EVERTYTHING GOES

The auction business is enjoying probably its greatest prosperity ever.

The reason is simple, according to the National Auctioneers Association in Overland Park, Kan. Americans know that auctions are a good way to sell whatever they want to sell.

"When you have 100 to 200 people out there bidding, you're going to wind up with a pretty true value for the item," said Tom Jones, who has been auctioning around Southeast Missouri for more than 40 years.

Those items cover almost everything these days. Every day, auctioneers are somewhere selling real estate, livestock, tobacco, used cars, fine art, antiques and more.

Internet auctions have had a positive effect on household auctions by providing another place for items to be sold, noted Jones. "People are buying more smalls and paying better prices for them," he said. "Smalls" is sales jargon for small items.

All of this adds up to a more than $100 billion a year in business and approximately 35,000 full-time auctioneers.

Auctioneers must be licensed in most states, including Missouri and Illinois.

In fact, the largest of more than a dozen auction schools is the Missouri Auction School at Kansas City. Students attend a rigorous two-week course that include long hours of lectures and oral drills.

A 1958 graduate of the Missouri school, Jones knows many of the people in every auction crowd he calls, including the knowledgeable antique dealers. That's important, because good auctioneers have to learn the special ways some people bid -- a certain look, touching an ear, closing one eye -- yet not give away the secret to other bidders.

Jones, who conducts 80 to 100 sales each years, has been around the auctioneering scene since he was a youngster.

"My father was a farmer and cattleman who went to auctions when I was a boy," said Jones. "I tagged along and became fascinated by auctions. By the time I was in high school, I knew I wanted to become an auctioneer."

Jones said the auctioneering school was helpful, but "you have to acquire your own change and other things through experience."

Part of what is developed through experience is the chant a non-stop, bid-calling song of sorts. Like "One dollar bid and now two, now two, will ya gimme three." The chant is the auctioneers' selling tool.

While many auctioneers are graduates from an auctioneer's college, others are self-taught, having picked up the chant of the auctioneer on their own.

Clarence Schlimpert learned his from other auctioneers in the 1940s.

"I was a judge in a school play, and had to auction off some land that somebody lost," he said. "I had been around some auctioneers and knew of some of their chants, so I used them in the play. People started calling me the auctioneer.' Soon after, I conducted my first auction."

Schlimpert is one of several people who have become self-made auctioneers in the area, picking up a microphone almost every weekend to sell merchandise to people without any complicated contracts, and often at top dollar.

"When I first started, I sold a lot of farm animals," said Schlimpert, who said that his first public auction was in 1944. Nowadays he sells stoneware, crocks, jugs, horse plows and other items.

He operates Schlimpert & Seyer Auction Service, a name familiar to people who watch the Southeast Missourian classified pages each week, and is on a growing list of auctioneers who advertise their sales in the Southeast Missourian.

Other familiar names include Chug's Crites Auction Service, B&K Auction Service, Rainbow Auction, Tom Jones Auction Service, Ron Burger Auction Service and Manche Auction Service, among others.

Jones, who has conducted multi-million dollar airplane auctions, as well as automobile, cattle and other special auctions, especially likes estate sales.

"You get tired selling planes all day," he said. "At a household auction, you sell furniture, tools, books and a variety of other items."