottom line of that business. It’s difficult for many auctioneers to keep the quality of merchandise consistent, so good attendance certainly helps. And when an auctioneer gets to know you as a buyer, he/she will go out of the way to accommodate you, to keep you coming back.

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