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A11V lA/Ol 1 VU UV/11 Vno bad checks. Everybody’s good. Super good people. Seventy-five percent of the people here today will write checks.“Many Virginia and North Carolina people come. That’s why I treat ’em good. I can look up and see ’em coming back. And I love that, when I look up and see ’em.“That’s why, when everyone leaves here, I want ’em to be happy. If I sell you a piece of electrical equipment, I tell you to try it out. Plug it up right there. Try it out. You can’t bring it back tomorrow, now. You got to bring it back today. If you bring it back today, and say this won’t work, I’ll resell it.‘When everybody gets ready to leave, I want everybody to be happy. When everybody gets ready to leave, I help them to load their stuff up. Everybody is one big happy family when we leave here.”To ensure happy campers, Ayers takes special care not to overlook a bidder.“If you want someone mad at you, then you let someone bid and not see ’em,” he said.“The/ll look at you and say, ‘Don’t you want to sell it tome?’”In 100 or so auctions, Ayershad only one nasty experience. That came in Beckley, where a bidder rolled ud a tab of ex-tuicii pcupic o lauuijthey have yard sales. That’s the worst thing they could do. They have maybe five people walk up a time to buy the stuff.“I’ll have over 150. We havecompetition. When you go to a yard sale, they got a price set on that stuff. Nothing here’s got a price on it. If I hold up that shotgun, and you bid a $1 on it, and no one else bids, that’s your shotgun. You’re going to leave here with thatgun. At a yard sale, you wouldn’t get that gun for a dollar.”At the National Mine Health and Safety Academy, he puts in a 40-hour week, teaching such courses as ethics, sexual harassment, defensive driving, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, first aid and substance abuse.When hunting season arrives, don’t try to book Ayers for an auction. This fall, he hopes to hunt elk out West.“I really enjoy this,” he said. “If I didn’t, I couldn’t do it.”In Leroy Van Dyke’s classic song, the smitten youngster went on to become the finest auctioneer in the land. Is such a distinction awaiting Ayers inthe future? Who knows.Yet, the song has been a source of inspiration to many in the trade, Ayers included.“If I could auction the way he sings, I’d probably be a millionaire ” he laughed.
Newspaper Details
Beckley Register Herald
Beckley, West Virginia, US
Thu, May 19, 1994
Page 15
Full Page
Clipped by
Ashley A.
NA, NA 16 Jan 2021
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