Celebrating 8 Years with Municibid: Wildest Auction Items, Competitive Bidding, and Future Dreams with Jackie Blaskovich

(0:00 - 0:07)

Jackie Blaskovich:

A lot of times people believe that I am a bot and I'm not, I'm, I'm a real person. I'm really responding. I'm really typing.

(0:12 - 0:34)

Greg Berry:

Join us as we dive into the wild world of government auctions and take you behind the scenes to uncover the cool and unique ways bidders from across America are utilizing the items they've won on Municibid, like an ambulance repurposed into a work truck, to a city bus converted into an RV and so much more. Welcome to the Municibid Podcast.

(0:34 - 0:39)

Sophie Eden:

Hi Jackie. Welcome to the Municibid Podcast. How are you doing today? 

Jackie Blaskovich:

I'm doing well, Sophie. Thank you. How are you?

(0:39 - 0:57)

Sophie Eden:

Doing fantastic. Very excited to have you on the Municibid Podcast. Um, can you start us off, um, by telling us, introducing yourself, telling us a bit about what you do here at, uh, Municibid?

(0:58 - 1:05)

Jackie Blaskovich:

Sure. So my name is Jackie. I'm the Director of Customer Success here at Municibid. Today is my eighth Municibid anniversary.

(1:05 - 1:37)

Jackie Blaskovich:

So I have been working with our bidders and our sellers for eight years today. A very large portion of my job is to respond to support, whether that be phone call, email, chat. Most of it comes to me and I help our sellers and our bidders with any issues they have, or just any general questions they have. I also do a lot with the listings. Checking the listing quality to make sure that all the information bidders would want to know is there and it's the best pictures and the best pricing.

(1:38 - 1:55)

Jackie Blaskovich:

I also work with all of the selling agencies that contract Municibid to handle payment. So I create invoices and manage all the payments that come in and help the bidders who have a little bit of difficulty with making payment online. 

(1:55 - 2:03)

Sophie Eden:

Wonderful. Gosh, that's a lot. Um, and big congratulations on your Municibid anniversary. Um, that's very exciting.

(2:04 - 2:16)

Sophie Eden:

Um, you're now our longest, uh, tenured employee at Municibid. 

Jackie Blaskovich:

I am. Pretty excited about that. Thank you.

(2:16 - 2:41)

Sophie Eden:

Um, so since you've been with Municibid for so long, um, I'm curious, um, what some of the wildest items you've seen up for auction have been over the years. 

Jackie Blaskovich:

I have seen some pretty interesting things. Um, two of the things that come to mind right off the bat, actually three, one of them is Santa's throne.

(2:41 - 3:00)

Jackie Blaskovich:

I thought that one was pretty funny when it was listed. Um, it's basically like when you go to see Santa at the mall or something for pictures, it was a big red throne for Santa Claus. We also at one point had a child-sized suit of armor, which I thought was really cool.

(3:00 - 3:14)

Jackie Blaskovich:

That was years ago now, but it still sticks in my brain. Um, and I think about four or five years ago we had like a 1970 something Volkswagen Beetle bug police car. And that was a pretty cool one too.

(3:15 - 3:24)

Sophie Eden:

Yeah, that's pretty neat. I remember seeing that bug and I was like, Hmm, this is very interesting looking police car. 

Jackie Blaskovich:

Yeah, you see some pretty cool stuff.

(3:25 - 3:50)

So you're talking with our bidders and our sellers a lot. Um, I'm curious, uh, what's the like funniest or like quirkiest question, um, that you've had come in to support? 

Jackie Blaskovich:

I can't necessarily think of a funny question. Um, but a few years back, a selling agency after I, I don't remember what I helped them with.

(3:50 - 4:08)

Jackie Blaskovich:

I helped a selling agency with some issue they had and they responded that they wanted to buy me a drink the next time I saw them or if I saw them at a conference. Um, and we went, we like ran with it and we wrote like a blog article. It's the only blog article I have ever written.

(4:08 - 4:24)

Jackie Blaskovich:

I'm not a writer. It's not a talent of mine, but this one article was about Municibid having beer worthy customer service. And that sticks to my brain a lot because I was just, it was funny how we kind of took that compliment for, Hey, wow, you did a great job.

(4:25 - 4:34)

Jackie Blaskovich:

Thank you so much. And turned it into our customer service is so great that you'll want to buy us a drink. 

(4:34 - 5:02)

Sophie Eden:

That's wonderful. That's really cool. What's a common question that you get in that maybe you'd like to clear up for like bidders and sellers coming in to support? 

Jackie Blaskovich:

One of the most common questions from bidders is asking us what the reserve price is on an item. When you are looking at an item page and you're bidding and there's a reserve, you'll either see it say reserve met or reserve not met, but we don't disclose the actual amount.

(5:02 - 5:13)

Jackie Blaskovich:

The reserve price is confidential. Um, so when they ask, the only thing I can really say is, I'm sorry, it's confidential. Even after the auction ends, I still can't disclose the reserve price.

(5:13 - 5:29)

Jackie Blaskovich:

If the bid comes in close to it and the seller is happy with it, we will send the bidders an offer for whatever their highest bid was. Um, but we still can't disclose that reserve. And I do see them not only ask me in support, but they also ask it on the listing page.

(5:30 - 5:59)

Jackie Blaskovich:

And when they ask the selling agencies, most times the selling agencies come to me and ask, how do we respond to this? Because they understand that it's hidden, but they don't understand if they're allowed to disclose it or not. And I personally don't encourage you to disclose it because it's part of the bidding process to try to meet the reserve. And that's part of competitive bidding, which is, you know, basically the entire basis of how auctions work, whether it be our auction site or any other.

(6:00 - 6:17)

Sophie EdenL

Right. And what are some of the, like, other advantages that you're seeing with online auctions versus in-person auctions? 

Jackie Blaskovich:

One of the best things I think about online auctions is the scope. Um, we are a nationwide auction platform.

(6:17 - 6:43)

Jackie Blaskovich:

So bidders literally will come from all over for an item they're really interested in, which gives the selling agency a broader base to market their items to. That's a concern often with selling agencies when their, their auction ends and they receive the auction report that shows the bidder's name, address, phone number, and all of that information. And they'll see that their winning bidder is from like six states away.

(6:43 - 7:05)

Jackie Blaskovich:

And a lot of times they get concerned, thinking the bidder isn't going to follow through. But that's not the case. Many times because we have the ability to market or broadcast these items nationwide, the items sell for a lot more than they would if it was just an in-person auction because there's more people interested in it and more people competing for it.

(7:05 - 7:54)

Jackie Blaskovich:

I actually just saw this happen on Friday. One of our selling agencies contacted me because he was just so over the moon with how much his tub grinder was selling for. He listed it with a starting price of $2,500 and it sold for $92,100, which blew his mind.

That was a great way to end a Friday. And the bidder is coming from a different area than his actual home base. So it's, I think the best thing about it is you have more bidders, which heats up the competition.

And the more people who are competing, the higher the bidding is going to go. 

Sophie Eden:

Wow, that's amazing. Just last week, Jameel was at NGAC conference and a remark that he's heard there,

(7:55 - 9:00)

Sophie Eden:

The NGAC conference is hosted at the Caesars Palace Casino, right? So people compare being at a casino and the garbling to the last couple of minutes of a Municibid auction. Do you have some stories about the competitive nature of bidders in these auctions? 

Jackie Blaskovich:

Yeah, I had, recently I had a bidder tell me that he is legitimately addicted to bidding on Municibid and I'm sure other types of auctions as well. But he had won a lot of items that he didn't expect to win because he literally could not stop bidding.

So the comparison to the casino is very spot on. But really what it comes down to is in the beginning, when they see these items like just a general bidder sees an item like a vehicle, for example, and the starting price is $500, the bidder, the first bidder who places a bid is placing the bid because it's a great deal. It's a good running car.

(9:00 - 9:15)

Jackie Blaskovich:

It's in decent condition for only $500. But then when multiple people get involved in the bidding process, that mindset switches and it's no longer, “This is a great deal,” now it's, “What's another $100? I want to win.”

(9:15 - 9:36)

Jackie Blaskovich:

And that's really what drives the bidding up at the end of the day. It's it's that competitive nature between the bidders and just wanting to win. And that's why a lot of times we see things start with a very low starting price, but sell for like 10 times what the starting price was because it comes down to market value and the competitive nature of bidding.

(9:37 - 9:50)

Sophie Eden:

Yeah, it's amazing. I've been impressed too, seeing auctions that keep extending right with the bid snipping and like go on for hours and hours and hours. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, this hasn't ended already.

(9:50 - 9:55)

Sophie Eden:

Like people are still bidding. Yeah, it's very impressive. 

Jackie Blaskovich:

Those are my favorite to watch.

(9:55 - 10:40)

Jackie Blaskovich:

The ones that get really heated up in the last couple of minutes and then just keep extending. For anybody who has not previously bid on Municibid and is not aware, in order to prevent software that will snipe the bid in the very last second, we extend auctions by two minutes every time a bid is placed in the last like two minutes of the auction until there are no more bids received. The reason we do this is because there is software out there where if we didn't have the extension, somebody could in the very last second get a bid in and steal the auction away.

And the biggest basis of Municibid auctions is being fair and transparent to all bidders. So we don't allow that. But that extension, it can get pretty crazy.

(10:40 - 11:33)

Jackie Blaskovich:

It can go. It could extend once or it could extend 100 times and end up going hours longer than it was supposed to, like you said. So when selling agencies ask for advice on their legal advertisements that they have to do locally, I always tell them to put that the auction ends around 4 p.m. instead of at 4 p.m. on the dot, because a lot of times it won't end at 4 p.m. on the dot.

It could be like 4 16 p.m. So I always say put auctions ending starting at 4 o'clock p.m. 

Sophie Eden:

Yeah, that's really amazing seeing the competitiveness and seeing how many people like really want these items that I don't know, like sometimes it just seems like, OK, that's an maybe average car. Right. But yeah, there's demand.

(11:34 - 12:22)

Jackie Blaskovich:

It is funny to see some of the things that, you know, you or I might think are just an average, I don't know, average tool, average vehicle. But to the bidders, they see something that we don't see or something we don't understand. I definitely see a lot of items that sometimes I don't even know what it is, but it'll sell for a lot.

And it's because it definitely has like a very set base of a customer who would be interested in it. And whether they're searching on Google or they know about Municibid and come straight to us, some of the items that get listed are very specific and it's a very particular buyer who needs it and they find it here because we have all kinds of things listed. You can list absolutely anything except for weapons on Municibid, which we've seen, I'm telling you a little bit of everything. 

(12:22 - 13:01)

Sophie Eden:

What are you still surprised by, like the types of items that are listed on Municibid? 

Jackie Blaskovich:

Yes, sometimes. You know, the general like categories of items that are listed are vehicles, heavy equipment, tools, things like that. But when we get things like we currently have a log cabin listed or sometimes there's lost and found, a couple of selling agencies sell the lost and found items or things that were just like repossessed.

(13:01 - 13:17)

Jackie Blaskovich:

Like there's a district attorney's office that sells some items and some of the things they sell, like clothing or shoes or used headphones. And all these kinds of things really do sell. And it is it is interesting.

(13:17 - 13:36)

Jackie Blaskovich:

My favorite is when we get really rare items that come in. But I do also just get a little bit of a laugh when it's something like a pack of T-shirts people are bidding on. 

Sophie Eden:

Yeah, that's pretty interesting, just the wide array of items available.

(13:36 - 13:49)

Sophie Eden:

That I guess when you think of a municipality, like you wouldn't necessarily think they have. But definitely, you know, things like lost an item and forfeitures. Right.

(13:49 - 14:34)

Sophie Eden:

Makes sense. It's not the municipality buying and then selling it. Yeah.

Jackie Blaskovich:

Right. 

Sophie Eden:

So the like past year or so, there's been a lot of talk of A.I. And I believe that's a question that you get into support. Like, is our support A.I.? 

Jackie Blaskovich:

We are currently not using A.I. in support.

The program that we use to run our live chat for support is starting to roll out some A.I. features. And for the most part, I just haven't found them very good at this point. If we're going to use A.I. in support, in my opinion, it needs to be extremely good.

(14:35 - 14:52)

Jackie Blaskovich:

The questions that come in to support typically do need a real person to help resolve it. And even though it's me, a real person always answering, I do get asked very often if I'm a real person. A lot of times people believe that I am a bot and I'm not.

(14:52 - 14:56)

Jackie Blaskovich:

I'm a real person. I'm really responding. I'm really typing.

(14:56 - 15:18)

Jackie Blaskovich:

Am I interested in incorporating A.I. at some point? Sure. I think there are some common questions that A.I. would definitely be helpful with things like resetting a password or something more simple like that. But at this juncture, it just isn't at the point where I think it needs to be before I'm willing to have A.I. responding to our customers.

(15:18 - 15:36)

Jackie Blaskovich:

At this juncture, I think it's still best for us to do it. It's usually me, but any member of our team to give a real answer and look at the question and whatever item it's referring to and really be able to help. I just don't feel like A.I. is quite there yet for support.

(15:37 - 15:48)

Jackie Blaskovich:

And a lot of our customers don't want to talk to a bot anyway. That's usually what they're getting at when they're talking to me. They want to make sure that I am an actual human who is listening and responding because they don't want to talk to a bot.

(15:49 - 15:59)

Sophie Eden:

And I can confirm Jackie is a real person. I've met her in person. She's a human, not a robot.

(16:00 - 16:32)

Sophie Eden:

So just to set that. So looking to the future of Municibid, what are some of your dreams for Municibid for the next eight years?

Jackie Blaskovich:

I would love to see us just continue to grow, continue to bring on more selling agencies and more bidders and see more items listed every day. I have a few ideas up my sleeve for selling agencies to be able to communicate with each other and discuss their options.

(16:32 - 17:17)

Jackie Blaskovich:

I think there's a lot of benefit to that for us. It's definitely something that just hit the drawing board within the last week or two. And I'm kind of brain mapping it out to them, bring it to the team and discuss it.

But I think there would be a really huge benefit to having an open forum where selling agencies can communicate with each other about what went really, really well about their auction or what roadblocks they faced, because ultimately our our product, which is our website, only improves when we know what the roadblocks are. If we know what the obstacles are, then we know how to fix it. It's just a matter of being dialed in to be able to get that feedback.

(17:18 - 17:33)

Jackie Blaskovich:

And we are always asking for feedback and we are always open to feedback. But I think having a general place where they can all communicate together will give us leaps and bounds above where we are now. We do have we do have sellers and bidders who do offer up ideas occasionally.

(17:33 - 17:50)

Jackie Blaskovich:

And I keep a running list of user wish list ideas. And when the time is right, I bring it to our development team and try to work on it. Things that make the bidders lives a little bit easier, the sellers lives a little bit easier and sometimes even mine a little bit easier.

(17:50 - 18:33)

Jackie Blaskovich:

But that's one of the things I'd really like to see us do. I was also thinking recently about a way that we could have it right on the site where customers, whether it be a seller or a bidder, can offer any feedback or ideas they may have, because right now it's just kind of when they feel like telling us in chat, it's not something we're directly asking for on a regular basis. But I think if we had a place where they could submit feedback at any time, that might help us a ton because really at the end of the day, we only know what to fix if we know what the problem is or the roadblock or obstacle is that the customer is facing, because ultimately the customer is using the website in a way that we don't.

(18:34 - 18:54)

Sophie Eden:

Mm hmm. Yeah. And is there anything from back when you first started at Municibid that you miss or that you don't miss that you're happy that things have changed over the past eight years? 

Jackie Blaskovich:

I wouldn't say there's anything that I miss.

(18:54 - 19:16)

Jackie Blaskovich:

The website has had a complete overhaul of being redone, I think twice since I've been here in the last eight years. And just seeing how the site has improved and become more user friendly has been awesome. It's also been incredible to see how much we've grown and how many more selling agencies are helping now and all the different states that we've brought on.

(19:17 - 19:55)

Jackie Blaskovich:

When I first came on eight years ago, it was very much the East Coast, just very much actually the Northeast. It was very much like Pennsylvania through Massachusetts. And then we had a couple scattered throughout the country from there, like in Texas and Louisiana.

But since then, it's been really fun to see all the different states that have joined Municibid since then. And another thing that has changed dramatically in the last eight years is we were handling payment for about six selling agencies. When I started, we now handle payment for over 300.

(19:55 - 20:45)

Sophie Eden:

Wow. 

Jackie Blaskovich:

So that's a huge change, and that's always a process that I'm trying to improve upon. Right now, when a bidder wins an auction for a selling agency that we manage the payment for, the invoice directs them to what we call the pay page, which lists all the payment options.

And when you look at that page, it's kind of like you're being slapped with too much information at one time. And I went over it with our head of design, Sam, last week, and we're going to revamp that page to make it a lot more digestible. And that's just one of the things that are kind of in the back of my head that we're working towards.

I'm also working towards streamlining our payment system in the next year. I think right now it just could use a lot of work. It could be a lot easier for us and the bidder to make their payment and get the paid receipts over to the selling agencies faster.

(20:45 - 21:14)

Jackie Blaskovich:

So that's one of the things that I'm looking to do a full overhaul on in the next year. I've had a lot of meetings with different banks and payment processors, and I've been keeping track of what I think is working, what I don't think is working so well, what could be better. I think one of the things that sticks out in my mind the most, and I hear it from our customers often, is when they win an item, their credit card that they have on their account is automatically charged for the buyer's fee.

(21:14 - 21:33)

Jackie Blaskovich:

But they can't use that same credit card automatically to pay for an item. It's a whole separate invoice that we have to create an email over to them. And I think one of the things that would be really helpful for bidders is if they could just pay their invoice with the credit card that's on their account.

(21:33 - 21:52)

It would save time for them and for us, and it would make the payment process a hundred times faster. And I hear that often. Bidders will often ask me, why can't you just charge the credit card on the account? And at this time, I literally just don't have that option available to me, but I'm hoping to get there within the next year.

(21:52 - 22:42)

Sophie Eden:

Fantastic. Exciting to hear about upcoming improvements to Municibid, and to the bidders and sellers listening, ig you've got some thoughts on this, feel free to reach out to Jackie and share.

Definitely was open to feedback and looking for new ways that we can make things better.

Jackie Blaskovich:

 Any other cool stories or things that you've seen over the years with MuniciBid that you'd like to share? I just I think the thing that's been the most exciting and hasn't ceased to be exciting to me in eight years is watching auctions. And I think it's fascinating that an item can go for two weeks getting like one or two bids sprinkling in.

(22:42 - 22:55)

Jackie Blaskovich:

But in the last five minutes of the auction, it could get 30 bids. And I just find that so incredible to watch. I have a lot of selling agencies who have contacted me over the years, worried that their items aren't getting any bids.

(22:55 - 23:03)

Jackie Blaskovich:

And I always tell them to just hang in there. The last day is when most of the action is going to happen. And then it happens and the selling agencies are blown away.

(23:03 - 23:21)

Jackie Blaskovich:

And I always really enjoy hearing from the sellers when an auction went really well or it exceeded their expectations. I also really enjoy hearing from the bidders when they've had a really good experience with inspecting an item, winning it, picking it up and all of that. So I think that's the thing that I love the most.

(23:21 - 23:30)

Jackie Blaskovich:

I also really love the opportunities that I get to actually be out there in person with the customers. It's rare. I only get to go out and see the customers like two to three times per year.

(23:30 - 24:21)

Jackie Blaskovich:

But I really do enjoy the time periods where I get to meet face to face with selling agencies or bidders and talk to them and hear how things are going, how they're using the site and what improvements they have, like suggestion wise for us. I think the best way for us to grow and to improve is for us to listen to the customer and what their pain points are or what's working really well. I want to hear that, too.

So my favorite thing is when I get the chance to be face to face with the customer and really get to work with them. Something I'm really hoping to be able to do in the next six months to a year, is the chance to work closer with selling agencies in person to kind of streamline their process on their end. On our end, I know how everything works, but I want to help them with their end, with the pickup process, because I know it can be frustrating.

(24:22 - 24:41)

Jackie Blaskovich:

I know that sometimes bidders are a little slow to respond. And I know the paperwork and all of that kind of stuff can get just a lot and frustrating and just too much to deal with. But I'd love to be able to dive in and help them to streamline on their end so that from beginning to close, the auction is seamless and easy.

(24:41 - 25:06)

Jackie Blaskovich:

That's really the end goal at the end of the day, is to make sure that selling your surplus with Municibid is an easy process. Plus, it brings in as much money as we could possibly help bring in to go back into the municipalities and improving the towns. 

Sophie Eden:

And I think that's a great point to highlight, too, is that 100 percent of the proceeds from all the auctions go right back to the sellers.

(25:08 - 25:26)

Sophie Eden:

So these auctions are having an impact in local communities, you know, municipal departments. 

Jackie Blaskovich:

And it's awesome when we get to hear that, too. It's awesome when we have the opportunity to hear from the selling agencies what the funds that they raised with their auctions on Municibid went into fixing.

(25:26 - 25:52)

Jackie Blaskovich:

I think I've heard like once or twice, some of the improvements with like a local park or something and how they improved it because they got $50,000 more than they thought they would on a particular backhoe or something. And I just think it's really cool when we get the opportunity to hear what the impact our auction site has made for them. Because ultimately, this was a fantastic idea that our CEO and founder, Greg, came up with almost 18 years ago.

(25:52 - 26:45)

Jackie Blaskovich:

We celebrate 18 years of being a company this month, and it's just been incredible to see what an impact Municibid has made for the selling agencies and the bidders, because a lot of the bidders are buying for their businesses. 

Sophie Eden:

Yes, absolutely. Impact on the government side, but also on the bidder side with them getting what they need to use in their business or community or, you know, hobby projects that they've got going on.

This has been amazing and a very exciting month all around today, your Municiversary and then coming up May 15th, Municibid as a company, Municiversary. So, yeah, big celebration going on this month here at Municibid. We're honored to be able to serve all of our customers.

(26:45 - 26:59)

Sophie Eden:

And I think there's a lot of exciting things. It sounds like coming in the near future. So thank you so much, Jackie, for joining us here today on the Municibid podcast and look forward to chatting again in the future.

(26:59 - 27:05)

Jackie Blaskovich:

Awesome. Thank you for having me. Thank you for tuning into the Municibid podcast.

(27:05 - 27:12)

Greg Berry:

If you'd like to learn more about the world of government surplus, be sure to subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts.