WATERLOO, Iowa - Have you ever gone to an auction and wondered exactly what those auctioneers were doing? So did Gaylen Witzel, a longtime board member of John Deere Community Credit Union. "I've always enjoyed going to auctions, and decided I wanted to learn how they did that chant," he says. So Witzel did something about it: About 20 years ago, he enrolled in the Mason City College of Auctioneering in Iowa. For a week, he studied and practiced the craft of an auctioneer, learning the phrases and chants and unwritten rules of this most peculiar profession. Witzel has been honing his skills for years now, running auctions mostly at estate sales of household goods and farm equipment. Occasionally, he gets invited to work special events, too: He'll be at the microphone, in his auctioneer's Stetson hat and cowboy boots, for the auction at the World Council's International CU Forum in Nashville in July. Witzel averages about a half-dozen auctions a year, with most of his business obtained through word of mouth. "Friends will call and ask if I have time to work a sale of someone who's getting out of farming or retiring or what have you," he explains. "It's always been just a hobby. I wouldn't take on a sale unless I felt I had time to prepare properly." The preparation, Witzel explains, involves knowing the values of various items, since the auctioneer is responsible for grouping and pricing everything to be sold. (An auctioneer's responsibility is to get top dollar for the owner's belongings, which also improves the auctioneer's profit - auctioneers earn about 18% commission if they handle all facets of an auction, including paperwork.) "I read the collector's magazines, but it's hard to be an expert about everything," Witzel says. Popular collectibles like buttons and glassware are particularly tricky since prices can vary so widely. "You just hope there's more than one button collector at the sale, so they give each other competition," he says. "Otherwise, someone gets a bargain." It's also the auctioneer's job to explain the rules of the sale clearly, organize the items in a logical order, describe them accurately ("sometimes auctioneers like to build up an item a little too much"), keep things moving quickly to keep the audience interested in participating, and speak clearly. "Speed and clarity - that's the goal," notes Witzel. "Otherwise, pretty soon everyone is just visiting and the auction turns into a social gathering." But speed and clarity isn't as easy as it sounds. That's where those skills Witzel learned in school come in. "We started with numbering sequences," he explains, describing how auctioneers learn pricing sequences, like $2.50 to $5 to $7.50, forward and backward. "When you chant, you can't even think about numbers. They need to come automatically." Next come the "filler words," the phrases that each auctioneer adds. "I tend to use `What'll you give,' and `Put `em at,' as in, `put `em $2, now $3,"' Witzel explains, his voice speeding up and settling into a monotone auctioneer mode. "That's how you develop your chant - filler words that come naturally." It's all a far cry from Witzel's other vocation, facility maintenance supervisor at John Deere, where he spent 36 years before retiring last December. From the very beginning of his career, Witzel was a member of the John Deere Community CU, then began serving on its board in 1976. He has "held every position" on the board, he says, including chairman. Though still a board member, Witzel expects to find more time for his auctioneer role in retirement. He's considering opening a consignment house, an arrangement where the public could drop off items on consignment, and Witzel would hold a public auction every week or month to sell the goods. He's currently working on obtaining a building in the Waterloo area. "I don't do it for the money. I never have," he reports. "I just like meeting people and being with people. If I can do someone a good deed and get them good prices for their items...well, I just really enjoy that. It's like the credit union philosophy - people helping people." -
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