Auctions have been around forever. Citizens of the Roman Empire utilized them to exchange real estate and merchandise. They were a kind of formal bartering in those days. Since then, there have been many instances of unfortunate individuals losing their homes and life savings to the auction hammer. Today, many only know the type of sales represented by the very popular websites offering everything from soup to nuts on the auction block. For anyone attending the kind of live auctions Fort Worth TX auctioneers put on, the speed, competition and exhilaration can be exhausting and intimidating unless you know what you are doing.