Auctioneer retires after 60 years

Former partner in Schlimpert & Seyer Auction Service

By Jim Obert

Business Today

JACKSON -- When Clarence Schlimpert was 17, he portrayed a judge in a church play. Part of the plot concerned someone losing his real estate. As the judge overseeing the legal proceeding, Schlimpert went to the steps of a courthouse and auctioned the property.

"So I started with this lingo: I've got a thousand, who'll make it two?" says Schlimpert, 80, who retired in January from Schlimpert & Seyer Auction Service, a business he started with Andrew Seyer in 1968. "For a couple years after that church play I'd be milking cows at home and practicing auctioneer talk."

Schlimpert, who was born in Shawneetown, gradually gained a reputation as an auctioneer, although he had no formal schooling in the avocation. He'd go into a country store or a tavern and someone would call out: "Here comes the auctioneer. Sell this!"

He would also be asked to auction at pie suppers and box suppers. At about the age of 20, he was asked to auction a sale, "and that was kind of the start of doing the bigger auctions."

Schlimpert owned Shawneetown Feed & Seed Co. from 1947 to 1987, and he was on the board of directors of Citizens Electric Corp. in Ste. Genevieve for 28 years from 1973 to 2001. So most of his auctioning was done on weekends. During the past 60 years, he has worked several thousand auctions.

"I've sold bulldozers, cats, dogs, chickens, pigs, cattle, cows, horse-drawn machinery," said Schlimpert, who always wore a coat, tie and a hat while trying to find the highest bidder. "I've sold thrashing machines, harnesses, real estate, antiques and household items."

In 1955, Schlimpert worked six Saturdays in a row in Wittenberg where he sold all the items out of a country store. "We'd start early in the morning and sell until everyone went home at night. That's how full that store was. The railroad track was near the store, so when a train came we stopped until it went by then got back to selling."

Schlimpert worked with other auctioneers when there were a large number of items up for bids. He mostly partnered with Walter Phillips of Cape Girardeau, George Hunt of Altenburg and Cap Crites of Jackson before starting Schlimpert & Seyer Auction Service with Andrew Seyer in 1968.

"I think me and Cap Crites were the first to sell 4-H cattle and hogs at the Cape Fair in the late '50s," says Schlimpert, adding that he was the first to sell 4-H animals at the East Perry County Fair in Altenberg about 20 years ago.

Schlimpert's territory ranged from Scott City to Perryville. He says many auctions were held in Cape Girardeau and Jackson.

"I didn't have any kind of a loudspeaking system until the late '50s," he recalls. "Prior to that you'd have to have a pretty strong voice. And when you sell at farm sales, you'd breathe all that dust from the cattle running around. By the time the day was over you was pretty well whipped."

At farm sales, Schlimpert was often treated to lunch by the owners of the property. He was invited to eat inside the house with them. Outside, prospective buyers often brought their own lunches to eat until the selling started again.

"Auctioneers didn't make much money in the early years," he says. "You just had to stumble at a figure. Maybe I'd get paid $10 for an average auction. If the seller made a lot of money, then I'd get paid a bit more."

Schlimpert says nowadays there are set fees, but the fees depend on whether the auction is for real estate, household goods, livestock or farm machinery.

He has done a lot of charity auctions for schools and churches. He says honesty is important in the auction business. "If a dish has a little nick in it, don't say it's perfect. Be honest and fair."

Although Schlimpert says he's officially retired from the auction business, he plans to hold occasional auctions for friends at his home on Highway 61 north of Jackson.