Caleb DeKorne

How I Got My Start

How I did I get started? Let me embark from the very beginning.

When I was fifteen years old l attended my first auction. It was being conducted by a local auction service. It was a multiple ring auction with a lot of going on all at once,

I immediately became enamored with the fast paced rhythmic chant of the auctioneers.

I became obsessed with trying to figure out how the auctioneer could talk that way. Just ask my family the whole car ride home and for at least the next two weeks; I talked myself hoarse trying to figure out how to bid call.

For quite some time they were the only auction company I knew of in the area. So I made a point to go to they’re auctions to watch and listen. Roughly a year after that first auction the very same auction company held an auction across the road from my parent’s farm. I of course attended and after wondering around the auction all day; I finally worked up the courage to ask if they ever needed help.

The answer was yes. I started working for them a week later helping set up for a auction. For the next couple of years I continued working auctions helping set up for auctions, running sheets, working the ring, and from time to time they would let me try my hand at bid calling.

In 2016 I attended Worldwide College of Auctioneering, and received my auctioneer diploma. I then continued to work auctions for the next couple of summers. My employers made it a point to get me up to the block to sell as often as possible.

In the spring of 2018, I decided to take a break from auctions to go full time with my families honey bee operation. After a couple year absence from the auction industry I received a call from a Christian school in Grand Rapids in need of an auctioneer; for their annual benefit auction.

While conducting their sale I realized how much I missed working auctions. After that I made it my mission to reenter the auction world. It was spotty at first, only one or two sales a year until 2022 my busiest year ever. I helped conduct 12 auction sales and competed in one bid calling competition. I strive daily to grow my business as a freelance auctioneer working for as many auction companies and clients as possible.