Bob CollinsBertram Boyum, of Rushford, Minn., was already 92 when that video was made in 2010.
He’s still at it and now he’s Minnesota’s oldest auctioneer, the Winona Daily News reveals today.
He worked on a farm for 15 years but decided he wanted to do something different with his life. He started doing auctions at a church bazaar. That’s when an aunt told him a person could make a buck or two in the business.
Times have changed, he notes. The auction-attending crowd has gotten soft. Few auctions are held outside anymore. When they were, he told the Bluff Country News, if you bid first, he’d “get you out of there” and move on to the next item.
He doesn’t do regular auctioneering anymore, he told the News last month. He still does some “freebies,” however.
“I can still sell. My voice is still good,” Boyum said.
Not everyone can be an auctioneer, something some of the whippersnappers don’t get.
“There’s one thing that really bothers me with today’s auctioneers — you can’t understand them. That’s a disgrace to the auction profession,” he said.
