MIDWEST AUCTIONEERS ROUNDUP HALL OF CHAMPIONS

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ELMER YODER WINS COVETED GOTOAUCTION.COM MIDWEST AUCTIONEER CHAMPIONSHIP

TIPTON, MICHIGAN – Professional auctioneer, Elmer Yoder from Millersburg, Ohio took top honors at the GoToAuction.com Midwest Auctioneer Championship – one of the most popular auctioneer competitions in the nation.

The GoToAuction.com Midwest Auctioneer Championship saw a field of 17 top-quality auctioneers from around the Midwest competing for the title of the Grand Champion of the coveted auctioneer championship.   The championship was held in conjunction with the Midwest Auctioneers Roundup hosted by the Michigan Auctioneers Association.  

The highly esteemed auctioneer championship saw five finalists including Jeremy Miedema of Byron Center, Michigan (5th place), Isaac Stoller of Bluffton, Indiana (4th place), John Beechy of Shipshewana, Indiana (3rd place), Keith Beachy of Dundee, Ohio (2nd place) and of course, the Champion Elmer Yoder.  All finalists received a plaque commemorating their achievement and a cash prize.

The Champion, Elmer Yoder was born and raised in Holmes County Ohio and now resides in Berlin Ohio with his wife Wilma, and two daughters, Angie, and Genesis. He is a first-generation auctioneer first licensed in Ohio in 2014. He has since been licensed in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Maryland, and Mississippi where he sells anything from heavy equipment to horses. When he is not on the road doing contract auctioneering, he serves the local area as a Realtor for Kaufman Realty and Auctions doing traditional listings as well as live and online auctions. He says he is lucky to be surrounded by a lot of great bid callers and people in the business that have mentored him and pushed him out of his comfort zone.

Elmer decided he wanted to be an auctioneer when he was 11 years old. He went to a large horse show just up the road from his house in Mt Hope, Ohio. Kaufman Realty put on an amateur auctioneers competition at the event. “Long story short a couple of my buddies bet me 5 dollars each if I enter which I couldn’t turn down. It ended up being the best decision I’ve ever made. After that, I bought a digital recorder and went to every auction I could and took the recorder home and drove my Mom and brothers crazy. I’ve loved competitions ever since and usually don’t get much sleep the night before.”

Elmer says “Many of you probably have questions about my right arm. It is a brachial plexus injury from a horse accident when I was 21 months old and affected my whole right side. Doctors said I won’t be able to walk but turns out the Lord works miracles every day.  I want to thank my wife for supporting me, and my Dad for pushing me day in and out to get into this business. Vern Yoder for pushing me to go to this competition and mentoring me from day one. Pat Kaufman for teaching me the ins and outs of real estate. There are so many people I owe for helping me along the way I can’t mention all of them, but you know who you are!”

The GoToAuction.com Midwest Auctioneer Championship was broadcasted live to a worldwide audience.  If you missed it, the videos are available on www.youtube.com/michiganauctioneers. “This is a unique competition in the sense there isn’t much in the way of rules – other than they must wear a hat, any hat, and sell what they are selling within a two-minute time frame. Contestants are scored exclusively on their real-world auction chant – and man, do they put on an authentic show!” Said GoToAuction.com co-founder and Marketing Director, Kenny Lindsay, CAI.