Joseph Mast (right) is the voice of the auctioneer in a recent Geico commercial. Here, he tries to get a just a bit more money for one of the many heifers sold during the Nabholz Farm Golden Memories Sale Saturday in rural West Union. Meanwhile, owner Norm Nabholz (left) scans his sheet to see what what details he can provide about the next cow to be auctioned.
Famous auctioneer calls Nabholz Farm auction
By Chris Deback
cdeback@thefayettecountyunion.com
World-renowned auctioneer Joseph Mast was the voice of Nabholz Farm Golden Memories Sale on Saturday, June 18, in West Union.
It was through Fasig Tipton in Kentucky, for whom Mast conducts auctions on thoroughbred horses, that Norm Nabholz, host of the Golden Memories Sale, was able to get in touch with Mast. After a short discussion, Mast was onboard to call the sale.
Mast sold a cow named Anastacia for $69,000 to an online bidder from Pennsylvania. That was the highest bid placed on a cow during the sale.
“It was kind of a no-brainer for me because I have sold classic cars for my career, but I grew up milking cows,” Mast said. “It was kind of a throwback for me.”
Having sold all over the world, coming to West Union wasn’t a huge deal for a man with small-town roots. However, Mast admitted that West Union was one of the smaller towns in which he had ever conducted an auction.
The northeast Ohio native grew up on a dairy farm. It wasn’t until his father and uncle sold the farm just after Mast graduated from high school that he thought about a career as an auctioneer.
“My dad brought home a flier one evening for the Missouri Auction School in St. Louis and put it on the table,” Mast recalled. “He said, ‘I think you’d be good at it.’ I always liked being in front of crowds and performing, so I went to auction school and loved it.”
He graduated in 2000 and did a one-year apprenticeship before receiving his auctioneer’s license in 2001. Mast started small, working some estate sales. The first thing he ever sold was a bowling ball and a Little Tikes sandbox.
However, it wasn’t until he got into helping sell wholesale automobiles that Mast really came into his own. He started work with Barrett-Jackson 10 years ago and recently became the head auctioneer for its highly prized collectible cars.