It’s mid-morning on a Monday, and Manheim North Carolina is already buzzing with activity. The overlapping chants of auctioneers hum from the lanes all the way through the parking lot leading in to the facility — which is filled with the smell of fresh popcorn and sounds from the first batch of some 2,100 cars that are slated to pump through its eight lanes that day.

The first sale at this auction about an hour east of Raleigh kicked off at 8:30 a.m., but for general manager Ellie Johnson and her staff — along with the consignors, dealers, lenders and all the parties that make an auction work on a weekly basis — the preparation began days before.

 In fact, prep work typically begins when the weekly sale ends on Monday, as the auction’s part-time staff will help move no-sale vehicles and units sold that day to clear parking room for the following week’s sale, Johnson told Auto Remarketing in an August interview at the Kenly, N.C. auction.

Then it’s all hands on deck, with a cornucopia of moving parts, over the next seven days: consignors setting their respective sales through AutoIMS on Tuesday, the shop taking care of any approved body or mechanical work, and dealers starting to bring in cars on Sunday night to be checked in for Monday’s sale.

And then that’s when the action begins.

In the Sept. 15 print and digital editions of Auto Remarketing — arriving in your mailboxes and inboxes soon, if they haven’t already — we celebrate the National Auto Auction Association and the entire auction industry, as NAAA gets set for its annual convention in Boston next week.

In our NAAA Special Convention Issue, we showcase the many working parts of an auto auction, share more of Johnson’s story as she takes on the role of NAAA president, spotlight commercial consignors, feature your auction photos from the past year, and much more.

Stay tuned!