Annville auctioneer still loves his job after 60-plus years in the business

Harry Bachman always knew what he wanted as a career from the time he was a young boy.

“I was going to auctions all of my life because we hauled a lot of cattle, but then we would go to the sale barn, let’s see, three times a week. Usually Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. And then we’d go to the sale barns and I’d sit there and listen to the auctioneer,” Bachman, who turned 79 in November, said.

What Bachman witnessed at those auctions spilled over into his home life.

“And then also, at home, we had a big room, that was our play room for the boys. And then, of course, we’d have all kinds of farm stuff and we’d have cattle. So then we’d have a sale, we’d have to sell these cows to my brother, so I’d be the auctioneer. I’d be selling them, but I sat in all the sale barns, I mean, like I’m saying, three times a week and heard all of them guys. So, yeah, that sort of got me excited,” Bachman said. 

Bachman is a familiar face at animal auctions in Lebanon County, including the Lebanon Area Fair, and at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. A professional auctioneer for 60 years, his Annville-based company, Harry H. Bachman Auctioneer, also conducts non-farm auctions.

He’s been the lead auctioneer for 30 or more years for the youth livestock, sheep-to-shawl quilts, and the bred gilt sales at the annual agricultural extravaganza in Harrisburg in January, and he believes he has about 40 years of running the livestock auctions at the county fair.

“Being at the Pennsylvania Farm Show, I’ve sold a lot up there for a lot of years, a lot of years,” Bachman said. “I do three different auctions up there.” 

A 1964 graduate of Cornwall High School and lifelong Lebanon County resident, Bachman left home to attend Reisch American School of Auctioneering in Mason City, Iowa.

“I went to school in December and graduated out of auctioneer school on Dec. 17,” Bachman said, adding some additional context concerning the intensive two-week course work. “One of the basic things that will teach you is breathing right. You know, you want to be able to get your diaphragm working.”

The diaphragm exercises led to other vocal workouts. The act of auctioneering is known by several names, including Bid Calling, Auction Chant, and Cattle Rattle.

“Then they would give you a lot of tongue twisters and you’d start doing that. Or you would learn to count, say like by 5 to 100, and then you keep doing that 5 to 100, and maybe give you tens to 100. And then everyone would say 100s back down to 5,” Bachman said. “Then they had sessions on how to set up an auction, how to do auctions, advertising and all that. Then we’d have, once or twice, they’d take us somewhere to an auction barn and then there’d be items there, and we’d all have to get up and sell some of it. Get up in front of everybody.”

After school, Bachman’s first job was working as an auctioneer’s apprentice for a period of time. (Years later, the state required that auctioneers be licensed, and Bachman received No. 33 since the test was administered alphabetically to auctioneers.) 

He clearly remembers that first sale and the nerves that went with his first foray into his professional career.

“You’re nervous standing up in front of the people because it’s the first time, you know, you’ve been standing in front of the people here that all know you. And you wonder, are they gonna bid or are they gonna just stand there,” he said. “Then there we were and it was a cold, cold day. I can remember that. And the wind was blowing and there we stood out in that (weather) selling stuff.”

As the times have changed, so has the way auctions are conducted by auctioneers. 

“Back then, you had to count differently than what you do today. We’d have nickel and dime bids, which today we don’t have any more,” Bachman said. “Now you still have nickel and dime for some things you sell today, like at a produce auction, something like that, but at a regular household auction, there are no nickel or dime bids. I don’t even take quarter bids now, only dollar bids.” 

As an auctioneer, you must wear different hats, literally and figuratively. For Bachman, he’s always in his familiar cowboy hat for farm-related auctions and wears a ball cap for non-farm sales. Part-showman, part-businessman, an auctioneer works to get the bidders on his side.

“I would say you try to interact with them. You know, and if you just talk to them awhile and all that, there’s usually a couple more bids left. For some reason, if you do it long enough, you can sort of see it in their eyes a little bit,” Bachman said. “If a man’s talking to his wife and she’s saying yes but he’s saying no, then you encourage her to get him to say yes and then you get another bid.”

An auctioneer must also be part psychologist.

“Keep smiling at him and maybe say a couple extra words in there. It’s a nice day and all that. You came here, you should be going home with that. Every sale is usually a little different. It’s psychology. You don’t want to say anything detrimental or do anything like that because you want to make them all feel welcome and be glad they’re at the auction,” added Bachman. 

While Bachman has made a living as an auctioneer, having conducted over 4,000 sales that have earned untold millions, he’s never charged for his professional services for youth sales at the PA Farm Show nor at the Lebanon Area Fair. (He’s also current president of the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center & Fairgrounds.)

The money that youths make at the sales sometimes buy another animal or as that person gets closer to graduation from high school, the money is invested to further their career path whatever it may be.

“I keep track of the farm show sales. And since I’ve been doing that, which is the gilts, not the junior’s sale, I’m up to about $3,500,000 worth of sales,” Bachman said. “When you say the ag industry, the industry is more than maybe being on a farm. There’s a lot of ag-related stuff and you keep busy with that ag-related stuff. There’s a lot of that around. No matter what it might be, something in the food line. And you hear the kids up there tell us a lot, I’m going to college, some of them go to college. They want to be a veterinarian, some want to go to food service or feeds or maybe farm equipment. But it’s all within the big picture of agriculture.”  

Bachman believes the biggest change to occur in the industry happened during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“Of course, you weren’t supposed to meet in person, and then everybody started doing the online auctions,” Bachman said. “You could still merchandise items, but just in a different way. People are changing a little, too. You have a newer generation and they’re not all auction-goers anymore. Because a lot of them don’t want to collect, they don’t collect items anymore like before.” 

The next public non-farm auction Bachman holds may be the most personal one he’s ever held. 

Bachman and wife Sandy, who has been his cashier for many years, will run a Downsizing Auction of many of their personal items on Saturday, May 2, beginning at 9 a.m. in the West Hall of the Lebanon Valley Exposition Center & Fairgrounds, 80 Rocherty Road, Lebanon.

“Glad to see it go. Everything must go,” Bachman said when asked for his feelings about selling many of his life’s possessions.

This event is not his swan song nor does he believe that auctioneers are a dying breed. For himself, he still enjoys the craft too much to hang up his auction gavel. 

“Maybe they’re (auctions) going to change some more, but I don’t see it (ending). You’re still gonna need the auction method,” he said. “You go to all these livestock auctions like New Holland. I mean, that’s the only way that’s going to work. And cars, I mean, they’re still selling cars even though more of that’s online. They’re still selling them, so I don’t see it going away.”