Q&A with JillMarie Wiles

TRIBUNE: Art form?

WILES: There’re number sequences to learn, like, two and a half, five, seven and a half, ten …

TRIBUNE: Whoa. Slower.

WILES: They call them quarter, half, 75 drills. And then there’s counting 50s up to 1,000. You need to know the sequences because when you’re up on the auction block having interactions with the bidders, the numbers change. You might be going in $100 increments and you’ll need to change it to $50 increments.

TRIBUNE: Ever make a mistake?

WILES: The first goof was the first time I ever sold to real people at auction school. There were four dining room chairs. It was an antique sale. I told the audience that they were going to get their choice of which chair they wanted if they were the high bid.

I thought I was going to the moon; I got $75 a chair. And I said, “Sold, $75, which one would you like?” And (the bidder) stood up and yelled back, “That’s for all of them.”

My face was red and my heart was beating in my throat. I thought I was going to pass out. I stuttered and said, “No, you’ve got your choice.” And you know what? The crowd turned on him. I instinctively went to the next highest bidder, who was $70, and said, “How many would you like?” And she said, “I’ll take all of them for $70 each.” It showed me how important that relationship is with your audience.

TRIBUNE: What other attributes do you find in auctioneers?

WILES: Auctioneers are innovative. They have to be. We’re trained to watch the market and to bring buyers and sellers together so we can achieve the highest prices. Auctioneers are always thinking.

TRIBUNE: Is that hard, to be thinking when you’re talking so fast?

WILES: I think they go together.

TRIBUNE: A favorite bidder story?

WILES: I had a very large school auction, about 600 people in the room. This gal really wanted this children’s game table, and the other bidder dropped out.

I said, “You’re at a thousand, I’m asking $1,100,” and her hand popped up again. I said, “Do you want to bid $1,100?” And her hand popped up again. I said, “How about $1,200?” And her hand popped up again.

“By this time the whole audience’s eyes were on her and she’s the only one that’s not getting it. We’re up to $1,800 and her entire table is trying to tell her to stop bidding, stop bidding.

We got to $2,000 and I said, “You have the bid at $2,000 and I’m going to sell it to you right now.” The crowd roared, they were standing up and applauding her.

I went up to her afterward and said, “You could have had that for a thousand.” And she said, “I don’t care. I just wanted to buy it.” Who am I to unravel that one?

TRIBUNE: Does your husband ever ask you to slow down when you’re talking?

WILES: He’s an auctioneer, too. My 4-year-old can auction. She’ll line up her baby dolls in the bathtub and say, “I’m going to sell you these baby dolls, mom.” And she’ll yell out the auction chant. She’ll always stop at $4 because she’s 4 years old and she loves the number 4.

TRIBUNE: I think we’ve got enough here.

WILES: Well, this has been a delight talking to you, but you need to get a dictation machine so you don’t have to type. Then your interviews can talk as fast as they want. Or learn to type faster.

– Peter Korn