Salvage Tractor Auction Claims

How did you get your start?

I walked in and bought the place. It was that easy. I never really had been to an auction. I was in the car business. I spent 13 years selling automobiles. I just kind of got tired of it. An old guy told me once when I was a kid, he said, "Norm, if you ever get tired of the car business, get out of it." Well, I got tired and I remembered him telling me that and I got out.

How did you train for the job?

I trained myself. The auction schools are two weeks in length. The closest one to us is High Point, N.C., which is the Mendenhall family, which we know very well, and my wife went down there and my son went down there. It's very intense training for two weeks and when you come out of there you're going to be an auctioneer unless you don't have the voice or the mindset for it. I just took a guy's books. I didn't have the money and I was running a weekly auction and I was a one-man show at the time and I couldn't get away. I trained myself hauling calves into Philadelphia in the truck. I would buy calves and haul them up to the butcher shops in Philly and I would practice while I was driving. It took me probably three months to get it down to where I was comfortable with it. I did a farm machinery auction one day and I hired an auctioneer to help me. I was ready to auction but I was scared to start. This guy was dumber than a stick and he made a blunder right on the very first item. I took the mike away from him and I'll never forget it, it was a manure spreader. I started out and I'm thinking the thing will bring about $175. So I said, "Seventy-five, hundred dollar bill and a quarter and a half, one seventy five, one seventy five, now two hundred" and I went, "Whoa!" Nobody had bid it yet. I was still practicing. I was embarrassed. So I stopped and I said, "let me do this over again."

What essential skills are required?

You've got to have a sharp mind. Know pricing. I always use the terminology, you've got to be like the old country doctor - you have to know from the nose to the toes. So much comes at you as an auctioneer and you're liable because you can get sued if you screw up. And a good memory is one of the essential things. And have a good business sense.