America’s Land Auctioneer
Captivate and celebrate the dynamics of rural America, American Agriculture and inspire and teach others how to live a bold and abundant life in rural America. Background: The intrigue, endless opportunities, and romance of rural life in America have never been more on the minds of Americans. The recent pandemic and civil unrest have Americans of all ages earning for a more peaceful, less hectic life. Even billionaire Bill Gates is now the largest crop landowner in America. As many Americans look for peaceful refuge in the rolling hills and wheat fields they are faced with a richness of opportunities. But where do you begin to look? This show will highlight and feature endless opportunities in every state. What is it that is so unique about rural America, the land and what it produces? How can I live that life? The American Land Auctioneer will tell stories and weave into those stories a place for you to dream, live and enjoy the abundance of all that rural America has to offer.
America’s Land Auctioneer
From Idaho Fields to Midwest Auctions: Exploring the Thriving World of Live Auctioneering
Growing up on a potato farm in Southeast Idaho, I never imagined my path would lead me to the bustling world of agricultural machinery auctions. Yet, those early days on the farm sowed the seeds of a passion that would guide my career, moving me from the fields of Idaho to the heart of the Midwest auction scene. This episode, join Jim Sabe and his guest, Chris Bair from our Worthing office near Sioux Falls, as we uncover the fascinating journey through the landscapes of North and South Dakota and explore the vibrant life of auctioneering.
What makes live auctions so compelling in our digital age? Chris and I delve into the resurgence of traditional auction events, especially in areas like Eastern North Dakota and South Dakota, where they thrive as lively social gatherings. We’ll reflect on the impacts of extreme weather shifts, the strategic importance of our Sioux Falls facility, and the unique stories behind each auction that bring communities together. Highlighting our dedicated team members, including the ever-energetic Jeff Polk, we discuss how their expertise continues to drive record-breaking results at Pifers, proving the unmatched energy of live auctions.
Finally, we tackle the evolving dynamics between live and online auctions, offering insights into the balance between tradition and innovation. Chris shares exciting upcoming auctions and the community spirit that makes these events truly unique. Whether it's through the personal connections or the thrill of the bidding process, this episode promises a glimpse into the dynamic and ever-evolving world of auctioneering. Join us in celebrating the rich human stories and immense dedication that fuel our passion for auctions.
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Contact the team at Pifer's
Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby, your host for this weekend's broadcast. I'm up here in beautiful Bowman, north Dakota, and my guest today is Chris Baer, out of the South Dakota office down at Worthing, right south of Sioux Falls. Good morning, chris. How are you today? I'm doing great, jim. How are you doing? You know what? Not bad. You know what? We had a big freeze over last week, got into the 20, 25 below zeros and a little bit cold for us up here. We're not used to that compared to northern North Dakota. But now it's warming up into the 25s and 30s and it's going to be pretty nice the next 10 days up here. But we still have a little snow on the ground and we're hoping that leaves.
Speaker 3:Isn't that crazy that you guys can have a 40 to 50 degree swing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's unbelievable, and right before that we were in the 50 degrees and then all of a sudden it dropped down to zero and then 25 below. But you know, mother Nature still rules in our country and you know we're seeing it by what's happened this last week down in Florida and Texas, alabama, new Orleans they're having a snowball fight right on downtown New Orleans. I see down in southern Texas, you know, galveston they're skiing on the beach from all the snow. So I mean she does rule and we just got to listen to her and quit complaining because we can't change anything.
Speaker 3:Mother Nature is definitely off her meds.
Speaker 2:Well, there's a lot of truth to that, but but you know, let's just talk a little bit later on in the segment we'll start talking about you know, I kind of want to get you introduced to everybody up here. You've been on the show a few times but they really haven't had a big chance to meet you because you're busy. You're managing the Sioux Falls location down there. You guys are having a lot of sales coming up again this year, but let's just talk about the Sioux Falls facility and what you guys are doing down there and what kind of sales you got lined up here for the spring so far.
Speaker 3:Jim, I've spent the better share of 15 years down here in the Sioux Falls area and I call it God's country. We're in some of the most beautiful farm ground. I call it God's country. We're in some of the most beautiful farm ground If you go to the east into northwest Iowa, which, as the crow flies, is about five miles away. Southwestern Minnesota is about 20-25 miles away from us and we're about 30 miles, 30-40 miles north in the Nebraska border. So we have the best of all worlds right here on I-29, just south of Sioux Falls, and our springtime to kind of tell you a little bit about us is as we enjoy. To the west we have big livestock country. To the east is some of the best row cropping in the nation. To the south is the Missouri River. We've got the best of all worlds here in Sioux Falls.
Speaker 2:You know, and you do, and you got a beautiful facility and right along I-29, I mean you couldn't, I mean all of our facilities. We're building it right along the major thruways. You know, like us out here, highway 85 runs from Mexico to Canada. Strewaways, you know, like us out here, highway 85 runs from Mexico to Canada. Our one in Steele is right along I-94, and you're on I-29. Down there we have the traffic to support what we are doing and it's been proven it here day after day of what's going on in our facilities. But you know, again we want to talk a little bit more about Sioux Falls. But you know you've got and I don't know how many, I can't remember how many employees you got down there, but you have some good ones working with you and I will always say they work with us, not for us. We're all kind of like that in this business it takes more than one of us to do what we're doing. But you've got some fairly good employees down there that have been with you for quite a while.
Speaker 3:I've had a lot of good employees in my 30 plus years in the auction industry, but the team that we've got down here in Sioux Falls right now there's a half a dozen of us that work out of the Sioux Falls location as some of the finest people that I've had to work with in my entire career. They're on point, they own what they do, they're team players and everybody's watching out for everybody. We don't have any lone wolves here?
Speaker 2:No, you don't. And then all of a sudden, when it comes to sale day, you bring in a few other people to help. But I'm going to say one of the most notable is Jeff Polk, and I tell you what I love listening to him. Auctioneer, I love visiting, just visiting with him. The wealth and knowledge that he brings to our business and we had him up in Fergus Falls here in December, and what a great asset for basically our whole company when he comes in to help do the auctioneer Very well respected throughout the whole United States, probably Mexico and Canada you can throw them in there, but he does a great job.
Speaker 3:Jeff brings a level of energy that is almost unmatched in the industry. And not only does Jeff bring that type of energy, but he has got an outstanding, a great wife that helps him out, and we're glad that Jeff lives over on the South Dakota side and calls South Dakota home, and he's not very far away from us and he's a huge asset.
Speaker 2:He is, but we appreciate people like that that are willing to come help us out at auction time when we get these big sales that we have. You know we always need extra auctioneers and you know, in our company we've got auctioneers in our company, but sometimes they live further away than what like Jeff does, you know. So why not utilize him? People know him, but again, he's a great asset. But one thing we want to talk about is down in Sioux Falls.
Speaker 2:You guys, basically you run a same type of show that we do, but yours is more located right where you're at in Sioux Falls. I mean, you get a lot of stuff coming in there for every sale you do. It's unbelievable, though, to see what's on your sale because, boom, you've got all these lined up and now you're doing. Your second ring is a third or fourth ring depends on how many, how much stuff you have, but you know you got main auction group doing the big stuff. Then you get another auction crew in the back room running that one, and then the third auction is online only for just some of the littler stuff that we can't get through. So you guys are very diverse on how you run the auction down there.
Speaker 3:Well, I appreciate your confidence, Jim. Again, I want to contribute it back to not necessarily what I'm doing here, but it's the entire team down here at Sioux Falls. When I took on this project almost five years ago, four and a half years ago, and we acquired this facility, I worked here by myself for almost eight months before I hired my first employee, and we have some of the same, similar logistics that you have. I-29 basically runs from Winnipeg to Kansas City and then on down to Dallas, texas, so there's a tremendous amount of traffic, and not only that, but just a few miles north of us Junction's I-29 that goes from Chicago to Seattle, and so the amount of traffic that goes through the Sioux Falls region is incredible.
Speaker 3:The DOT tells us that we get, on the average throughout the year, about 20,000 vehicles a day past our facility, and of that 20,000 vehicles they tell us that there's about 84, 85 percent of that traffic is two-way traffic, meaning coming and going in one day. But the balance of the traffic, which is 6,000, 7,000 vehicles, is just one-way traffic, and so it sets the table for us to have just great exposure to anybody who brings their equipment into our facility. And it's crazy the telephone calls that we get from people that are just traveling along, that calls our 800 number, off from the sign and calls us and says hey, you've got an excavator, you've got a tractor that's sitting there and when we took this facility on, kevin Pfeiffer says we want location, location, location. We're not even going to be a block off from the freeway when we build or we buy, and that has proven to be very, very good for us here in Sioux.
Speaker 2:Falls, you know, and what I like about it, whether it's Steel North Dakota or my Bowman office or your office, when I people, people that know me, when they're driving by, they always take a picture of the sign or the building. And when the Bison went down to play in the national championship game, I was getting text messages, seems like, for days of people going by our facility there and so people know and they know where we're at and it's kind of nice that people recognize the brand that we've got. You know and how we do things and you know most of our buildings look a lot alike. Yours is a little bit different because it was already built when we got it, but when you think about it, people are looking for that now and I really kind of enjoy that, getting text messages from people I know and sometimes I don't know.
Speaker 3:You know that's an interesting thing that you talk about. We've in the auction industry over the last 20, 25 years there's been a lot of conversation about brick and mortar. And does brick and mortar work? Can you justify brick and mortar? And I've had the opportunity to work for some other auction companies and what I am seeing in the auction industry, as we're combining technology and tradition together in the auction industry, is that people love brick and mortar. It creates stability. It shows that we're investing in the community, that we're paying taxes, that we're gathering taxes. It shows that we're here in the community to stay and adds a lot of stability to the auctioneer or to the auction company that's in a region.
Speaker 2:It really does and you know we can see it's a stable business. We have people in those buildings. We're here for our communities, which is really kind of unusual for a lot of auction companies. They kind of come in and they leave and you never even know they're there after they do an auction. We are right here in Bowman, north Dakota, or Worthing, south Dakota, steele, north Dakota.
Speaker 2:We are part of the community and that's what really is unbelievable that people understand that we're willing to go help up at the school and do what we have to do, and so I like the brick and mortar. It gives me at least a home base and you know we're going to be getting into our next segment coming up here shortly, segment coming up here shortly. But I just want to say this American Land Auctioneer is brought to you by all the great people at Pifers, whether they're real estate agents, the auctioneers. They are there and all the staff and we appreciate them. So get a hold of us, go to piperscom to check on anything that you need and we'd be glad to help you out in the future of your auction business and we'll be right back after our word from our sponsor.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby, your host for this beautiful Saturday morning. My guest today is Chris Baer, out of our Sioux Falls, our Worthing office, and we're kind of just reminiscing about auctioneering and the sites that we have in Steele and Bowman and Worthing, and now I kind of want to get into the meats and the moons of this thing with Chris. You've joined us you said four or five years ago and you've been in the auction business. You've been in it over 30 years and I've been in it starting my 19th year this spring and I look a lot older than you so you must have a little better life than I do. But you know you started in. But let's first tell everybody where you grew up and you know a little bit about you growing up and where you went to school and how you kind of got into the to the auction business.
Speaker 3:Jim, I was born and raised in Southeast Idaho and Bingham County. I had a great family. I had a great mom and dad. My dad was one of the hardest working people that I know. I learned from early age how to work hard, being raised on a potato farm, being raised on a potato farm, and when I got into college I graduated from high school and I got into college. I absolutely loved agriculture. I wanted to stay in agriculture, I wanted to be in agriculture and I had the opportunity to stay on the farm and farm. My dad had set it up.
Speaker 3:I'm the youngest, I'm the youngest brother, but my brothers were quite a bit older than I was and the opportunity to go back and farm and for that to be fair to everybody wasn't really in the cards. And so when I was going to college, I was going through an ag business program combined with some mechanics, and I decided that I wanted somehow to stay in the machinery side of it. And my dad's best friend owned the John Deere dealership in town and was a very, very good friend and a mentor of mine, and he's passed away quite a few years ago and I went, visited him one day and I said you know I says I want to stay in agriculture, I want to stay in the machinery side, I want to stay fully engaged in agriculture. I want to stay in the machinery side, I want to stay fully engaged in agriculture. And and and I asked him. I says would you hire me as a salesman? And I was in college. And he said nope. He says I've got to teach you the business the hard way. And and I told him. I says well, I'm not afraid of doing things the hard way. And and he said, when you're going to school, and he says you get done with your classes, he says I want you to get in your pickup or your car or whatever it is that you're driving. And he says I want you to drive around the countryside. And when you see an old tractor that's parked in the tree rows or back on the back 40 or a combine or something like that, he says I want you to stop and I want you to go in and visit with whoever owns that piece of equipment. And he says I'm going to teach you how to buy salvage parts tractors, and from there we're going to see where you go from there.
Speaker 3:So the very first tractor that I ever bought in my life was a John Deere 4020 that was up in Ashton, idaho. It was sitting back on a fence row and it didn't run. If my mind serves me correctly, it had a bad engine in it. I went in and visited with the guy about it. The guy that owned it was a guy by the name of John House and I'll never forget John. He was an older gentleman, about 6'5", and I was quite intimidated with him and I went in there and I said hey, jim, I want to buy that tractor from you. And he says I'll sell it to you. And I says how much? He says $1,000. And I said you know. I says let me think about that a little bit. I had no idea what the value was. I had no idea what I was doing. So I called my friend back at the John Deere dealer downtown and he says now I want you to call these three salvage yards.
Speaker 3:And, as it turned out, I put the deal together and I made about $2,000. And I just decided that was probably the most I've ever made in my life and it started a career for me that I learned the value of machinery from the grassroots level and I learned it by going out and just doing it. I didn't have a rule book, I didn't have a rule book. I didn't have a playbook, I didn't have any of that. And as time passed and as I bought and sold more and more and got my college education, I paid my way through college as I was doing that.
Speaker 3:So I graduated from college debt-free. I got married and started my family and and it worked out really well. And, as it turned out, I was starting to buy and sell and trade enough machinery that I couldn't. I couldn't find enough homes for it, and I became really frustrated and I kind of got working with an auction company that was a local one horse auction company and the auctioneer kind of took advantage of me in a deal and I felt really frustrated with it and I thought you know what, if he can be in the auction business, I can be in the auction business.
Speaker 3:And I went to my dad, jim and and and, who I dearly love and I dearly miss his advice. And my dad did not have a college education and he knew as a young man that he wanted to farm and he went to farming and that's just all he did. And I went to my dad and I said I've made a decision, that I want to be in the auction business. I says, but I don't know anything about it. And I remember standing out in the middle of the field in the springtime and my dad said, chris, he said the only thing that I could tell you says I don't know anything about the auction industry either. And he says I don't know anybody that does. He says hang a shingle up and go to work. And so that's exactly what I did.
Speaker 3:I had some friends over in that part of the country that were in the auction business. There were some people that were very, very instrumental in helping me get going. There's a guy over in Nyssa, oregon, by the name of Gary Sparks that came and helped me auctioneer Bill Estes was the local cattle auctioneer in my hometown. Rich Pickett and a guy by the name of Danny Wall would come over and help me and with the coaching from those guys for the next 13 years I learned the auction industry. And then I had the opportunity to come out into the Midwest where there was a lot more machinery and and, and that's where I really started getting education in the auction industry and have worked in the upper Midwest in the auction industry ever since, and 15 years ago I had the chance to come down here to to Sioux Falls.
Speaker 3:Years ago I had the chance to come down here to Sioux Falls and five years ago came to work for Kevin and Steve and Andy and have absolutely loved working for the Pfeiffer team. They're a group of men and women in the organization that have a tremendous amount of integrity, a smat of integrity, and one of the things that I've learned from pifer is is for the volume of auctions that the pifers team does. They are very, very dedicated and grassroots people. I don't see them pulling their pant legs up and running through the snow because the snow's too deep and the snow's getting into the loafers. We all wear boots and a lot of times our boots and the bottom of our pant legs are dirty from working out in the field and then we go and do our auction thing and it's a great company to work for, jim. So that's kind of a story.
Speaker 2:I kind of got off the track a little bit, no, and that's a great story and one thing that we kind of and before we get into our break here, but one thing we always talk about is 90% of us in that work in our company have been in agriculture. You know, and I'm going to use the Sorati John Sorati in our office Grew up in agriculture right outside of Bowman, sorati Charlaysays, andy Murnoch, you know they just had their sale this week, 58 years of selling Hereford cattle right here in Bowman. Andy grew up farming and ranching. I grew up farming and ranching south of Scranton and had a feedlot and we farmed and run a big cow-calf operation. Now my daughter's doing that. So we've all got that background and that's what I think it takes and that's why we have a greater knowledge of equipment and land than most a lot of other people.
Speaker 2:So we'll get into this in our third segment. But right now this segment and this show is brought to you by American Land Auctioneers, brought to you by everybody at Pfeiffer's. You know, the land management team, the auctioneers we are all set to go, and our real estate agents. So if you need anything, go to Pfeiffer'scom or give us a call here at Pfeiffer's at 701-523-7366. And we'd be glad to help you out and, folks, we are going to be ready for the next segment after you hear a word from our sponsors here now.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby, your host for this weekend's show, and I've got a great guest on here today. We're talking auctions, we're talking family history, a little bit of everything, but Chris Baer is out of our Worthingen office and we've been talking a lot about auctions. But we're going to visit this segment be a little bit different segment. It's going to be how we kind of do auctions, but Chris, go ahead and kind of open up kind of where we left off.
Speaker 3:You know, in the last segment, jim, I talked a little bit about Pifers and why Pifers, and I appreciate that.
Speaker 3:But one of the reasons why I chose to come to work for Pifers almost five years ago is as I was visiting with Kevin Pifer and I'd actually moved out of the Sioux Falls area and and and living outside the area, and Andy and Kevin had gotten a hold of me and asked me if I'd be willing to go back into the Sioux Falls area and start a region for him, and through several weeks of negotiation we finally landed a deal.
Speaker 3:But one of the things that was really intriguing to me about Kevin Pfeiffer and one of the reasons why I chose to come to work for Pfeiffer's was that somebody had told me this story and I can't remember if it was Andy or who it was that when Kevin started Pfeiffer Auction and Realty he did it out of the seat of his pickup and he would take a thermos full of hot soup and go out onto the road and shower, and showered at truck stops at the time. Not that he was broke or anything, I'm not saying that but to me it struck a chord that was very familiar. He started with nothing, he didn't buy it, he didn't inherit it. He started it the hard way and I soon realized that if a man had that type of dedication to the auction industry, that was somebody that I wanted to be associated with, and that's why I'm with Pifers.
Speaker 2:You know, and we all have our story about Pifers and I've been friends with Kevin since he was Deputy Ag Secretary of North Dakota and then when he was CEO of NODAC Mutual Insurance is when I really got to know him. At the Farm Bureau meetings Our kids were out in the hallways playing together at these meetings and Kevin and I just kind of hit it off and he come out hunting with the Farm Bureau group or the NODAC group. But it was just always something and it just kind of intrigued me when we started out and, like I said he one day he called me out of the blue and said Jim, I need help out west, can you help me out? And I said let me see how this, this uh drought is going. And uh, I said that might happen. And well, I called him about three months later and I said this is not pretty. This is my seventh year of a drought. Uh, it's not good. And he said, well, join our team. So I did.
Speaker 2:But one thing about I noticed when we go to places to set up for some machinery sales, he was back in the garage digging through everything just like everybody else was. He was not afraid to get back there and do that type of work. And so make the long story short, I was in it a year and I was getting a big machinery sale lined up for our fairgrounds here in Bowman. We didn't have a facility back then and he said you got anybody that can help you? And I said well, I'm going to talk to Terry Murdock. His son just got out of college and Terry told me he needs a job bad. And so I got a hold of Andy and I said what are you doing next week? He said I don't know and I said well, your dad said he needs a job, so why don't you help me with this auction? And it was just one auction I asked him to help for. And you know what he's never left. He's been here ever since. So I mean, I've been here 19 years, andy's been here about 18 years or we're starting on that role.
Speaker 2:But when you get into this business it's addicting, as you know, and what we do. But I think the greatest thing that ever happens is the people that we meet, going into their kitchen tables and sitting down, visiting with them, and that's kind of what I want to visit. About today is how we approach auctions a little bit differently now after the COVID shutdown, and you know we can only do online only, but our company has gotten back to the old-fashioned way of doing auctions and you guys are a prime example of that down there and I know we are too. But people look at us a little bit different because, oh, you don't do online. Yeah, we still do, but we're only doing well, three, four of them a year.
Speaker 2:But we like to have the live auction. I mean, you can see us at every sale. We're out visiting with everybody beforehand, afterwards, with loadout. I love being there because you're visiting with people to see what their needs are. So let's get into that a little bit, chris, of how we do things, a little bit differently than probably 95% of the rest of the auction companies.
Speaker 3:It seems like anymore you know it's interesting that you asked me that question. I just did a podcast a week ago with Jeff Polk talking about where technology and tradition merge, and the auction industry, or the auction business, is one of the oldest in the world, dating back 2,500 years, as the auctioneer stepped to the microphone or was selling just on top of a box really is what it was, and the industry has lasted over 2,500 years. And the challenge that we have, jim, is that 15, 18 years ago, when the online auctions came to pass and the technology became advanced enough that we could start the online auctions, it really became a honeymoon again for the auction industry and it has enjoyed a huge increase in volume, from a dollar perspective, throughout the world. But one of the things that we are noticing down here in the Sioux Falls area and as I've noticed as things have changed, is that so many auction companies and auction companies that are half a century old have completely gotten away from doing live auctions. But what we're seeing and the feedback that we're getting from our clients and from our customers now and we're getting to be one of the only auction companies in North America that are standing on the fact that we do live auctions. That's where our base is. We are not just an online only auction company and we don't base ourselves mostly on online auctions and just say we do live auctions, but the technology. I think and Jeff Polk and I talked extensively about this is that we have the technology should complement the auctioneer, not the other way around. And our customers now are coming into us in droves and saying we want the live auction, we want the live auctioneer, we want to listen to an auctioneer and we want to go to auctions.
Speaker 3:And you take the auction results that we had last fall and in 2024 was a game changer in the auction industry as far as I'm concerned, and we haven't seen the entirety of the fallout, but there were many, many auction companies that were reporting record lows and, as a matter of fact, some online auction companies has completely taken their auction results offline. You actually have to go in and subscribe to look at their auction results that were so poor. But if you go back into the Piper's archives and you look at the retirement auctions and even the auctions that we had at our facilities with the live auctioneer, even the auctions that we had at our facilities with the live auctioneer, some of those auction results are record-breaking. Just go to the Gillespie auction that we had on the 17th of December.
Speaker 3:Some of those quad tracks, those were record-breaking prices. You had a planner that sold for $397,500. Now I don't know if that's the highest-priced platter that's ever been sold at auction, but it's got to be right at the top. And it was in some of the toughest markets that we've ever had in the machinery business and we have so many competitors that are running from the live auctions and we're going. It's working for us and we're going to continue to pursue the live auctions.
Speaker 2:You know, chris, we like to see when and out here. Going to auctions is a little bit different than Eastern North Dakota, minnesota, eastern South Dakota. It's a way of life these people. It's a chance for them to get to meet their or talk to their neighbors, visit and you know, they may not have seen them since last fall or last spring because we're such a country where neighbors are 25 miles apart, you know. But these guys love it. I mean, in our Bowman office we'll have 450 people on site over in Montana.
Speaker 2:It's the same way when we do sales, same in South Dakota and we were wondering how it was going to turn out at Gillespie's over there at Fergus Falls and we had over 300 people on site for that sale. And they said man, it's kind of fun to get back to these live auctions. When did you guys start doing it? And we said we never left them. You know, just during COVID we had those online. But, like I said, we still do some online auctions. But we like being in front of a crowd and people in that Fergus Falls area and a lot of people came from a long ways away were very impressed that. You know we had 300 and some seats set out. We're sitting in a nice facility of 70 degrees that day, thank God, because the weather was cold, but we had it set up where it was about right. So you know, we've got about a minute and a half left. You know, once you kind of take us up, kind of finish on what we see in this business and we'll do the rest in the next segment.
Speaker 3:Jim, I fully believe that in the future and the success of the auction industry is still going to rest on the shoulders of the auctioneer and having live auctions. It provides the opportunity to generate the energy and the momentum that you just don't get on an online auction and anybody who is considering having an auction that doesn't consider having a live auction probably I would always ask them to reconsider their position Because you take somebody like Andy Murnack, who is one of the finest auctioneers in the industry that I know, and you put him behind a microphone in front of a crowd of three to 500 people, which that's what we're doing down here in Sioux Falls. It creates a momentum and an energy that's absolutely unmatched. Even for the gentleman or the lady that is sitting behind their desk at work to listen to that auctioneer and be a cyborg cast is unmatched.
Speaker 2:You know, and we see that all the time, and you know we'll brag on our auctioneers in the next segment. But you know, it's just one of those. It's kind of nice to be in a live setting for the auctioneers, the ringmen. But again, you're listening to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby, your host today. We are sponsored by the great people at Piper's the land management team, the real estate team, the auctioneer team and everybody works together. Go to Piper'scom to take a look and see what we have going on our website. And again, this is Jim Sabby with America's Land Auctioneer and we'll be right back after these words from our sponsors.
Speaker 2:Welcome to America's Land Auctioneer. I'm Jim Sabby, your host for this Saturday morning. My guest today is Chris Baer, out of the Worling South Dakota office, right south of Sioux Falls, right along I-29, where they can look out their window all day long and see the hundreds of thousands of people driving by. And I'm here in Bowman and today, you know, we got a nice, beautiful day, but there's a lot of traffic here too, but just not like down there. But let's get back to what we were talking about. And again you talked about to start to show how you got into the business. You know it's kind of unique for all of us how we all got into the business. But we're talking about the way we do auctions today and we're going to end this segment talking about this and I'm going to give you an example.
Speaker 2:This last week I was visiting with the family and you know they've interviewed three auction companies and I was the only one that did the live auction and offered them the live auction Because said, well, how do we, if we do an online only, how do we get rid of all this stuff in the back of the shop? And I said we take care of that with a live auction. And they were very, very happy to hear that we were willing to help them out. It's an estate. They have no other way of getting things done besides us doing the work, but very nice people to deal with.
Speaker 2:But they were just worried about just the online only. And then I give them the pros and cons. And you know, chris, we see that all the time there's more pros to it of doing a live and simulcast auction, just because you got butts in the seats or people standing around trailers, and it's great to get to visit with these people because everybody's got to sell someday and also these guys need to buy and so they're looking for certain things. So go ahead and you kind of continue on where we left off here, this last segment.
Speaker 3:You can't knock the online auctions. The online selling online is a viable option and it works very well in some circumstances and in some situations. But again I want to go back to, to um, maybe why some of the auction companies are moving away from the live auctions, jim, is as to sell a live auction it's a lot more expensive. It's it's a lot more labor incentive for the auction company and they have to invest a lot more into the live auction than they do in the Internet auction. So there's a lot more money to be made on the online. Therefore, lower commission rates. Or some auction companies are going to buyers premium only and no commission to the seller, and and. But. But it comes down to the work and who you're working for.
Speaker 3:And you and you said it, jim you go out onto somebody's farm and and you're looking at selling a farm sale for them. They've worked for 50 years or 60 years or 40 years to build up a retirement and part of their retirement is in their assets. Right, it's in, right, it's in their farm equipment and they've got a shed full of parts and tools and everything from chains to binders and to oil barrels to you name it. They've got it there on the farm. They need to have that sold.
Speaker 3:For an online only auction company to come in and to cherry pick or to completely gut the sale and say, well, we're going to take the 15 good pieces that are in the shed and you just deal with the rest of the stuff that's in the shop. Well, the problem or what's in the tree row and the problem with that is is that is that auction company that's selling online only auctions really doing a good service to their seller? That has to be determined by the client, right, jim and so and so. But when you go in and you do a live auction and you completely clean up that farm from beginning to end, there could be 30, 40, 50 thousand dollars worth of items just sitting in the shop that really don't fit on an online auction. So are you really doing a good service to those sellers?
Speaker 2:You know we look at that a lot and I agree we do four or five online auctions a year and sometimes the farm sale we will do just when they don't have much. I mean no stuff in the shop, they want to get rid of, just some machinery. We'll do that online auction and they tend to work very well. But there was one auction I'll never forget that they wanted us to do live and online. I said we'll do it and we're sorting through some of the stuff in the back which other people would probably call junk, and we found this piece of iron and it belonged to a steam engine and when it was said and done we got over $10,000 for that and that was going to go to scrap. So you kind of find things.
Speaker 2:The family was tickled to death. That you know. They didn't even know it was out there and you know and now I'm dealing with a family that it's been over 73 years they've been on this place and so you look at all the things that have added up on their place, like you talked about earlier. It's very interesting. But to sit and visit with them and you know everybody's got their own story and I guess that's what probably you and I kind of like the most is to listen to their story about what happened on their ranch and how it started their farm and how grandpa or great grandpa got in here and it's all got a story to build up and this is a final segment for them. You know this is the last chapter in their family's book that and we believe we need to do it with respect go in there and help them get all the old stuff out of there that their great granddad had. Some of the grandkids might want some of that.
Speaker 3:So we kind of go through that and I know you do the same thing down in that country also to gather around that family or the individual or the client, however you want to, however you want to name it, jim, but it allows them to have kind of some finality to what they're doing and they've worked so hard for so many years and it allows the community to come together and to support them.
Speaker 3:I'll never forget an auction that I did many years ago. It was a retirement sale for two brothers that were out in Western North Dakota and one of them had cancer and the people that came into that auction and supported those two brothers. I think that from an emotional standpoint it helped them bring closure to what they're doing and the people that came in that helped set up the auction, that supported that family. And on that particular auction, jim, we sold machinery and it wasn't a huge auction but it was a good auction. We sold machinery clear up into the northern providences of Canada and all the way to Texas on that particular sale. That was the support that came into that family from doing a live auction and that's why I think that as a team and as Pifers, we have to continue to provide the opportunity to have those live auctions to our clients.
Speaker 2:And I agree and it's a great setting. And, again, I always talk about how we like being in front of a crowd. But if you've ever been at one of our auctions, it doesn't matter if we have five of us there, 10 of us or 15, we're all visiting with people that are there. We like to go out and ask them about what they're growing this year and what's happening in their area or the cattle markets. I mean, it would just have been unbelievable.
Speaker 2:These people like to visit and when they see that we come to visit and we're not asking questions, or when you're looking to sell, that'll come with just being good people and visiting. But the biggest part of it is we see what they want. When they come to load out Okay, what else are you looking for? I enjoy loading out just because these people stop and visit and you say you know what else are you looking for? And they say, man, I've been trying to find this. You know 30 foot disc, do you got anything coming up on your sales? And you know we go through everything. But it's just a wonderful way of meeting people and that's part of our business is meeting people and being very, very respectful and that's why we do this business.
Speaker 3:And you're right, jim. One of the things that I also see in the auction industry on an online-only auction is the rep from the auction company comes in and signs the contract and the client never sees them again. Once the contract's signed, they come in and have somebody come in and take all the pictures. There's no help in the preparation. There's no help in the preparation. There's no help after the auction is over and the crowds have gone away. There's no support there. And that again another reason for a live auction.
Speaker 2:You bet and we have that support. But, folks, again I want to thank Chris Baer for being my guest today on America's Land Auctioneer. He's out of our Worthing office. Give them a call. They got a lot of great auctions coming up here this spring and summer. They're always willing to help you down there. Or give one of us up here in the northern part of North Dakota or southern southwest part of North Dakota. We'd be glad to help you out also. But again, america's Land Auctioneer is brought to you by Pifers, the staff that we have, the land auctioneers, yeah, the land auctioneers, the machinery auctioneers, the real estate agents and the land management team. And again, this is Jim Sabby, your host for today, and I'll see you next time on America's Land Auctioneer. And good luck and be safe 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1.