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Making the call
Auctioneer Rick Cox works the crowd for one more bid during a farm equipment sale at Dukes Auction Group in North.
Photo by Andrew Haworth
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Let’s make a deal
Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative member Billy Wise (left) of St. Matthews shows Danny Edwards of Neeses one of the two vintage John Deere tractors he brought to sell at a recent farm equipment auction.
Photo by Andrew Haworth
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Inspecting the merchandise
Bidders are welcome to stop by the Dukes Auction Group yard in North during regular business hours to see the items for sale ahead of auction day. Live auctions are held at the site every other month.
Photo by Andrew Haworth
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Master of ceremonies
Donald “Big Don” Dukes, owner of Dukes Auction Group, calls the rapid fire cadence of auctioneers “the sound that sells. ” For first-timers who struggle to follow the rhythmic patter, he offers this hint: “Most of the words you hear an auctioneer using are words that don’t mean a lot—they’re called filler. Every auctioneer has a little bit of his own chant. You say it so fast that it sounds more like a song.”
Photo by Andrew Haworth
It’s auction day and from atop a wobbly and rusty flatbed trailer at Dukes Auction Group in North, two “ring men” are working the crowd, trying to entice a buying frenzy for a grab bag of miscellaneous items—everything from oil pumps to organs, chainsaws to Blues Brothers statues.
One of the ring men holds up a cardboard box holding a fuel pump. The other ring man beckons, with a come-hither motion of his hand, for the folks huddled around him to nod or wink or reach their hands from their jacket pockets and make a bid.
All the while, bursting from the PA system and reverberating throughout the 15-plus acres of barbed-wired enclosed grounds, the voice of the auctioneer fires off numbers in a rapid, hypnotic, bid-inducing cadence.
At certain intervals along the rambling, nonsensical “filler” of the call, the escalating price emerges if you know what to listen for.
“Two pow three, three pow four, foooour dollar pow, threeeee, three dollar, four, four pow, five! Five pow, five pow dollar, four, four pow dollar, forty-five hundred, now five, fifty-five, puh pow, puh pow, fifty pow, buhbow, fifty-five, buh bow, five dollar pow, fifty-five hundred …”
When one buyer tips the bill of his cap, the ring man raises up his hand as if tossing an imaginary ball in the air and cries, “Hep!” Then his eyes, full of fierce determination, immediately begin surveying the crowd for another bidder, and his hands never stop beckoning.
Finally, one of the bidders closes his eyes and makes a throat-slitting gesture as if to say, “I’m done,” and the auctioneer makes the final determination known as the “hammer price.” He points to the winning bidder and cries out in a clear voice, “Sold!”
‘Be there and be ready’
More hyperactive than flea markets and antique malls, equipment auctions like these, which take place in farming communities across South Carolina, seek to establish the fair market value on used goods. A fair price, after all, is only what someone is willing to pay for it.
And what’s being bought and sold today—in this coordinated call-and-response of gestures and signals—seems to be everything under the sun, even if on this Saturday in February there is no sun. The air is cold and misty with coffee-cup steam and cigarette smoke. Jackets are zipped up tight. Beanies and hats are pulled low, close to the eyes. But the motto of Dukes Auction Group is that their auction goes on, rain or shine, every other month, as long as it takes to auction off each piece of equipment.
They begin in the morning with the firearms auction—shotguns, rifles, handguns, all calibers and gauges. Then it’s on to the miscellaneous and the non-drivable equipment, before ending with the “drive-thru”—a showcase of tractors, turn mowers, dump trucks, combines, campers and excavators.
“I was raised up going to auctions with my dad,” says Donald Dukes, the namesake patriarch and man-in-charge, who on the day of the auction busies himself—clipboard in hand—between calling bids, documenting final sales prices, and making sure the whole operation runs smoothly. “Ever since I was a child, I liked attending auctions. And farming is in my past. My father farmed. My grandfather farmed. We’re generation farmers, so I relate to farm equipment and construction equipment.”
It’s clear that, for Dukes (as it is for most of the 600-plus auction attendees), auctions are a time-honored and efficient way of doing business. Auctioneering is said to go back as far as 500 B.C. and enjoyed a particular spike in popularity with the English “candle auctions” of the 17th and 18th centuries, in which bidding ended whenever the wick burned out.
But Dukes, whose auction house earns a 10 percent commission on every sale, also sees auctions as a way for farm communities to gather together. “Whether they’re selling or buying, or just here to enjoy the atmosphere, people do enjoy coming,” he says. “They come out and see the neighbors they might only see at places like a church reunion.”
Still, he understands the need to make modern accommodations for dedicated buyers and sellers, especially when the weather isn’t nice. There’s an indoor auction shed for larger items where buyers sit in rows of metal foldout chairs as a photo of each item pops up on a TV screen. Bidders can even sit at home, eBay-style, and bid live on the internet through the website proxibid.com for a 2 percent markup on the final price.
Eugene McCutchen, who works as a kind of agent for clients back home in Bishopville, is a 30-year veteran of farm auctions and appreciates the changes Dukes has made. Yesterday, he spent the morning standing in the cold rain at an outdoor auction in North Carolina, but rain or shine, he never wants to miss an auction.
“I’m coming here to buy and resell. Buy and resell. I’m not limited to anything,” he says. “In other words, it could be farm equipment, lawn and yard equipment, lawn mowers, golf carts. It changes depending on if I have people looking for particular items, and sometimes I come and buy specifically for them.”
Grinning like a man in on a secret, he adds, “If you’re here all day, you’re gonna find some bargains. I think people should take advantage of auctions. It’s a golden opportunity. Like I say, ‘Go to them, be there, and be ready.’”
Sweet spot of compromise
Late in the afternoon as the sun is trying to break free and warm up the place for the start of the drive-thru auction featuring tractors, trucks and other motorized equipment, Mid-Carolina Electric Cooperative member Billy Wise seeks his golden opportunity. He stands with his arms folded, surveying the people checking out his vintage John Deere tractors. It’s his first time at an auction, and he doesn’t know entirely what to expect. He’s got a price in mind for each tractor—for the 1948 John Deere A and for the 1949 John Deere G—and he would prefer not to go back to St. Matthews with the tractors on his trailer.
But he doesn’t know what he’ll get. He has set a reserve price, which means that any final bid under that price will not enact a sale. Wise decided to try the auction when he had no luck selling the vintage machines online or through newspaper classified ads. Today, he’s counting on motivated collectors to be among the bidders.
When potential buyers come by and ask Wise to fire up one of his tractors, he turns the ignition and the tractor coughs and shoots up a plume of black smoke. The men look closer. Some even put their hands on the engine, as if to warm up or just to feel the purr of an old John Deere.
“It’s a nice tractor. Nothing else made like them,” says one of the men, Harold Boone, who owns 15 John Deere As and Gs, but who like many of the bidders won’t say much more and risk giving away his price point.
As it gets nearer to the time when the Deeres will make their drive-thru debut, Wise waits in the wings almost nervously. There have already been moments when the auctioneer has canceled bidding: “Go on and get out of here at $3,000. No sale!”—and then the sellers hang their heads in defeat.
But when the first of Wise’s tractors comes up, there are, if not a flurry of activity, several bidders making thumbs-up gestures. And that’s all it takes. As the auctioneer keeps up the song and the price reaches Wise’s hidden reserve price, the smallest trace of a smile begins to cross his lips. And then—bam!—it’s sold, and he’s full-on grinning.
The winning bidder is Brian Sturkie, also a Mid-Carolina co-op member, who says simply, “It was a good deal. I knew I always wanted one. It was a nice tractor that didn’t need any work.”
When asked if he’ll use the tractor to farm with or just as a collectible, Sturkie lets out a hearty laugh and points to the brackets on the front.
“See those there?” he asks. “Those are for putting up American flags, for when I drive it in the town parade!”
He and Wise go over to meet each other and shake hands. They’re both happy and smiling. After all, they’re both walking away with what they want, having achieved the promise an auction forever makes—to hit upon the sweet spot of compromise.
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Get There
Dukes Auction Group hosts live auctions every other month at its permanent facility on 5526 Savannah Highway in North. For more information visit dukesauctiongroup.com or call (803) 247-2776.