A PRINCE OF SALESMEN.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 28 July 1913, Page 5

A PRINCE OF SALESMEN.

AUCTIONEERING EXTRAORDINARY. CLEVER EXPONENT OE UP-TO-DATE METHODS, '*=*- ; , ."' i There is hbtning of the cheap jack \ about Harry Davidson. Ho is a scientifio salesman who.knows all there is to know about auctioneering. ; For thirty years he has been building up experience both in buying and selling, } and it is not too much to say that he has reduced both branches of his business to a fine art. Davidson's methods are* unique,, sometimes sensational, but always effective. His headquarters are in the Mother Country. It is in the United Kingdom that " he lhas' built up his reputation, and he is out here to prove to colonial •buyers that his reputation was "worth the making. . Just now Mr Davidson is operating in the'"well-known mart . of Mr V. L. Fairbrother, and he has already made a big hole in the splendid stock of' high-class jewellery, plated ware, and fancy 'goods with which he opened, ft is a treat to' watch him at TW>rk. , Keen-witted, ready-tongued, eyes quick to notice the slightest sigh of scepticism on the part of his hearers, and hot words wherewith to lash the unbelieving, he is a veritable genius in the rostrum. He makes no ridiculous pretensions. He is frankly out to make a profit out of his work. There is no doubt about the quality of the goods he ' sells. Tney bear the hall-mark which; admits no questions. Moreover, the entire stock is continually open for inspection, not merely during the currency of the sale, but for hours every day before the selling begins. His sensational methods—well, to surprise a buyer by pleasantly declining to take his or her money is surely somewhat sensational, yet to do this sort of thing is commonplace to Davidson. One local patron—a lady -Hscored in tihis way to the extent of \ £2, and another, gentleman ;£l, and Davidson went on,selling the next line, no more concerned than if he had merejf', given away a half-penny stamp! The explanation is simple enough. Davidson m". dy does this sort of thing because A iie ins .proved it to be good advertising. The lucky patron invariably sends all her friends and acquaintances to the mart post haste, and the re: nit is good business both for them ar.d for Davidson. Why, in one English town in which he conducted a sale similar to tthe one he is now holding in Masterton, Davidson (actually -grt t : °i Mayor in his trobes to open the sn 1 , ■'' in return for handed over to a local charity the whole of the "pn - ceeds of tfoe first two hours of his sale, a sum which, it is said, ran into well over a hundred pounds. The" local sale has only another week tr> run, and it is pretty gafe to predict the mart will be" crowded with bar-ibain-huiiteirs.-^-Sdv*.