Auctioneering a tough call at first
Edward McCormack describes grabbing the microphone at his first auction as an experience akin to stepping out in front of a crowd to belt out a tune having never sung a note before.
“And if you get it wrong, they’ll kill you,” he said with a chuckle.
The 44-year-old from Clandonald, Alta., near Vermilion, was one of 19 auctioneers from three provinces taking the stage at the Black Knight Inn on Saturday for the Second Annual All Around Canadian Auctioneer Championship Competition.
McCormack is a relative latecomer to the auctioneering business. A farmer, carpenter and all-round jack of all trades, the thought of being an auctioneer had always been in the back of his mind.
“Right from when I was a kid, I always love the auctioneer’s chant,” he said. “You could sit and listen to it all day.”
Encouraged by his wife, he took his training at the Auctioneers Training Centre in Regina. Almost exactly three years ago he did his first auction.
“My first job was in my hometown selling livestock. That was really tough,” he recalls. Despite the nerves, that first gig went well and he’s been chanting ever since and steadily improving his skills.
“I think you get more fluid,” he said when asked about the learning curve. “You have a better rhythm, a better chant.
“You get to understand the price of things a little better.”
Working cattle auctions is one of the more challenging jobs for auctioneers. They are faced with an audience with loads of knowledge but short on patience. Set the starting price too low and you’ll hear about it.
“At a cattle auction they have no mercy on you,” he said with a grin. “It’s a war.”
That’s not to say it’s not a great job. He loves it and the people he deal with at auctions and highly recommends it to others. His only regret is he wished he started doing it when he was 18, he said.
Innisfail’s Tim Kreil is a gas plant operator and he too had been bitten by the auction bug early but waited for years before pursuing it. He graduated from Red Deer’s International School of Auctioneering in 2008.
“I grew up in a farming industry and I just always liked auctions and going to auction sales with my father and family. I thought it was just fun and I always like the way they chanted and thought I’d like to give it a try.”
The hardest things about learning the business are developing the confidence to get up in front of a crowd and then being able to search the room for bids all the while chanting out the latest price.
“When you’re starting out it’s a little stressful at times,” said the auctioneer, who works for Pilgrim Auction, out of Olds.
“It’s really tough if you have stuff and you have people that think they there only for a bargain and they’re not willing to bid very willingly. Those sales are really tough to sell.”
But he loves meeting the people who turn out for auctions and knowing at the end of the day he’s done a good job for sellers.
pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
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