It takes more than a big mouth to be a great auctioneer.
You need a good voice, Kelly Minisofer knows, but you also require a sense of humor, knowledge about the true value of the goods you’re selling, and a profound grasp of crowd psychology.
“If you don’t have those, you’re just blowing hot air. You have to have some good standup comedy routines, or you’re dead in the water,” said Minisofer, who is the main caller at his family’s Grasswood Auctions outside Saskatoon.
“If you can keep them laughing, you’re always going to do better.”
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Minisofer recently became the Canadian auctioneering champion. At the same Ottawa competition he was voted the second best auctioneer in the world.
It’s a nice honor for a man who wanted to become a university professor, and only became an auctioneer because his father needed him to take over.
Al Minisofer did the calling and ran the auction business that Kelly grew up in. Kelly loved the work – his dad let him do some of the auctioneering at farm sales – but he never thought he’d become the auctioneer.
He went to university in Vancouver, where he earned degrees in economics and adult education.
Then his dad was struck by cancer. Kelly came home to help out. One day, a few minutes before a big sale, his father was so weak and nauseated he couldn’t go through with the sale.
“I put the headset on and that was it,” said Minisofer. That was 1987. Kelly was 25 years old.
Al died soon after. Kelly took over the calling, while his mother ran the administration.
Since then he has prospered as an auctioneer and expanded his skills. He is a certified asset appraiser, often appearing in court cases. He is studying fine art appraisal through a program in Ontario. He is also working on a masters in business administration.
Minisofer said being an appraiser has made him an auctioneer that people trust.
“One of my biggest assets is that I know the value of something before I try to sell it,” said Minisofer.
“People say I sell fast, and I probably get the quickest and best results because I know my values really well.”
At a recent sale Minisofer auctioned several items in a short time, but never seemed rushed. Before, after and during each sale he would throw out a joke, or make an observation, or offer the crowd a quick lesson on how to rate an object.
He sold a few small or inexpensive items, such as old chairs, and then jumped onto sexier items such as an almost new snowmobile.
Mixing the exciting and the mundane is part of keeping a crowd interested, Minisofer said afterward.
“You have to be a good general manager of the time and be a good manager of the mood and the atmosphere.”
Minisofer didn’t expect to be selected Canadian champion auctioneer, nor did he expect to be chosen second best in the world.
But he thinks these achievements may have begun drawing more people to his sales.
“Generally we’d be closed in January. Mom and me would be down in Mexico having a holiday,” said Minisofer. “But we have two sales a week scheduled through January and that’s unheard of.”
