New Year Resolutions 2012: There’s an App for That!

We all have resolutions for 2012, whether they are to lose weight, get organized, or even just be more productive on a day-to-day basis. Luckily for us, there are FREE apps that can help us with our resolutions in 2012! Here are some of the apps Rasmus will be using:

There’s an app for: Organization
Wunderlist (Free)
Between your phone, computer, iPad, and three email addresses, it can often be difficult to keep track of everything that you have to do in one place. But now, there is Wunderlist. Wunderlist is great because you can create to do lists, add notes to tasks, organize your tasks by lists and by date, and email your lists or share them with the cloud. And you can get this app on all of your devices.

There’s an app for: Networking
Cardmunch By LinkedIn (Free)In the “digital age” it can be hard to keep track of those tiny, elusive business cards you get while networking, and often to remember who or where you got it from in the first place. Cardmunch is an app from LinkedIn that allows you to simply take a picture of someone’s business card, and immediately have that information converted to a contact AND show you their LinkedIn profile and connections.

There’s and app for: Brushing up on your Spanish
iTranslate (Free)
If you don’t use it, you lose it right? Well you can brush up on the language of your choice (this app has everything from Spanish to Afrikaans to Macedonian) with iTranslate. Just paste in text, or use the voice recognition feature (which is $1.99 for 75 “transactions”) to speak the phrase you want to translate. The app will give you the written phrase, and will say the phrase out loud for you (in some languages).

There’s an app for: Getting in Shape
Nike Training Club (Free)
This app is like having a personal trainer right on your phone! It teaches you how to do exercises (with pictures and videos!) and gives you a workout tailored to your specific goal like getting leaned, toned, strong, or focused.

Check out the best apps from 2011 in categories like lifestyle, games, and on the go according to Time magazine here:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2044480,00.html

Thanks for a Great Year!

As the year comes to a close, we just wanted to thank all of you who have helped us to have a great year in 2011!

Highlights from 2011:

Kenny, Blake and Pat from our On- Site Team

380 online only auctions! That’s around 7 auctions a week!

5 asset bridge partners! We are so happy to have our partners Quinn’s, JLR, OLS and Auctions in Hawaii. All of these partners have helped us get to where we are today and brought us new and interesting auctions throughout the year!

Tommy with VIP Services and Abby from the Administrative Team

Over 40,000 bidders! Yes, you read right! The people we would like to thank most are you, our bidders. Our buyers are often our greatest advocates, and that allows us to

Marie (PR), Candy (Accounting), Kath and Trish (Administrative)

have competitive, diverse auctions and give us the great feedback that we need to keep Rasmus on top!

Owner Chris Rasmus was also inducted into the National Auctioneers’ Association Hall of Fame. We are so proud of him!

So thank you to everyone for a great year, and we look forward to an even better 2012 with more auctions, more asset bridge partners, more clients and more buyers!

Chris with Scott, our On-Site Director

Chris and long time friend Rick Romanis being inducted into the Auctioneers' Hall of Fame!

Chris and Sue Rasmus, CEO and Social Media Director

Rasmus’ Favorite Things

The Holidays are fast approaching, and we wanted to share just a few of our favorite things this year. This list includes tools, gadgets, apps and more that we are using and loving!

The North Face E-Tip Gloves 

There is nothing more frustrating than having to take your glove off every time that you want to use your touch screen smart phone, and now, you don’t have to! The North Face has come out with their “E-Tip Glove” These gloves have “Xstatic conductive fingercaps on the thumbs and index fingers”, which basically means that the phone can still sense your fingers through the gloves. There’s also a grid of silicone dots on the palm, thumb, index, and middle fingers to improve your grip on your gadget, not to mention they look pretty sleek.

Bluetooth Headset

Since the laws banning handheld use of your cell phone while driving in both Maryland and the District, those of us who are always on the go have had to find other ways to keep in touch on the road. While a Bluetooth headset may make you look like you are having a heated argument with…yourself while in traffic they are well worth it to avoid the up to $100 fine.

Jam Box

Wish that your phone was just loud enough to play music so that more than one person can hear it? It is when you use a Jam Box. The Jam Box is a Rasmus favorite for small gatherings, lounging poolside, and on-the-go music listening.

Spotify 

When we use our Jam Box, a lot of the time we are playing Spotify. While we still love Pandora, Spotify lets us choose exactly what we want to listen to, and we can listen to entire albums for FREE! Downloading Spotify is easy, and you can even connect it to your Facebook so that others can see what you are listening to, and you can see what they are listening to.

iPhone 4S & Siri

We love the iPhone 4S and all of the joy and entertainment that Siri brings. Siri is great for making and keeping track of appointments and reminders,obscure questions just to see what Siri’s response will be, and of course finding businesses that are nearby. But if you still have the iPhone 4 there is an app called Vlingo that is the next best thing. As one of our on-site workers Jay would say, it’s “Kind of Siri, but not really.” and is a voice to text application.

Removals to Go Digital

Just Like Our Auctions, Our Removals are About to Go Digital Too…

That’s right!

Buyers who have been to a removal have undoubtedly signed their name on the line next to each and every one of their items in our removal books. You will still be doing that, but Rasmus is once again moving over to the digital world. At upcoming removals, you may be asked to “sign my pad” as we are now switching to digital removal books. You will still have to sign for each of your items, but now you will do it with just the swipe of your finger on the iPad.

Rasmus is continuing to reduce its carbon footprint and make the auction process easier for you and us! We would love to hear feedback from any of you who get to experience this new checkout process, so let us know what you think!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween from everyone at Rasmus! If you are at the removal today for the Orange Country Medical Center say hi to these guys! (We can’t think of a better place to have a spooky Halloween than an empty hospital!) We can’t wait to see all of our buyers at the removal for the OCMC in NY today, tomorrow and Saturday and we would like to thank all of you for a successful auction! To read more about the auction just take a look at this article from the Times-Herald, a local newspaper.

Mike, Scott, Ron, Dave, Pat, and Kenny (on table) ready for the removal...of auction items of course!

Obviously all of these guys have chosen to be doctors this year for Halloween (and Kenny apparently chose to be a patient) what are you going to be? Or where is the spookiest place you have ever spent your Halloween? Comment and let us know! We love to hear from our buyers!

Also, if you know of any places like the OCMC that are relocating, rightsizing, or closing don’t forget that Rasmus pays 20% on referrals…could be a great little something extra in your pocket before the Holidays!

History of Rasmus Auctioneers

Part II

If you haven’t read the first part of our history yet, click here to catch up!

Now that Ron had his hands on some quality products he needed somewhere to put all of it and ended up buying a warehouse. Ron’s daughter Kathleen (who you have probably talked to if you have called our office) decided to join her father in this venture and began to work with him doing all of the administrative duties that accompanied this new job. Around this same time, his son Chris was graduating from Virginia Tech with the intention of going into the business of marketing to the quickly aging baby boomer generation. To his surprise, his father suggested that Chris come work for him instead and flattered by the offer from a man who was known to fly solo, Chris accepted the challenge…and the rest is history.

Chris' Graduation from Mendenhall School of Auctioneering

Ron and Chris quickly built a buyer base as lawyers and businessmen started purchasing their used furniture. These customers also evolved into their clients, and a few of those lawyers were on the Board of Trustees. Soon Ron and Chris were appraising people’s belongings after they went bankrupt, since they were already highly educated in the value of used furniture, equipment and the like.

After a while when they realized what Ron and Chris could do, simply appraising the items was not enough. Trustees began to ask the duo to do more and more and become more involved with the bankruptcy process as time went on. These requests ranged from changing the locks on a building that had gone into foreclosure to throwing out sour milk in disconnected refrigerators and eventually, auctioning off the items once appraised. Every single request was met with one answer: “Sure we can!”

Since Ron a) did not know how to auctioneer and b) really had no interest or skills in speaking to or entertaining a crowd he handed Chris $500 and sent him off in a minivan to North Carolina for two weeks to attend the Mendenhall School of Auctioneering. It was there that Chris learned the good old fashioned art of auctioneering, and mastered the classic auctioneer’s chant.

If any of you ever got the chance to see Chris chant back in the day at a live auction, you would never think that he was so nervous his first few auctions that he couldn’t even introduce himself and the sale. But Chris took to auctioneering quickly and Chris and Ron became the guys to call when someone went bankrupt, as they could handle the process from start to finish.

Unfortunately like anything where the courts are involved, there was a lot of paperwork that went along with bankruptcy auctions. Chris and Ron were doing all of the work, collecting the money, then having to give all of it to the court and subsequently petition the court for their 10% share of the money back. They came to find that more often that not, with all of the time, money, and man-hours that this job required, the process was just not worth it and the Rasmus men were, once again, broke.

This was when they decided it was time to flip the script, and start doing things their own way…

To find out what happens next check back for Rasmus’ History Part III on the blog!

Fun at the Hawk ‘n’ Dove!

Chloe, Blake, and Marie at the Hawk 'n' Dove's Final Friday Happy Hour!

 

Our team visited the Hawk ‘n’ Dove, the oldest Irish Bar in DC this past Friday to get people excited about the auction that already love the Hawk ‘n’ Dove! Marie, Blake, and Chloe walked around with their handy dandy iPad talking to patrons and letting them know that they could be the proud owner of anything from the very bar stool that they were sitting on to the Hawk ‘n’ Dove flag out front.We love meeting our customers and letting them know about what we can do for them!

Thanks to everyone that was there and we look forward to seeing you all again in the future, possibly at the Hawk ‘n’ Dove inspection which is this Thursday from 10am-4pm! To check out and bid on the Hawk ‘n’ Dove Auction click here!

We also want to shout out to our $100 cash drawing winner Holly Howe of Capitol Hill Day School! Congrats Holly, don’t spend it all in one place! (Or do!)

Holly Howe, Winner of the $100 Raffle from Rasmus Auctioneers!

The Best Thing I Ever Bought on Rasmus.com…

Tell us!

It can be something that you got a great deal on, something that you now realize you can’t live without or even just something interesting! What is the best thing YOU have ever bought at internet only auction at rasmus.com? Leave us a comment and let us know!

5 Tips for Bidding with Rasmus

1. Make sure you (or someone you like/trust) can remove your items.
As soon as a “Terms and Conditions” box stands in our way of signing up for something we want, most of us scroll to the bottom and click the “I agree” button without a second thought. While our terms are quite lengthy, there is one part that you should always consider before going for the “I agree” button. The date and time of the removal. Always make sure that if you are not available on the date of the removal you can find someone that is to pick up the items that you have won. Or, you could even use our new VIP moving service (just email vipservices@rasmus.com for information) and get your items delivered right to your door.

2. Set it and forget it.
If you want something and you know how much you are willing to pay for it, use the maxbid feature. It’s as easy as entering in the maximum amount that you are willing to pay for an item and letting the auction run its course. Our system will bid on your behalf at the specified increments up to your maximum. If the opposing bidders do not reach your maximum then you win the item and happily open your emailed invoice at the close of the auction! Simple as that.

And if you choose not to use our maxbid feature, which is cool too, try not to wait until the last minute to bid. That way you know that your registration has gone through and all you have to do is watch the item you are already in the running for during the final countdown instead of scrambling to place your first bid.

3. The Early Bird Gets Out of There Fastest!
Come early! If you are coming to a removal and you know that you either have to disassemble something or you might get stuck in traffic or you even just have like 200 chairs to move…come early. As early as possible. We will thank you, and you will thank yourself because the early bird usually gets in and out of the removal and goes on their merry way with all of their items in the quickest manner.

4. No, you can’t move a 500 lb. refrigerator by yourself. Or take apart a maple L-shaped desk with your bare hands.
Bring help! Whether its one of your coworkers, your spouse, a moving company or someone who owes you a favor, bring an extra set of hands if you have a large item. Heck, bring a posse if you have a bunch of large items. And a four-wheel dolly. Trust us, it is better for everyone.

Also, bring tools, especially if the description of your item says, “disassembly required” because as helpful as our on-site crew is, they don’t have tools and they don’t know how to de-install your sink. Unfortunately most wrap-around desks and conference tables do not exactly fit through doorways either. So bring anything you think you might need to get your items out as efficiently as possible to save yourself time and possible frustration!

5. This may seem obvious but…
Make sure that your credit card has enough on it to cover your purchases. We like for the process to go as smoothly as possible for our buyers, so the credit card that you have on file is automatically charged at the close of the auction for the total amount of your purchases. Sometimes credit card companies put a hold on your account when they see a large internet purchase, so just give them a heads up if you know that you want to spend a pretty good amount of money at one of our auctions, especially if you are a first time buyer. And that $100 you see from us before the auction? Don’t worry, we didn’t take it out of your account…we just checked to make sure that it is there.

Welcome to Our New Joint Venture Partner JLR Auctions!

Tired of having to drive all the way out to an auction house to purchase quality items from estate liquidations? We thought so. Just when you thought that our auctions could not get more diverse, we did it again. Rasmus Auctioneers is proud to announce that we will now be working with JLR Auctions as a part of our AssetBridge community.

While we generally specialize in commercial assets, JLR specializes in just the opposite. JLR Auctions is a subsidiary of Culpeper Auction Associates, which has been conducting estate liquidations, marketing and selling antiques and privately owned collections, and providing asset recovery and auction services to the legal, banking, and business communities for over twenty years.

JLR and Rasmus will be one of a handful of places where you can buy and sell unique collectible items like:

• Antiques
• Jewelry
• Coins
• Toys
• Estate property and more!

Ron Leftwich, President of JLR Auctions said, “We are pleased to be in a partnership with Rasmus Auctioneers/AssetBridge in further development and expansion of our auction services. Being partnered with a strong and established company such as Rasmus Auctioneers is truly an honor and privilege as we both pursue to serve more clients with their selling and buying needs in a fast and professional manner.”

JLR Auctions is the first auction company that specializes in estate liquidation and settlement needs to expand to the Internet and we are looking forward to working with them and providing you with something new and different to browse through as we continue to build our relationship. To visit JLR Auctions’ website just click here. You will also be able to view and purchase from JLR Auctions at our website, www.rasmus.com.

If you are an auctioneer who is interested in joining our AssetBridge network and possibly becoming a Joint Venture partner with Rasmus Auctioneers please contact Trisha Jarvis at t.jarvis@rasmus.com