In our debut episode "The History of BigIron, Part 1" Co-Founders Mark and Ron Stock dive into the rich history of building their business in the online equipment auction world. This episode takes you back to the origins of BigIron, exploring how the company’s early innovations and strategic decisions transformed the online equipment and land auction space. We’ll examine the pioneering spirit behind BigIron's innovative platform, the challenges they faced, and the impact they had on the future of auctions. If you’re passionate about agriculture and eager to learn how BigIron revolutionized the industry, this episode offers a compelling look at the milestones and visionaries that shaped its journey. Tune in to uncover the story behind BigIron.com and where it all began.
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Transcript:
MARK STOCK: Well hello everybody Mark Stock here and this is Gear Up brought to you by BigIron and uh we're going to be doing some podcasts and uh we'll have a variety of topics the topic uh this episode is about the history of BigIron.
Now BigIron, Ron Stock ,is North America's largest ag focused machinery and real estate online auction company - um most people don't know but BigIron has the largest viewing audience and the largest registered bidder base of any unreserved online auction company in North America.
So, um, but we didn't start this way, Ron Stock, I mean Ron Stock here, one of the co-founders -
RON STOCK Hello everybody.
-and uh, when we first got into the auction business. I'll let Ron Stock tell the story of how that even came about.
RON STOCK Well, I understand we're supposed to be talking about history here, but I have a hard time talking about history because I'm a forward-looking guy. History actually bores the heck out of me, but I know we need to tell the story - but you know it does make me uncomfortable talking about the history and really putting the focus on you and me, because there have been so many people help us along the way but if that's what we're here to do let's do it right let's put the focus on you and me, okay?
MARK STOCK Well, I guess you can first put the focus on Max and Mike, Max and Mike Olson – yeah, Max and Mike Olson got me to go to auction School, uh, so that was uh, we were just hanging out on a Saturday night and they said “You should go to - you should go to auction school, Ron.” I'm like “Really?” and uh, so they showed up one Sunday morning and said, uh my dad's like, “What are those guys doing here?” I go, “I'm going to auction school” and after two or three hours of much debate about what a waste of time auction school would be, uh basically uh, I called Mark.
Mark was in school, and I said “Mark, you got to come home and run the grain cart because I'm going to auction school” and Mark said “You're going to auction school?” I go “yeah I'm going with Mike and Max Olson” so uh, basically I went to auction school with them, and uh, had those guys not showed up I even forgot that we even talked about going to auction school like a month earlier, I totally forgot, we talked about it and they showed up on a Sunday morning and that's the only reason I went to auction school, you know and I figured when I got back home I was kind of going to be in trouble, because I had told Dad that you were going to be there to run the grain cart in a couple days, and you had told me that wasn't going to happen
So, basically I remember you did show up and run a grain cart, and I got back and my dad, who fought me, you know, going to auction school, when I walked in the house I have five sisters they're all around, and they're saying “Do some selling, do some selling!” I was like “Oh.” I was tired. I remember being tired Sunday afternoon when I got back, and it's like
“Girls, I'll do it for you in a little bit” I go “You got to give me some space here.” You know, you know 10 miles out in the country there's nothing to do I was the entertainment for the afternoon Sunday afternoon, right?
So my dad hands me the phone, and it's a guy runs a large consignment auction in Cornlee and he says “Hey Kid.” I go “Hi.” His name was Mark - “Hi Mark.” I called him boss since day one.
“Hey kid, can you help me on Tuesday” and I said “What do you want me to do?”” and he says, “Well you went to auction school didn't you?” I was like “Oh okay, okay!”
So you know Dad who fought me going to auction school who was really a critical thinker you know - “why are you doing that, look how many auctioneers there are in the country.” He basically got me in my first uh job right when I walked in the house and then uh he helped us get jobs throughout the you know he was a, my dad was a sales guy, sold T&L pivots and he was around the country and he knew stuff was going on and he'd say “You should go see that person about having a sale.”
I often think the reason my career took off is because at the time I had the freedom I was farming you know with my dad using his machinery probably stealing his diesel fuel uh and not still making any money in the 80s - but uh at the time I uh you know I, I had the freedom to go see people - like dad wanted me to go see these Schmecks from Tarnoff - you know these three sisters he went to school with - some of them about selling some land, and I had the freedom to take off on a Wednesday and go do that you know Michael and Max had real jobs - jobs that paid, you know, and they couldn't leave during the week, and so I often think it's my ag background that got me in the auction business.
But there's so many auctioneers out there like in the 80s it was so the ' 80s it was just so bad the economy was so terrible that when you go to wedding dance because that's another that's another podcast story, Mark and I used to DJ a lot of wedding dances, but you'd go out there and you'd say “Hey anybody out there can sell the garter, we need a family member or a friend to sell the garter?” Even though we could do it we were the DJs, and we're like, we just want a family member or somebody to do it - make it special, take some pictures and there'd be five guys my age now in their late 50s, middle 50s, late 50s raise up their hand and go “I can do it, I can do it!” especially if they had six or seven beers in them, you know, and so there's so many auctioneers in their 50’s out there and the reason that is, since we're talking history, is the farm economy was so bad on a Saturday there would literally be in the Midwest Messenger, because we counted them the day I was going to auction school, you know like 120 auctions on a Saturday in Nebraska - it was ridiculous how many sales there were, everybody was having financial duress, so, uh that was a tough time but there's a lot of auctioneers out there folks.
MARK STOCK But that's not how we really got started, I mean Ron skipped a lot of information there, I mean when he came back from auction School he did the halftime of the basketball pie sale - mhm - you know you had to sell the the baked goods for the fundraiser stuff and then of course we were both pretty good in FFA and our, our uh, shop teacher wanted to sell some stuff or the school wanted to sell some stuff so we had a little sale there, but I remember one of the first sales we had was, uh, my sister was dating a guy by the name of Todd, and his mother, yes his mother was moving to uh Arizona, and she had a household full of stuff and they wanted to sell that household stuff, so we had that little sale and I remember Mom was clerking, she was being the cashier.
That was the day too when we called each other on the phone and said, “What should we wear?” You know, what should we, what should we put on because I said, you know we should kind of look like a team, and um, Ron, I asked him - “What do you got in your closet?” He said “I got a green shirt” “Well I didn't have a green shirt” “I got a I got a denim shirt” Well I didn't have a denim shirt, but we, but we both, said “I got a yellow shirt, hey!”
He was the president in FFA, and I was a reporter when he was a senior and I was a junior, so we had a matching FFA shirt that had the words FFA over the, you know, where your pocket's supposed to be on your left- hand side, and I said “Let's wear that.” We took a piece of duct tape and we covered over the FFA, and we just put our name Ron and Mark on those shirts, and we wore those yellow shirts for the Nancy Nordeen Sale. Then after that sale we had the little FFA shop auction, we sold an old forge that they hadn't used forever, I mean, I think there was 20 people there, but whatever, they just needed to generate a couple hundred dollars and those are the kind of sales that we had, uh early on.
And uh, we had uh, Rex Kunzleman’s sale with Dennis Fowlkes early, early on, and uh, because we were just young to the game and, and Rex says, “ I want you guys” because Rex was the director of the Farm Service Agency -
RON STOCK He was friends of our parents.
MARK STOCK - Good friends with Dad, and he knew we were in the, that Ron went to auction school, and we had the Nancy Nordeen sale, and he says, “Well I'll do it, but uh, I'll hire you guys, but I want Dennis to be there because Dennis has been in this thing for a long time, and maybe he could teach you.”
Now, fast forward 35 years, we ended up, you know -
RON STOCK Dennis Fowlkes, Fowlkes Realty & Auction Company
MARK STOCK -Yeah we, we ended up acquiring Dennis's business when he wanted to retire, and Dennis is still working with us today as a real estate professional, you know 40 years later.
But, we had that sale and uh, a sale shortly thereafter we actually took off the yellow shirts and we were wearing a blue denim shirt and it was a mutiny. . . the people in the crowd were so disappointed because they said “Where are your yellow shirts, now we don't even know where you guys are to bid to?” And we, that was like a DING DING DING DING DING, you know, you just had to be easily seen so people could look at you when they wanted a bid or wink, because back then you know there was a lot of winking going on, right? And uh, so we went back to the yellow shirts, and it stuck that way forever.
But uh, our big claim to advance forward was uh, a couple sales, and uh, the William Braten estate was one of them, uh, the Larry Collins sale was another a big sale. These were back in the, uh late 80s early 90s, I mean, so there was a stretch from 1984 for seven or eight years where we were grinding it out.
RON STOCK Yes, I remember going to auction school, and one of the things they said, which I'll never forget to this day, uh “If you're going to get in the auction business, you got to work for free, you got to work for free at the bake sales, you got to do the benefit auctions, you got to work for free, and you can't worry about money.”
Well, being a farm background in the 80s you didn't worry about money because there was no money, I mean, it was zeroes, so you really didn't worry about the money but every time I got the chance you got the chance and we still do that today you know to do an auction in front of some people you just do it you do it for free mhm and that really pays off but probably what I remember being our breakthrough moment is the uh Bill brought and estate auction so we got a letter from an attorney in albian and it said put in your bid for the bill brought in estate auction they were selling land and Machinery they were selling land and Machinery we we got to talk about the real estate licensing that you got we had to be 21 years of age to get a real estate license yeah so you were doing benefit auctions early on and that was dad's idea he says well if you guys are going to get in the business get your get your real estate license because it goes hand in hand M well you got your real estate license and of course you had to hang it with somebody for FL College in North North Northeast college Community College yeah yeah we're plugging those aren't we we're plugging the colleges there we go so you got your real estate license and then I you worked under another real estate company for two years that was Dad's friend too and then you got your then you took your test got your broker's license and I got my salesperson's license and then I that's when stock realy and Auction Company actually started when you were 21 years of age because I could have I was a salesperson at age 18 I think right I'm pretty sure it was yeah we were pretty yeah first Farm we sold was for uh the cones family on the way to church just the Neighbors Farm down the road we go to church proud moment when we had our sign sitting there I'm riding in the back of the station wagon with my sisters and I got a sign on the left hand side of the road on uh Dave the cones Family Farm And it said our names on it it's like we finally arrived Dad can we get our own car it was kind of it was kind of fun because we had uh uh zavadil in Humphrey Nebraska they own the Humphrey was a painter Irene hand painted our signs yeah we put a little blurp on the we had a yellow background she had the black deal and she did it I mean we watched her do it she would just take that brush and without having any stencils whatsoever she had all those freehand letters and numbers were were ideal and Don and Irene zavid run the Humphrey Democrat for years and did a lot of printing for us yes did a lot of sale bills early on so anyway so we got the real estate business and and and was doing the the personal property auctions and that's when the letter came from the attorney because we started going around to all the attorneys and say hey we got real estate licenses we're stock realy and Auction Company we were still living in The Love Shack 900t house 700t don't give it that much 700t house down the road from where our parents live they could watch us through the valley yeah but anyway so we're living at The Love Shack and uh we get this letter from the attorney and he said put in your bid for the bill Bron estate auction so we went over there and looked at the Machinery met met the school mm the deceased uh Bill Bron had uh he was about 75 when he died and his older sister was 83 Helen Waterberry she lived in Omaha she was a school M about 5' 2 in tall and uh every time we were there looking at the Machinery we think of reasons to go back to talk to her cuz it would have been a breakthrough sale and it was a breakthrough sale but she kept saying what am I going to do with Billy's dog he cries in the morning he howls when Billy's supposed to come out of the house he howls to the West when Billy's supposed to be coming in for chores it just breaks my heart what are we going to do with Billy's dog so the time uh Mark's uh brother future brother-in-law John prer was raised in wet mouth St Bernard's and I remember being over at his house and this is in the late ' 80s early 90 late 80s early '90s and the dogs are licking him in the face and he's selling these wet M St Bernard's to these mothers with these small children how gentle the dogs are he said just let them lick them in the face and 250 bucks a dog that would be like $3,000 a dog today so we called up John price and said John we're going to go over to Helen water berries and you're going to let that dog lick you in the face and it's going to be a beautiful scene you know set up the scene and it just was perfect Saturday Mark and myself and John Price went over there put a little peanut butter on John's face just to make sure it worked Helen come out it was 10:00 in the morning on a winter day she come out in just a jacket over her clothes and she's standing on top the stoop and we're down there and the dog comes up there and John is just letting that dog lick him oh you got such a good good dog and then we said Helen if you hire us for your sale this dog is going to grow up 15 miles east of here I've got a bunch of sisters we're going to pet the dog every day we're going to feed him and she says well you could take him now but we had luckily this is where dumb luck comes into play we had luckily brought a car and she said and I said Helen we're not going to put the dog in the car I go when we come back to do your sale we bring the pressure washers we're going to put the dog in the back of the pickup and she's like so then this was a Saturday so Monday we got a call from Larry the attorney in albian and he says Hey guys uh this is Larry what did you guys do to Helen Waterberry and we're like we didn't do nothing and he goes what he told me to throw all the other auctioneers away throw them in the trash you got the land you got the equipment and Mark and I are not that big of Huggers but I remember us bear hugging that day cuz we knew something just happened by a freaking Miracle because we're doing Household Sales and this is an auction that usually Dennis FAL got or one of four other five big names got and so we literally spent this the winter waxing everything I think the sale was January first week of January maybe second week janary we did the real estate one day and the Machinery shortly thereafter but this sale was an epic sale because it had 856 and 806s and and 706 tractors that were pristine um Billy broughts never unhooked anything so he had a four row planter hooked onto one tractor he had a four row culator hooked onto another tractor he had a rotary hoe hooked onto another tractor they never were unhooked and they all sat inside a shed and they were unbelievably well I remember the one tractor sold for 14 or $15,000 and the guy that drove three or four states away every time he would it would get too high he would bid once he'd shake his head no he'd turn around and walk away that's when John Kennedy you know one of the world's greatest ring man alive would follow him out in the crowd and said come on man come on buddy bit again he' turned around and he'd push it another thousand bucks he'd throw his hands up in the air and say no that's ridiculous John kenned would follow him a little bit more he'd go another 20 steps now he's on the outer edge of the crowd and there's 11 1200 people in this sale he turned around he pounded another $1,000 uh you know those images are still in my head because there was so many people in that sale and when we got done with that particular auction then sold the land because the land sold extremely well too because learned a big lesson on our big first land auction the lesson was you don't combine the tracks there's four quarters of land track one track two track three track four track five was all combined together the ground was worth 1,500 an acre that day it was bringing 11100 and it bringing 16,700 an acre and the people that bought it thank us every day because that ground is now worth 15,000 an acre but uh but that was that that sale then took us into several other opportunities and Larry Collins was you know one of those situations and then then then we stumbled into a guy by the name of Jim Hemmer I want to talk back back on that Helen Waterberry sale that we got you know we had 1400 people at that sale we've never had a crowd we've had crowds equal but never greater than that sale we had everything lined up pretty as you please everything washed in wax 12 feet between stuff laid out a twine I mean the sale was set up presidential and all I can say is the reason we did such a good job and hopefully we still do is because we had plenty of time on our hands I mean it was wintertime we were Farm boys my dad never had any lifestock we hauled hay for a living my dad's hauling hay but we had plenty of time so on the nice days we really overdid it
18:00
MARK STOCK: Well, anyway, we fast forward to a number of sales, and, uh, you know, I just want to touch base a little bit on Jim Hemmer. We did a collector tractor sale for Jim Hemmer. Jim Hemmer was a commercial pilot. He was a truck driver at a construction company. He was a former Nance County assistant sheriff back in his younger days. He was just kind of a larger-than-life character from Genoa, Nebraska and had these antique tractors stored in this little shed because he was going to sell his building, I think, to Pat Mahoney or something at the time. And that's way back, but, um, he said boys, come out. “I want to have a collector sale bill." That was one of the first collector sale bills we ever put together for Jim Hemmer. Jim Hemmer was also a pilot. He taught me how to fly after we started our business relationship with him. So that's where I got my pilot's license, with Jim Hemmer as my coach.
But,
RON STOCK: uh, can't talk enough good about Jim Hemmer. I mean, Jim Hemmer was one of the major mentors in our lives. I think there are a couple of things that we really put Jim Hemmer on a pedestal, and we need to. We were trained as kids to really honor our elders. I mean, if somebody was older, we just totally listened to them. We were taught to listen to them and learn from them and if you think back at home, we were surrounded by older people in our house, older than our dad. Our dad was a young father, so he was only about 40, and he was always around people who were 60. So even our dad liked to be around older people, so Jim Hemmer was our senior by about 30 years.He had been around the block, and he was so convincing. He said, "You boys are too talented to be doing the household sales." I said, "Jim, we're kicking butt on these household sales." He replied, "You're losing $500 every household sale you do." I said, "How do you figure?" So he wrote it on a piece of paper.
He was missing one finger, so when he wrote, he was always missing this finger—he cut it off in a saw somewhere. Anyway, he wrote it out and showed me on paper. He said if you figure your time, your gas, hanging up those sale bills, you're losing $500 every sale.
So on the household sales, he suggested we start just going to a flat fee—either a percentage plus $2,500, whichever is greater. People would still hire us for $2,500, and they could hire the auctioneer down the road for 10%. We were 10% or $2,500, and they could hire the auctioneer down the road for 10% of an average household sale, which was $6,000–$7,000. I tell people, "You can hire that other guy for $700. Why are you hiring me for $2,500?" Because we were trying to talk people out of hiring us. We were just getting too busy—two household sales every weekend. You’re doing one, I’m doing one. It was just getting to be a lot, and DJing on the weekends—it was getting insane and farming. I mean, it was insane, buddy… I mean…
So, anyway, we got going, and people would say, "We’re going to hire you because you’re the guys that’ll clean the house out." They’d say, "I don’t understand." He said, "You guys are going to leave the house. You guys always leave the yard clean, get the dumpster." And we just took that by storm. I mean, when we leave, our reputation was that the house was clean. I remember one sale in Spalding where we were literally rolling up the carpet. We got two trucks from the country because the lady wanted the house clean. We sold the house too. We literally rolled up the carpet, took down the drapes, threw them in a truck, and left that house clean. I mean, what are we, house cleaners? Apparently, we’re house cleaners.
So anyway, we started doing household sales, and we could not turn them off. The household sales were going gangbusters. We kept 3,500. We could not turn them off. Finally, one day, we just said, "We can’t do this anymore." Jim Hemmer said, "You guys have got to quit it. Stop." Oh, that was hard. One guy stopped by my office and said, "St. Ed., you guys have had five sales for my family. You’re doing one for my aunt in Cedar Rapids." I said, "No, we’re not." I told him, "I’ve told 50 people in the last year that I’m not doing their household sale." And he said, “come over” - to look at it. Well, we walked in the house in Cedar Rapids. I told him the whole time driving there, "I’m not doing it." He walked in and there's all the... remember those Victa, those Council stereos? Everybody's grandparents had one, and they talk about how good it sounds. Now, you must have to have a drink in your hand to get it to sound good, 'cause when they put the record on it, it would go (screech). doesn't that sound good.
Well, he walks in and says, "Ron, there's a lot of dollars in here. This thing is going to bring $500 bucks." We had sold more of them for $25 than we ever sold for $100. And I told him, "I'm not doing your household sale."
So he sees me a month and a half later and says, "Ron, I wish you guys would have done my sale. Guess what that Victrola sold for? They gave it away. Guess what it sold for?" I go, "25 bucks." He says, "50 bucks." I said, "I think you got a fair market value. I think you did pretty damn good."
But anyway, we quit doing household sales, and that was probably the turning point of. If we wouldn't talk about change, you know, we always talk about change, change, change. We can't change; we should stay the same. If we'd still be doing household sales, buddy, we'd still be good at them.
Well, Jim Hmer said, "Let's go see some dealers. Let's, lets uh... he said, 'Let's turn you into a Taylor and Martin.' He said, 'You guys got a lot of skill, a lot of talent, got a lot of energy. Let's turn you into a Taylor and Martin.'"
So, we jumped in his King Air that he was flying around corporate, and we went to see a couple of um John Deere dealers that we arranged in advance by calling and saying, "Hey, would you meet us at the Lucy Lose Café?" We had 10 dealers there and a dealer principals. We'd have a nice little meal and say, "We want to put together a big sale. Why don't you guys all commit to a half a million dollars, and we'll put a sale together?"
Our good friend Ron Lucas from um Goodland, Kansas, was the spearhead of that. Um Ron's a great guy to this day. There's a lot to that story. Ooo While we're on camera, Mark Stock, Mark Stock was at a sale that a competitor had from Minnesota at a dealer auction. I remember you coming home and going, "Ron, these dealer auctions, we can do them way better than the guys that are doing them are doing them."
And you took off in a 10-year-old Lincoln Continental because an attorney told you, "If you're going to be in business, you got to have a Lincoln." So you bought a 10-year-old Lincoln.
You took off with a ballpoint pen in your hand and a business card that you probably had to black out "household auctions" and down the road he went—all over the upper part of Kansas.
And he said, "I'm going to build a dealer auction." I remember him being down in the mouth, Mark, calling up from the motels going, "You know, this isn't easy." But you got to Ron Lucas. Ron Lucas was a Nebraska-born and bread, he working as a district manager/territory manager for John Deere who transplanted to O'Neal, and lived in O’Neal for a while and got hooked on Nebraska football because he'd never seen anything like it.
So I walked in to Goodland, Kansas, to the John Deere dealer, Ron Lucas, and he had all this Husker memorabilia on the wall. So, we just started talking about Nebraska football. And that was a lesson I learned: That when I went in to see people, you know I wasn’t going there to necessarily get their business, even though that was the motive. I was trying to figure out who they were as people.
And to this day, I'll walk into somebody's house and look at a picture on the wall and I’ll say, "Where was that picture taken?" - and you genuinely want to know. I do want to know. They have pictures of their family on the refrigerator—everybody does. I’ll ask, "What's this picture of?" Because when I find out what it is about their family that makes them tick, then I can try to figure out how I can help them a little bit better, you know.
Because we're in the service business, we have to help people—especially all these folks that are retiring. I mean, you go into, the time I went over by Diller, Nebraska, and this gentleman and his wife, they wanted to have a sale. And I said, "Hey, you got a big family?" He goes, "Yeah, that's probably the reason why we're having our sale." I said, "Because of your big family?" He goes, "Well, no, my daughter just lost her husband. He had cancer and he died. They live in another state, so we're going to have a machinery sale. We're going to rent out the farmland. We're going to go take care of my wife // or my daughter's two little kids because she's got to have a full-time job." So now you understood the motive and understood why they were in the position they were. And I tell you what, when you understand what people are going through, you work a lot harder for them. -- 100%, 100%.
So, that Ron Lucas sale was our first big dealer auction in Oakley, Kansas. We ended up having that auction for five more years. And when the farmers -- always had a blizzard in Oakley—always a blizzard, always a whiteout—Bard, the radio DJs would call us up and say, "When's your Oakley sale? When’s your sale coming?" (Ron Stock: January 25) Because we’re so dry here, cuz you guys always bring an inch of snow with you. There was a blizzard after blizzard, and I learned that from another mentor. You know, Mark Nunan said, "Don’t ever cancel a sale." And I tell you, we never did cancel a sale (Mark Stock: No) and the reason you never cancel a sale is people don’t come back the second time. Yeah, so we had a reputation of never canceling a sale in a whiteout blizzard. Prices were still good, and that’s hard to believe, but we’ve never canceled the sale.
You know, Jim Hammer was the guy that stimulated that—go see all these dealers and put this all together. Jim Hammer got a real estate license. He was working with us as a real estate agent—a hell of a sales guy. Jim Hammer was an auctioneer force too. I mean, here's a guy that was a corporate pilot. He could do almost anything. (Ron Stock: 65, he went to auction school) Yeah, he did all that stuff, and unfortunately, he died at, I think, 68. (Ron Stock: Yeah) It would be 21 years this June when he passed away because my son, um Nick—or I’m sorry, Eric—was born just a couple of weeks after his funeral. And Um he just got cancer, he just want down
He’d pick a sale in the morning. He’d call up and say, “We’re going to go sell a farm.” We’d have eight farms listed. He’d go, “Which one do you want to sell?” And I’d say, “I don’t know. What do you mean?” Pick one. Pick any farm. And we’d pick one farm, and we would go out that day and we’d sell it. And to this day, FOC—all it takes is focus and a deadline. By 5:00 that afternoon, we had that farm sold, and we went right down the list. I mean, it was that. Like,
You just had to go ask people, “We’re selling this farm today. Make us an offer.
You want to buy it or not?” Well, “Come back and see me in a week.” He taught us that lesson. He goes, “Oh no, you don’t go back. You just say, ‘We’re here today, and if you ain’t going to do it, we’re going to go see the next guy. He’s going to buy it.’” And you just talk to people like that, and by golly, it worked. So it worked, and Jim Hammer was a great mentor to us.
Larry Collins was another guy that we had a sale for. He got a real estate license and worked as a real estate agent. A guy by the name of - in Belleview, Kansas -- Norm Hanshaw —he was a John Deere dealer principal. He was retiring and was hiring a different company out of Minnesota. Ron and JB were going through Kansas. Going to Kansas. They stopped and they called me and said, “Mark, jump in the plane and fly out and see Norm Hanshaw because we just heard in town where we filled up with gas that he’s going to have an auction.”
That was a little practical joke we played on you that day. Norm Hanshaw was a guy—every time we went into a store, he was moody. Now, me and Don Kaiser or John Burle or Jim Justock went on some sales runs with us. When we’d go into a dealer, we always went in two people at a time. But that Norm Hanshaw was such a --- mean guy, and we ended up being really good friends. He wasn’t a mean guy, but he was such a mean guy at 10:00 o’clock in the morning. Me and JB—I remember drawing straws. “You go in.” “No, you go in.” “No, you go in.” So you’d go in there, and he would say, “Guys,” he talked real expressive, “I ain’t going to sell anything. Why do you guys keep stopping here?”
“Well, we’re going right through.” Honestly, he had a good cup of coffee. We stole a cup of coffee from the guy when we went in. But we heard he was having a sale out on the road, and we thought we’d play a practical joke on on Mark Stock. “Mark, there’s a guy in Belleville having an auction. His name is Norm Hanshaw. You go see him.” And when we hung up the phone, we were giggling. “He’s going to go get his butt chewed.” And Mark calls up the next day and says, “I’m 90% there. I think I got the sale.” “You shut your mouth. He is not hiring you.” I don’t know how in the hell you did it, Budd.
I flew the plane in. I called Norm up, and I didn’t know Norm at all. I said, “Hey, um I heard you’re having a sale. Is that correct?” He goes, “Yeah, but I already got my auctioneer.” I said, “Did you sign the papers?” He goes, “Well, no.” I said, “Well then, there’s a chance.” I said, “I’m flying into the airport. Can you have somebody pick me up in two hours?”
And he said, “You’re going to fly into the airport?” I went, “Yeah, I’ll fly in in two hours.” So, I jumped in the old 172 (Flying Noise), landed there at the old, landed at the airport, and he came and picked me up. You know, my 172 wasn’t a fancy plane, but it was a nice little plane. We went back to his office. He goes, “You haven’t had any sales like this. I’ve got the auctioneer. I’m going to pick them. They’re the ones doing all this.”
Ron Stock: “You’re wasting your time.”
I said, “What do I have to do to ever get a chance? I go see dealer after dealer after dealer, and everybody tells me the same story. When in the hell is somebody actually going to give me a chance? Because that’s all I want, is a chance.”
Ron Stock: Whatever you said to him, you won him over, buddy.
And he looked at me and goes, “Huh?” He says, “You just want a chance.” I said, “I can do everything that all these other people are doing, and I can do it better, but nobody will ever know because nobody's giving me a chance. Nobody's giving me a chance.”
And, uh, the seven signs of successful people, you know, and I didn't know this at the time because I was just going off instinct, where you just got to to ask people to help you. I was asking him to help me, give me a chance. And he called us up the next day and says, “If you want the sale, you can have it.”
Ron Stock: I couldn't believe it.
And then we sent our good friend Tommy Draw down, John Dicky, and a handful of other people, and they were there for two weeks getting his sale ready to go. He had an unbelievable retirement auction; it totaled up way more than he thought. He said, “Guys, the sale was so good, I'm taking you to the country club, and we're going to have a good old party.” Because this guy loved to go to the country club. And this was a month and a half later because it took us a month (Ron Stock: YA) to get this whole thing ready.
He was a little bit under the influence and says, “You guys did everything right, but you screwed up on one thing.” I said, “Well, I'm here to learn, sir. What did we screw up on?” He says, “We should have had drinks and a meal a month before - to know that you guys are really as good as you are.” He said, “Because I'm really finding out how good you guys are after you've done my sale.” And So now we've learned another lesson. You know, when you book a deal, let's go out to have a meal early on, (Ron Stock: uhm) let's get to know each other, do something besides work to start building that relationship because it is a relationship business.
Ron Stock: He ended up getting a real estate license, so there you’re studying the lesson. Jim Hammer had a sale; he worked for us. Larry Collins, first guy. Second guy worked for us. Norman worked for us. Don Kaiser worked for us. (Mark Stock: ‘Saying Names’) So, this is a lesson I always tell Big Iron. You know, Big Iron’s having a lot of stress finding some setup crews in different states. It’s like they’re all in your bidder base. The people we’ve had sales for are the people that will work for us, and they know the business because they had a sale themselves. I’ve been saying that for several years, and I’m sure we’re hiring some of those kinds of people.
Mark Stock: Well, I hope Ron,
Ron Stock : We’re looking for setup people by the way.
Now, all this time Ron stock, I mean, we were doing personal property sales, farm machinery auctions, and selling farms and houses in the real estate side at the same time and a lot of these folks that we had these sales for, specifically some of the retired farmers, you know, they got real estate licenses and hung their licenses um under-under our stock realty and auction company.
See, I’m looking, I got, I retroed here, (Ron Stock: retro back) I retroed back into a stock realty and auction company shirt. And, of course, then, you know, my wife got a real estate license, and we opened up an office in Kansas. We opened up an office in Broken Bow. We opened up an office in Columbus, Nebraska, at the Bedrock Building. Um we opened up different locations, which is a lesson in life um. Now, we’re learning all we need to do is open up another vehicle—just have another vehicle driving.
Ron Stock: Well, at that time, offices were something that was probably necessary, but it’s gone by the wayside.
Uhm uh, and then, of course, our wives were very instrumental in all of this. You know,
Ron Stock: Kristen was on the road with us, traveling and clerking the sales, and yep,
and my wife was coming out when she could, but she was raising babies at home, so that was her job was.
Kristen and I never had any children, so we were able to be on the road doing the outside sales and setting up sales. I remember us being down in Coleman, Alabama, setting up those sales, driving back into Texas, and Kristen telling me, “We’re 40 years old, upper 30s.” She says “You think we’re going to be able to do this when we’re 50?” And I said, “I don’t know.” And she said, “We should sell all this stuff online.” Because at that time, we were doing little posters, pictures, you know, selling it. But anyway, that’s for later on.
It’s foreshadowing, Ron. You just foreshadow.
She said the word—an four-letter word: we should do all this stuff-fff—online.
(Laughing
Well, you know, we had to learn a lot about the real estate business and relationships with people then. And, of course, the art of selling a farm and a ranch and all that kind of good stuff. So that was all part of our growth and development in those first formidable years of being in this space. And, you know, you got your broker’s license, I got a broker’s license, a lot of other people. Jim and John Stock joined us. They started out in the auction business, and then they got real estate licenses. And, you know, today, they sell a lot of good stuff; they’re top producers.
But, so, the company evolved over time, and I think we’ll wrap up this show. We’re going to foreshadow into the next episode when we start talking about what happened in the late 90s and early 2000s in this space. We want to thank all the listeners, we want to thank the directors and the producers and the people behind the scenes—Erica, Danny, Dana, Bobb, Sarah, and everybody else. I should never start with names, Ron, because we learned a long time ago if you forget somebody, you never hear the end of it. We got Emily; can’t forget Emily. See, I’m not going to say any names because I don’t want to forget you. But hey, if you enjoy this podcast, tell all your friends, have them listen in as we’re going to talk about a little bit of everything and a little bit of nothing all at the same time. It’s amazing how that all works. If you don’t listen, if we don’t get some viewers, we’re not going to do this forever. So, we’re just going to do it as long as we get some people following it. So, if you like it, please tell people. Otherwise, we don’t want to waste your time. Thank you very much. Let’s see you next time.
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