"First time..."
"Second time..."
"Third time, congratulations... sir, you've won this item!"
The auctioneer's gavel quickly and precisely sealed the deal; charity fundraisers are quite different from formal auction house sales.
Generally, during a charity auction, except for a few people who might be unfamiliar or attending such an event for the first time, nobody actually competes over the bidding of a certain item.
Everyone would donate an item for the auctioneer to sell and later bid for it themselves. There's no competition involved, so the auctioneer doesn't need to fire up the crowd, they just need to wrap it up fast.
Penny watched pieces, that might be valuable or appeared not-so-valuable to her, being sold at astonishing prices, gradually realizing the knack behind this.
"Is this how you guys usually do it?" she whispered.
