SOLD!

GREENFIELD – In the mid 1950s there was a country song released by Leroy Van Dyke called “The Auctioneer.” It tells the story of a young boy who hears his dad auctioneering and grows up to do it himself. That’s not Heath Downing’s story, but he’s making waves in the industry at a young age anyway.

Downing, who attended Orient-Macksburg through middle school and graduated from Nodaway Valley, grew up hearing his grandpa admire auctioneers. That made Downing want to pursue the craft himself.

“I was always a little curious to see how they did it. My grandpa always kind of wanted to do it and he was the first one to mention it to me,” Downing said. “I’ve always been good at public speaking but never really thought about selling stuff with it.”

Beginning in his early high school years, Downing became serious about auctioneering. He watched professionals like Tom Frey of Creston or Mark Riddell of the Red Oak area and said to himself he could do it too.

An encounter he had in the barn at the Creston Livestock Auction Company sealed Downing’s decision. He was in the barn there and chose to listen to Tom’s son, Brandon, sell rather than watch.

“If I could be half as good as Tom and Brandon are, that would be perfect. I paid attention to how he worked them in and worked them through and paid attention to how he works with the buyers and sellers. That’s definitely key,” Downing said. “You have to be good in all facets to be in this industry.”

Last June, Downing attended a weeklong class at the Worldwide College of Auctioneering in Mason City. That’s where his first formal training in auctioneering occured, but before he went, he completed a long list of work as a prerequisite to the class. It included number drills and tongue twisters similar to how a musician learns scales or a traditionally trained drummer learns rudiments.

“Heath’s a nice young man with a lot of potential and it’s good to see him getting started in it,” Tom Frey said. “It takes a lot of practice and the ability to get the rapport with the people.”

There were 53 students in Downing’s class at Worldwide and among his instructors were some of the greatest auctioneers alive.

“Starting off, we learned how to go by ones, two and a halves, fives, 10s and hundreds. We had to go all the way up to 100 and back down. To develop your rhthym, you’ll have certain tongue twisters [to fill in]. There were eight of them we’d practice,” Downing said. “It’s different for every person, but it probably took me three or four months to get those down. I knew I wanted to be halfway decent before I went to school.”

Downing said he has worked about 20 sales since returning from school in June, but the Northwest Missouri State University agricultural sciences student qualified last weekend for the Iowa State Fair Auctioneering Contest semifinals through a strong performance he had last Saturday at a contest preliminary at the Iowa Auctioneer Association’s convention.

“It was a fundraiser with everything going to the association, but we had to buy three items ourselves and take them with us. We each had to go up, tell them who we are, thank them for coming, then you describe your first item and start selling it off,” Downing said. “It was a really fun time and the convention was full of educational seminars, so it wasn’t all about the contest.”

Downing is most interested in livestock and real estate auctions. He’s currently working as a contract auctioneer and gets auctions to work when he can.

“I know that as long as I am out there working with people I can give them my business card and they’ll be able to call me and work me in if it ends up working out,” Downing said. “I’ve gotta get a degree first, but hopefully I can maybe own my own sale barn someday and run my own auction block.”