Going, Going, Gone Trivia Quiz

Answer: Women

Women were offered for sale as wives. The auction started with the most beautiful woman and worked down to the least attractive. The auctioneer stated a starting price and lowered it until it was accepted by a bidder. This system did mean that the family of an unattractive female could end up having to pay someone to take her rather than receiving a profit.

It was illegal for a family to sell their daughter for marriage outside of the auction system.

Answer: Didius Julianus

Publius Helvinus Pertinax was Emperor for only three months. He felt the Praetorian Guard were out of control and tried to restore discipline, but they rebelled and killed him. They then offered the Empire to the highest bidder, which was Didius Julianus.

He is rumoured to have offered 6,250 drachmas per guard. It was not money well spent as he was beheaded some two months later when Rome was conquered by Septimus Severus.

Answer: Tulips

Rather than start at a low price and go up until all bidders bar one drop out, a Dutch auction starts at a high price and goes lower until someone accepts a price. This practice was used for the auctioning of tulip bulbs in Holland. In the 1630s tulip mania swept Holland, with single bulbs of new species being auctioned for around ten times the annual income of a skilled worker.

Answer: Sweden

The Stockholm Auction House was founded in 1674 by Baron Claes Ralamb. In its time it has had several distinguished clients including Sweden's King Gustav III who acquired a Rembrandt, and King Charles XI who sold some hunting rifles.

Answer: Pierre Omidyar

In September 1995 Pierre Omidyar sold the very first item, a broken laser pointer, on what was then called Auctionweb. By 1996 it had grown massively and Jeffrey Skoll joined the company. In 1998 it went public and both Pierre Omidya and Jeffrey Skoll became dot.com billionaires.

Answer: A liver

A man tried to auction his own liver on ebay and bidding reached $3.7M before ebay deleted it, stating it was illegal to sell body parts online. All of the others are genuine ebay auction items. The bubble gum was alleged to have been spat out by Britney Spears and made $14,000.

The private Gulfstream jet made $4.9M, and the right to name an unborn baby went to the Golden Palace casino. The poor child now has to go through life named "Golden Palace Benedetto". We can only hope she thinks the $15,000 her mother got in the auction was worth it.

Answer: Books

Founded by Samuel Baker, the very first sale at Sotheby's was the library of Rt. Hon Sir John Stanley, Bt. For approximately the next hundred years Sotheby's specialised in book sales, selling anything from whole libraries to single volumes. They handled the sale of books belonging to Napoleon, Prince Talleyrand and the Dukes of both Devonshire and Buckingham.

Answer: David Dickinson

"Bargain Hunt" and David Dickinson arrived on British day time TV in March 2000. The simple format of two pairs of contestants buying items at an antiques fair, with an expert giving them advice, and then selling them at auction and keeping any profit was an instant success, even though most of the contestants managed only to loose large amounts of money.

There have, however, been times when the purchases have exceeded all expectations, one example being a small Royal Worcester box bought for £140 which reached £800 at auction.

Answer: Price fixing

In 2000 allegations were made of a price fixing deal between Christie's and Sotheby's. It was in fact Christie's executives who alerted the US Department of Justice to the collusion. In the subsequent investigation they were given immunity from prosecution when a long serving employee of theirs confessed and gave full co-operation to the FBI.

Many of Sotheby's senior staff were fired, and their largest shareholder and their CEO both received jail sentences.

Answer: Tattersalls

Tattersalls is the oldest bloodstock auctioneer in the world, having been founded in 1766 by Richard Tattersall, who was the owner of the legendary racehorse "Highflyer". Their original auctions were held at Hyde Park Corner in London, and they later moved to Knightsbridge Green.

In 1977 they moved to Newmarket, home of English horse racing. They also hold several sales a year in Ireland.