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To many, it sounds like gibberish coming out of the speakers during the live auctions at Canadian Western Agribition.
The rapid fire of numbers and tongue-twisting filler phrases may be mind-boggling, but it comes easy with practice for Blair Stenberg.
The Ritchie Bros. auctioneer has been in the industry for 32 years and estimates he auctions off 200 to 300 animals during Agribition week.
“It’s easy. It’s just counting is all it is. You have to start out really slow. When I started, I wasn’t this fluid at it,” said Stenberg.
The auction starts with Stenberg putting out an asking price of what he thinks the item or animal might be worth. He’ll drop down to a lower price to gain some interest in it, leading to a bidding war to find the fair market value.
He’ll also add in filler words between the prices he quickly throws out to the crowd.
“The fillers are sometimes ‘Put ’em at’ or ‘Got’ and ‘Have’ — ‘I’ve got 250 asking 350.’ I’ll throw them in every now and again as well,” said Stenberg.
He said he fell into the industry by accident when he was 17. His brother was an auctioneer and at one event, someone asked Stenberg if he wanted to give it a try.
He’s a natural now, far from that first day behind the microphone.
“Extremely nervous. Scared, really. Everybody looking at you and you’re kind of the most important guy there and they’re all staring at you and it’s very intimidating at times,” said Stenberg.
He has been doing it ever since. Stenberg said his biggest advice is to start out slow, keep your numbers straight and practise, practise, practise.
Stenberg said he practises auctioning off items during his spare time. He has even done it while driving but recommends other aspiring auctioneers should set the cruise control on the highway before doing so.
“Because as you get better, you just go faster and faster and faster with the car and everything else. I took a $300 speeding ticket once for that,” said Stenberg.
Stenberg said the strangest item he has ever auctioned was a stomach pump. It was after a hospital closed and the health region was auctioning off all the contents.
“That was when I was first getting started. They always gave you the good stuff to sell,” Stenberg joked.
On Thursday, Stenberg and other auctioneers showed off their skills in front of students who were visiting Agribition for the day.
They even allowed the kids to practise bidding on a pony, a goat, bees, a saddle and other items to see what a real auction would feel like.
“It was cool (and) fast,” said Sophia Godwin, a Grade 4 student at St. Mary School in Regina. “Super fast. I couldn’t understand any word.”
She was bidding on the saddle but felt a little intimidated doing so.
“Because you don’t know if you’re going to get it because they’re speaking too fast and you don’t know if you’re going to overbid or not,” said Godwin.
Canadian Western Agribition runs through Saturday at Evraz Place.
The real reason I’m at Agribition today is to learn how to be an auctioneer. Here’s Blair Stenberg with Ritchie Bros. doing a fun auction for kids. pic.twitter.com/LCXZheUnXD
— Andrew Shepherd (@Andrew5hepherd) November 28, 2019