Our Story

THE BEGINNING - 'A FAMILY AFFAIR'

Brent grew up in rural Solon, Iowa just 2 miles from where our current office is located and has lived in eastern Iowa his entire life. Because of this, his reputation is well known in the area for honesty, integrity and a strong work ethic! He grew up attending auctions with his father and quickly took an interest in the auction industry. Brent started working for a farmer next door at an early age and developed a love for agriculture, farming, and livestock. Along with that, a good appreciation for hard work an manual labor. When deciding on a career path, Brent chose to attend World Wide College of Auctioneering and try his hand at the auction business. He came home from auction school at 17 and began helping the local auctioneer at the weekly auctions in town and opened his own business not long after. 

Brent met his wife Donna at an auction and they have two children, Emily and Colton. While building his auction business, Brent worked full time at the University of Iowa for many years until 1998 when he decided to go full time with Wears Auctioneering. His family has always been heavily involved in the business and his kids grew up going to auctions every Saturday and learning the in's and out's of the auction world. So much so that 'family vacations' each year were to attend the National Auctioneers Association Conference and Show where Brent took classes and the kids enjoyed the local attractions. Along with his wife and children, both Brent and Donna's parents have been involved with the auctions as well as numerous nieces, nephews and siblings of Brent's family. It truly is 'a family affair!'. 

Brent's daughter Emily chose to follow in her father's footsteps and is in the auction industry full time working with Wears Auctioneering remotely and managing her own business in Idaho. 

You can read more about Brent and Emily's individual accomplishments by viewing Our Team page. 

 

Wears Auctioneering got its start on the lawns of many rural farms in Iowa, selling the contents of homes and acreages for estates or retiring farmers. We have always offered superior service but in the beginning our 'amenities' were minimal - hard work and help from our friends and family were what allowed us to grow the business. Our first "clerking trailer" was Brent's father, Paul's upholstery van with the sliding door open, a card table as a desk and a cash register for the monies. Back then, we clerked on paper and had to stick each 'ticket' into a sorting bin and manually add up each buyers purchases when they wanted to pay. Our modest beginnings were what have helped us earn the reputation we have today and are the reason why we work so hard to make sure each and every customer is given the best services we can provide.

(Paul Wears and the first "cashier trailer" - his upholstery van!)

Small estates and farm auctions here and there quickly turned into auctions every Saturday throughout the year as our business grew. We added Sunday auctions, Thursday night auctions, Tuesday auctions until finally - we started to run out of days of the week! At the height of our "live auction" days, we were conducting well over 70 auctions a year. (Considering that the winter months were limited - that was a lot of auction to fit into a span of about 8 months!)

Our fleet of services had grown to include a custom built mobile office (by Brent himself), a state of the art sound truck, a completely wireless clerking and cashiering system, customized portable restrooms, multiple professional sound systems, 6 custom wagons for item display, a cargo trailer built to house 1000+ feet of tables, sawhorses, signs, chairs, and numerous other supplies! We ensured every auction had a lunch wagon in attendance. Customer comfort and convenience was key - and still is today. 

It was about this time (mid-2000's) that the concept of "online auctions" was starting to circulate through the auction community. It became a hot topic at our conventions and conferences and we knew it was something we wanted to try in our area. We needed a way to continue to help the customers who were calling, but we knew we couldn't physically handle more live auctions with our staff and resources at the time. 

We started out introducing simulcast bidding on some of our auctions (live auction bidding with online bidding available simultaneously). Then we tried using the online only auction method for a few of our specialty auctions and were pleased with the response. From there our online auction business has grown exponentially and now we are doing more online auctions in a year than we are doing live auctions, in 2019 we conducted over 115 online auctions for customers in eastern Iowa. 

Though we enjoy our live auctions and the interaction with clients and customers, online auction are extremely efficient and in many cases the most sensible option for our clients needs. We love that we can offer services that are unique to each sellers needs. 

As our business grows so does our variety of service to our clients and that is something we pride ourselves on. 

"In life change is inevitable, in business, change is vital."  - Warren Bennis