I hope that it is not too sad of me to say that we really look forward to the Essential Information Group monthly (EIG) newsletter. If it is sad of me to say that it’s fine because as an auction buff, it gives me the chance to check out the performance of the auction market.

I always draw the numbers and statistics from this newsletter and then provide the interpretation from the viewpoint of someone who operated within the marketplace as a professional, as someone who is helping people buy and sell through the auction on a monthly basis and most importantly as someone who is looking to buy and sell at auction myself.

I like the subtle and then also the not so subtle changes that you see monthly as well as the year on year figures, which help me to determine what’s hot, what’s not and without trying to predict the market, to  look to see what parts of the market are slowing down, and generally follow the flow of money and opportunity.

Enough of the self-indulgent blabber, here are some of the metrics that interest me and I’ll share the reasons why.

Leading the charge in impressive statistics is the growth of the commercial opportunities being offered and sold at auction. The number of commercial lots entered for this period is up a little over 40%, with the number of lots sold up 41%. This is a key indicator of demand stripping out supply.

You may say to yourself, the number of lots sold is rather arbitrary (well you would if you had read last month's article), well do I have a statistic for you - the amount raised for this period based on the same period last year is up 37.6%.