Steve´s observations on auctioneering

I´m one of the lucky people who truly enjoy what I do. Yes, there are those days when I have to get up at 4:00 am to catch a flight or begin my drive to work that have me really questioning what I´m doing. However, once I get to the auction and it is about ready to start, there is always great buzz in the room. It doesn´t matter if it is the weekly wholesale car auction, a collector car event or a major fundraiser. There is always that air of excitement before the start of the event and I love it. We as a collective group are about to plunge into the great unknown and that anticipation is what has kept me in this business for over a decade and keeps me wanting to do more. When fully immersed into the crowd, I can sense when they want to bid more or when they are ready to lay down their bid card. It is a delicate balance to take the bidding to it highest level while at same time not asking the person to give more than they’re comfortable contributing. You always have to ask, can you give me just one more bid. This is the challenge that I love and within which I thrive.

How Steve became an auctioneer.

Everyone always asks, "How do you become an auctioneer?" The answer is practice, practice, practice. I drove the people around me crazy, auctioning everything in my house, as well as all the cars passing me on the road. Auctioneering is a very old craft, which you can only learn hands on. There is a term they use in auto racing called "drafting". This is when the car in front pulls the car that is directly behind it. If they work together, they are faster as pair than as individuals. I am lucky enough to have had a group of people who drafted me into the business and developed me as an auctioneer. These are my mentors, who along the way took the time to give me the encouragement I needed to continue and believed in me enough to pay me to do this. People like: Mitch Silver, Silver Collector Car Auctions; Steve Talbot, Talbot Auctions and Fundraisers; Jeff Stokes, Stokes Auction Group; Spanky Assiter and Rod Egan, World Wide Auction Group; Paul C. Beur, World Wide School of Auctioneering; Greg Rollo, Richie Brothers; Jim Ellis, Bob Gore and Doug Petersen all helped me and I can´t thank them enough.