James turns auction into entertainment

The auctioneer offers the promise of a golden opportunity and treasures at bargain prices at every sale.

And people keep coming back because they know every sale has a bargain, says Stewart James, dean of Valley Auctioneers.

No matter how high the prices go there's always a lull, he said That's the low point for the auctioneer but gold for the alert buyer. "That's the point when the auctioneer has to wake them up," says James, a fourth generation auctioneer who's been in the business for 32 years.

But for the seller there's often unseen gold. "We've taken many pine cupboards out of kitchens we thought would bring $500. They sold for $4,000 and $5,000," he said.

James talks about the 70s and 80s as the glory days of farm auctioneering. Exotic bulls were going for $25,000 and there was plenty of money around. Today the market is tighter and perhaps more realistic, he says. The prices of purebred cattle rise and fall on what the stocker market brings.

But the big pot of gold still exists and so does the drama. In 1999, he auctioned his own daughter's steer at the Metcalfe 4-H Show for a record $10,500. When James shouted sold, there was a few moments of dead silence. Then the audience broke out in spontaneous applause. Prices hadn't gone that high since Scobie Wiggins in 1952 made enough on a single steer to buy a field.

At the 2000 Metcalfe sale, a 4-H member's steer bolted from the auction ring, scattered bystanders and headed for the exit. Nonplussed, James continued, raising the price another 20 cents on a steer long gone.

Auctioneering doesn't start and end in the ring. Advertising and follow-up are essential, he 

says.

But the day of the auction is an adrenalin rush. "I use a lot of energy when I'm selling. When I get excited, others get excited.

"This is entertainment. People come to have a good time. When people are in good humour they spend more money."

But the auctions take a toll on the auctioneer. James shares the stage with Carson Hill, and the two work seamlessly, maintaining what some call auction fever.

To pull an auction out of the lows, James and Carson Hill get as much background on the merchandise and people as they can. "Buyers like to know some of the goals of 4-H members," he says. Successful people like to hear about people who aim high.

James has been a dairy farmer, selling off the cows in 1978. He now owns a beef herd of Angus crosses.

His daughter, Erin, is attending Trent University and plans to be a teacher. She has just completed a course at a school of auctioneering.

Stewart completed his training at the Reisch School of Auctioneering more than three decades ago. He'll be front and centre at three beef auctions at the Ottawa Valley Farm Show.