Local auctioneer retires after 52 year career
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REXBURG – Reed Nord sat behind the wheel of a yellow 1972 Ford F-100 in a vacant lot off East 7th South in Rexburg during the last auction of his career Saturday morning.
The 84-year-old Ririe man started working in the auctioneering business 52 years ago and is officially retired.
Nord tells EastIdahoNews.com health challenges and advancing age are the main reasons he’s stepping down.
“Doing auctions is a stressful deal and I just figured this one here in Rexburg was a good time to quit,” Nord says.
He’s enjoyed fishing in Alaska over the years and he’s hoping to take another trip there this summer, if his health allows.
Though he’s looking forward to more time with his family, Nord says he’s grateful to have had such a rewarding career and it’s the people he’s going to miss most.
“There’s a lot of them who come to just about every auction sale that we have,” says Nord. “People around here are loyal.”
At the auctions Nord was a part of, customers paid with checks or cash. Debit and credit cards were not an option. Using this payment method has rarely been an issue with customers, which is a point of pride for Nord.
“Ever since me and Gale Harding (the auctioneer at Saturday’s sale) starting working together in 1981, I think we’ve only had two checks that ever bounced.”
He’s been a part of many multi-million dollar sales. Bank tellers are always surprised every check clears, he says.
Working as an auctioneer isn’t what Nord originally set out to do. He got his start working for an accountant in Idaho Falls. An auctioneer walked in the office one day and asked if Nord would clerk for him.
Nord wasn’t familiar with auctions or clerking, but the man persisted. Nord helped at one of his sales a short time later and it became a permanent gig.
In 1980, Nord went to auctioneer school. He and Harding have been working together since 1981, doing sales all over eastern Idaho. Most of them have been farm equipment sales.
He recalls an estate sale he did in 1999 that was particularly memorable. A friend who lived in Osgood had passed away and Nord was involved in a live auction of his machinery and other items.
“It was a huge sale and it took me and my wife almost two weeks to photograph the inventory and get it set up,” Nord says. “The bidding was vigorous all day long and there were probably 1,500 people there.”
In total, there were about $1.3 million in sales that day.
During another sale in Osgood, Nord says they hosted the first live auction west of the Missippi that was online. People from all over the U.S. were in attendance.
Historically, Nord says live auctions have been a social event for the entire family. Today, online auctions have become more common, eliminating the need for a physical gathering space.
It’s also made auctioneers less relevant, he says.
Auctions for construction equipment are still popular and tend to bring a lot more money. That’s what Nord says he would focus on if he was able to go back and do it all over again.
He was inducted into the Idaho Association of Professional Auctioneers Hall of Fame in 2017.
Though Nord has gotten behind the mic to fill in for Harding on occasion, he’s spent most of his career clerking and doing all the leg work so the auction can be successful. Playing second fiddle to Harding has been rewarding for him and he says “it’s been a great ride.”
“It’s just been a good experience. I’ve enjoyed it,” he says.
