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Been around the (auction) block

This auctioneer champion says the key to success is trust

By Jim Witty / The Bulletin

Published: November 04. 2008 4:00AM PST

Dennis Turmon is part salesman, part showman and all auctioneer.

It doesn’t matter whether he’s hawking furniture, farm equipment, cattle or Hawaiian vacations for charity, Turmon is never more focused than when he’s got his chant on.

At a party or in a crowd, Turmon stands back, aloof. But hand him a microphone and a list of stuff to sell, and he’s the man.

Auctioneers, the good ones at least, employ that slightly slurry-blurry, mostly monotone delivery that can sound like gibberish to the virgin ear. But listen carefully and you’ll find, there’s something going on there between the lines, something that moves fast, feels urgent.

“Forty-now-fortyfive-now-five-this-item-is-honey-for-the-money-willyagimme-fortyfive-now-fifty.”

According to www.strictlyauctions.com, the words in between the bid numbers are fillers, put in “to add rhythm and to take up space and time between the bids being called, while also keeping your attention and the momentum of the auction process.”

Each auctioneer has his or her own style and cadence, a signature banter that speaks volumes about the individual as well as the auction school he or she attended.

“You need a good personality to start with,” said Turmon. “We have fun. (And) you have to have a good chant. Every auctioneer is different.”

Turmon, 61, grew up in California’s Central Valley, riding horses bareback through his father’s grape fields. He attended his first livestock auction with his grandfather when he was 7 and was only mildly interested in the goings on. He went to another auction a few years later, then got involved in Future Farmers of America and other high school endeavors and didn’t give auctions a second thought.

But his involvement in agriculture led him back to the podium; he attended auction school in Billings, Mont., in 1979. Later that year, he landed a job with an Oregon auctioneer and leapt at the opportunity to conduct his first auction, a “tiny” sale in Scio.

“Yeah, I was nervous,” he recalled. But he was also determined and had the knack he needed to make his way in the business.

“You’ve got to bring that last bid out of them,” he said.

Today, Turmon bases his Dennis Turmon Enterprises LLC in Powell Butte and travels throughout the West conducting auctions for attorneys handling bankruptcies, businesses, personal estates and charity.

He’s no specialist, he’s a working auctioneer.

Last week, Turmon was in east Bend, helping a couple of employees lug items from a two-story house to sort through them.

“I get out here and get my hands dirty,” he said.

Wednesday, he was at the home of the late Gene Horsfall, the site of a Turmon estate auction Saturday. On the block were such diverse items as a 1965 Ford pickup without a motor, auto manuals from the 1980s and ’90s and a 12-piece Wedgewood China set.

“You see all kinds of stuff,” Turmon said. “It’s kind of like the chase. You never know what you’re going to find. That kind of stuff trips my trigger.”

Sometime back in the mid-1980s, Turmon worked an estate auction for the descendants of a homestead family in Fort Rock. Among “a lot of old stuff,” he sold a five-drawer high boy dresser. He found out later there had been an envelope taped to the bottom of the lowest drawer. Inside: $3,000. Property of the highest bidder.

“That’s one of those auction stories,” Turmon said, shaking his head.

Turmon said the economic downturn has definitely affected his business. He’s conducting fewer auctions than he’s used to.

“This economy has hurt us a lot,” he said.

Turmon is the 2008-09 Oregon Auctioneers Association auctioneer champion. The competition is based on the chant, eye contact and salesmanship, he said.

But, according to Turmon, the most important factor to an auctioneer’s success is trust.

“Your customer hands you a set of keys,” Turmon said. “They have to know they’re not going to get ripped off.”

Jim Witty can be reached at 541-617-7828 or jwitty@bendbulletin.com.

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