Auctioneer balances fun with profit

MAT-SU — Hicks Creek Auction Co. owner Arnie Hrncir can be compared to a circus ringmaster. He sees his auctions as the greatest show on earth and wants them to be a destination.

“We want it to be an event,” said Hrncir as he prepared for next week’s complete dispersal auction. “We want them talking the day after the auction. ‘Were you there yesterday? If not, you missed it.’”

Hrncir started in the auction business after the state bought out the Hicks Creek Road House for the realignment of the Glen Highway. It was kind of out of the blue, he said.

“I looked at my wife and said, ‘I am going to go to auctioneer school,’” he said.

Hrncir said he remembers attending auctions as a kid. “I used to always go to the auction with grandpa — the old cattle auctions — and I was always intrigued by the auctioneer from the time I was knee high and on up.”

So in 2004 he went to school to perfect his call and learn the ins and outs of the auction business. Now it’s 2013 and Hrncir’s auction company is going strong with auctions all over the state.

That success is built around fun and the love of the work.

“I think that the bottom line is if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, then change your career,” he said. “So we try to make this as fun as possible.”

Hrncir likes to ask the question, what do you think of our auction? “If I get the answer ‘it is fun,’ then I feel like we’re doing our job,” he said.

Getting to that point takes a lot of behind-the-scenes work that begins weeks before the auction date.

Preparing for an auction takes a lot of research. Hrncir said he uses industry references like a book titled “Last Bid,” which lists what equipment has sold for at other auctions over the last few years. He calls that where-the-rubber-meets-the-road pricing. He also makes calls around town to see what certain things are priced at. Then there is checking serial numbers on heavy equipment. When it comes to the heavy equipment, Hrncir said, the customer is almost always wrong in knowing exactly what he has.

Then everything has to be organized, tagged and recorded for the auction catalog. Then there is advertising the event and creating a buzz.

“You have to put all these things together,” Hrncir said. “You have people coming from all over the state. They are going to all meet here at the perfect hour, we’re going to have the crowd, the food and it is almost is like magic.”

For it all to work, Hrncir insists it has to run like a well-oiled piston.

“From the clerks to the office women to the auctioneer to the sound people, just on and on and on. It all just has to click and clack,” he said.

But he said that when the auctioneer has a good chant, the food is good, you’re getting smells from the burgers being cooked on the grill, the numbers are good and people’s hands are in the air, you just think, “Wow! How did all that happen?”

Hrncir said that until you put together an auction you have no idea the work that goes behind it.

When asked how he manages, he counters with, “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”

Hrncir knows his job first and foremost is to get the most money for every item up for auction.

“I work for the client,” he said. “My job is to get the most money possible.”

For Hrncir, the reward not always comes from making money. What really loves to do are benefits.

“What’s fun is doing the benefit auctions,” he said. “That’s when you put your heart and soul into it.”

Hrncir said they did auction for the Kenny Lake Hockey team. “We raised over $10,000 for their equipment. So, when you see the pads that the kids are wearing and you know those came from the proceeds of the auction, it makes you part of the team.”

Hrncir said it’s those kinds of things he loves. Being in a position to give back to the community or help someone out.

As for the future of Hicks Creek Auction, Hrncir’s outlook is somewhat mixed.

“One thing we all have in common is we have too much stuff, “ he said. “This auction, for example, we have crates and crates of stuff.”

But he also cautions that these types of auctions could be only something people may someday only read about in the history books. That is why he loves to see young people at his auction.

“I love when they bring their kids to an auction. We’ll go after a man just to let his kid hold up his hand bid,” he said. “That child’s going to remember that for the rest of his life.”

He said he wants to see the youth involved because auctions are fun. “With everything going electronically these days who knows? For the next generation these out-cry auctions could be a thing of the past.”

Contact photo editor Robert DeBerry at photos@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.

Who: Hicks Creek Auction Co.

What: Complete dispersal of all-purpose buildings

When: March 23. 9 a.m.

Where: Mile 1, Palmer Wasilla Highway.