I will be the first to say I’ve had a blessed life.

Everyone has their ups and downs, life is just that way. The birth of two healthy kids, going through a divorce, living a radio dream in Seattle, losing a parent. You’re up, you’re down. But every day when that alarm goes off and I pry those weary eyes open, I make it a point to realize just how good I’ve got it compared to so many other people on this planet. I believe it’s important to realize that every morning before heading off into another day with humility, not knowing what adventures lie ahead.

I’ve been able to dabble in the world of auctioneering, something that I stumbled into and, like life, it’s an experience that has had its ups and downs. My first experience at auctioning something off came back during my Murdock, Hunter & Alice days at KLSY. The radio station was the official media sponsor for the first Richard Karn celebrity golf event that he sponsored for several years to raise money to fight cancer, which had claimed his mom a decade earlier.

The “celebrities” were a hodge-podge of names you would have recognized back in the day. Think early 1990s. I mean, after all, Richard was best known as Tim Allen’s sidekick, Al, in the TV series, “Home Improvement.” Other golfers that were part of the event included–a very young Samuel L. Jackson, the actors who played Sam Drucker and Hank Kimble from the TV series, “Green Acres”, Debbie Dunning the “Tool Time Girl” on Home Improvement and even Casey Sander, who was a co-star on the series, “Grace Under Fire.”

Following a day of golf, we gathered somewhere on stage and Richard thought it would be a great idea to have an impromptu auction. What would be the item to be auctioned? How about a backstage pass to watch one of Casey’s episodes of “Grace Under Fire” being shot down in Hollywood. It didn’t come with airfare or hotel, but there you were. And who was going to auction it off? Well, those Murdock, Hunter and Alice clowns who happen to be on stage. It was painful. We were looking for bids and none came. I mean, not even crickets were chirping out of fear we might misconstrue it as a bid. Finally, Casey came out and begged for a bid and when no one raised their hand, he offered up $1,000 for it. Well, that greased the skids and a couple of bidders stepped forward out of pity and we sold the item.

That was my first actual experience at auctioneering, and it was a disaster.

So, years went by before I dared trying an auction again. I believe it was the Norwegian Ladies Chorus of Seattle who thought it would be a good idea to have me get up there at their spring event and sell a few items. After several years of doing it, I started to gain some confidence. Then, hanging out with my buddy, Ken Carson, a serious auctioneer, I got to watch him at work, see how a real successful auction clicked and over time, I honed my auctioneering skills. I’ve found myself being an auctioneer at grade school events, the Bothell Boosters annual gathering, the Bothell Kenmore Chamber and so on. I’ve done enough by now to have learned the ins and outs, and I’m willing to share. There are the hucksters and the livestock-style auctioneers who ramble quickly and think, “Now THAT’S how you do an auction!” But my style is more of an energetic, but more fun-based approach. For me, it has worked well, where the crowd doesn’t feel pressured to bid and actually wants to get involved because it looks fun. And the dirty secret about auctions, if you’re an auctioneer–something will go wrong, sometimes terribly wrong. It always does. But if you count on that happening and just roll with whatever you’re dealt, it always amazingly works out!

So, it came to pass recently that a friend who was just starting out on auctions needed me to fill in for him. “It’ll be something like four items” and I thought, “Oh, sure, I can handle that.” It would be on a Saturday night (well, I can tape the Husky game and watch it when I get home), it was only just a few items and for a really good cause, the Ballard FC Foundation, which puts on free soccer clinics for kids all over Seattle.

The big night arrived, it was a sold-out event in downtown Ballard, and very Loosey-goosey. In fact, it wasn’t until right before the auction got  underway that I found out from one of the organizers that there was only one item to be auctioned off: a barrel of Willetts whiskey, where you would travel back to their distillery in Tennessee, taste a few barrels and decide which one you’d like bottled up for you. Yes, 200 bottles worth of pure American bourbon.

A fellow named Mike described the item to the crowd, told me to take it away and then after handing me the microphone, whispered under his breath, “Start the bidding at $125,000.”

Wait–what?

The shadows on the streets started to form the shape of Richard Karn’s face when I took a deep breath and asked the audience for that first bid. “OK, we’re going to start out the bidding at $125,000. Do I have a bidder? $125,000.”

After what seemed like two hours up on the stage (but was probably only about 20-seconds), a hand came up. I quickly said, “$125,000…..how about 130?” Another hand went up. OK, now it’s getting fun. I went back and forth between the two gentlemen until it got to around $190,000 when a third bidder entered the picture. I’ll be completely honest: I’m not even exactly sure how we got there, but a few moments later, that barrel of bourbon sold for $220,000. With the Ballard FC Foundation getting half of that, which will fund that program for over a year.

With the top bidder

I go back to my auction Golden Rule–I guarantee, even if you’re only auctioning off only one item, something will go in a direction you hadn’t planned on. That’s when it’s entirely up to you to steer the situation, to keep going and keep it fun and somehow, it always works out.

Sometimes you just gotta believe.

Tim Hunter