Competitive auctioneering has arrived in Colorado. See if you can keep up.
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CASTLE ROCK, Colo. — “Dollar bidder now!”
“Over here!”
“Bid’em at!”
“Will you give?”
Listening carefully enough, one might be able to pick out these filler words from a lightning-lipped auctioneer’s chant, the seasoned auctioneer’s defining tool to drive up a price and lock down a deal.
Some date the earliest auctioneers back to ancient Greece (where it is believed that women were sold as wives) and later arrived in North America with the colonizing Pilgrims.
Some 400 years later, the art of auctioneering is still alive, now attracting young, up-and-coming talent onto the podium for the title of Colorado’s first Future Farmers of America (FFA) auctioneering champion.
Video: Chase McCleary, Rocky Mountain PBS
“If I told myself six months ago that I was going to be auctioning, I wouldn’t believe myself at all,” said Natalie Hansen, a senior at Chaparral High School in Parker. Hansen drives about 20 minutes every week to practice and compete with the Douglas County High School (DCHS) FFA chapter in Castle Rock.
“But the adrenaline of getting in front of a bunch of people and selling an item, which not very many people get to do… I really enjoy that.”
“Their ability to get on stage and kind of command that room and be able to sell an item and just keep driving that price up, it’s a feeling of accomplishment almost,” said Franklin Lobello, a sophomore and DCHS FFA’s other competitive auctioneer.
Last January, Hansen, Lobello and about 60 other FFA students from high schools spanning the state gathered in Colorado Springs to compete in Colorado’s first FFA Career Development Event auctioneering competition.
McClave FFA, from the small southeastern town of McClave (population around 700) emerged as leaders, nabbing almost a third of the 16 state qualifying spots.
Judges, all of whom were professional auctioneers, scored participants on their personal introductions, overall presentation, voice control, speed, voice expression (including their filler words, or the words slipped in between the bid numbers), eye contact, accuracy and salesmanship, totalling a possible 55 points for grabs.
“It’s just a fun event for engaging in the agriculture community… and [it’s great] knowing that the students are building skills,” said Sunny Arbogast, DCHS’ agriculture education instructor and FFA advisor.
“One of the great things about auctioneering is it’s very similar to public speaking. So you’ve got to have that stage presence.”
Competitors in the FFA Auctioneering Competition sold real items to real bidders. Hansen, for example, assembled a couple of miscellaneous prize baskets.
Auctioneers, both amateur and professional, follow pre-produced scripts outlining an auction’s proceedings. These scripts often include information about the items being sold, providing the auctioneer more talking points to spark bidding interest.
Aspiring auctioneers often learn scripting, chanting and other fundamentals through professional auctioneering schools, like the Western College of Auctioneering in Montana and the World Wide College of Auctioneering in Iowa, two of the largest auctioneering colleges in the country. These are often one to two-week programs and typically cost around $2,000 to attend.
The FFA Career Development Event (CDE) Auctioneering Competition intends to introduce auctioneering and the auctioneering industry to students, giving them a chance to dip a toe in the work before committing to college.
Justin Kennedy, an auctioneer and auctioneer instructor, helped launch the career development competitions in Oklahoma in 2023, and since then, similar events have started emerging from Iowa to Kentucky to California.
Jess Nighswonger, a Colorado auctioneer and one of the primary Colorado Auctioneers Association Board Members responsible for launching the auctioneering competitions in Colorado, hopes to see students participating at the national level in the future.
“Auctioneering is something that you can do forever as long as you have your voice,” said Nighswonger. “But there’s not a lot of turnover, and they don’t post these jobs on LinkedIn… so part of our goal is to get kids in the door.”
Some students, like Hansen and Lobello, were recruited straight out of the competition and are now already working in a professional setting.
“One of the judges [Halie Behr], she and her sister are both from Parker, and they came up to me and Franklin that same night and gave us their business card,” said Hansen. “That’s how we’ve really grown in the industry.”
Behr is a champion auctioneer, and is currently the only person to have won both the International Junior Auctioneering Championship and the International Auctioneering Championship.
She is the founder and lead auctioneer (or “fundaneer,” according to Behr) behind Behr Benefits, a fundraising company that primarily works with nonprofits.
Behr is also now a mentor and coach for Hansen and Lobello, both of whom assist her auctions as a ring woman and ring man, or an auctioneer’s eyes and ears on the bidding floor.
“I think this partnership between the FFA and the Colorado Auctioneers Association is imperative because it gives an opportunity to our youth that otherwise may have never heard about auctioneering or realized, ‘Wow, this is a viable career path,’” said Behr.
Behr started auctioneering around the age of 15 at the suggestion of her grandfather. Now, she sees her work with Hansen and Lobello as a way to inspire the next generation of auctioneers.
“Lots of people go to auction school when they’re 40 or 50, and that’s fine, but think of the opportunities and the experience that you have going at 15,” said Behr.
“Now you have how many additional decade where you can develop your craft.”
For Hansen and Lobello, working with Behr is a chance to learn the art of auctioneering while enjoying some of the benefits of the auctions themselves.
“Not all 16, 17, 18 year-olds get to dress up on a normal Wednesday night and go to a ball and have a steak dinner,” said Lobello.
“I had never been to a cocktail party or anything like it before,” said Hansen. “I kind of grew up in a household where I would have never imagined that much money in one area.”
Neither Hansen nor Lobello is currently planning for full-time auctioneering. Hansen will be studying to be a veterinarian at Colorado State University next year, and Lobello is also planning on pursuing a future in veterinary sciences. Both said that the opportunities provided by FFA auctioneering competition and now Behr have opened their eyes to a fun and profitable side-gig.
Both Hansen and Lobello take pride in being relative minorities in the industry as well.
Hansen said she is inspired by the women she works with, including Behr, all of whom have become role models.
“I was never too familiar with female auctioneers,” said Hansen, “but being in the [auctioneering] realm, I’ve met a lot of women, so it brings me a sense of accomplishment to be trying to follow their footsteps.”
Hansen qualified for the state competition and will be competing at Colorado State University, Pueblo in June.
Lobello, who is Asian-American, said he has only met one professional auctioneer of Asian descent in his time auctioneering. He hopes to see more in the future.
“It shows that it doesn’t matter the background you have or the experience. You know you can always develop it,” said Lobello.
“FFA got me started in the auctioneering industry, and then you get to go out in the real world and meet very nice people that do want to help you and help you grow and encourage you to be the best you can.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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