Auctioneer and owner of Brzostek’s Real Estate Auction Co.: Over 8,600 auctions in 52 years. ‘We’re still in business, still busy’
By Stefan Yablonski
Q: How did all this begin?
A: When I was a kid, we were in the antique business. My dad bought some old houses and remodeled them. They were full of stuff. This was back in the mid-60s. We got interested in antiques. We had a facility in Phoenix. We had antiques upstairs and we did lawn products downstairs. That was when I was like 10 years old. So, I have actually been in the antique business since I was 10.
Q: So your business evolved from there?
A: Then I went to auctioneering school, which my dad sent me to in 1973. Then we started doing auctions. He passed away at a young age, only 51, in 1976. We built an auction facility in Phoenix in 1978 and started doing auctions there.
Q: And then you got into real estate?
A: I got my real estate brokers license in 1986. So we can sell a person’s house and auction off things, too. It’s like a one stop shop — we can handle everything for them.
Q: Do you do large auctions?
A: One so big we are only going to be able to sell the stuff on the first floor, not going to be able to get to the upstairs (laughs). The season is going to close in on us and we will have to come back in the spring and finish selling things upstairs. And the garage is full of stuff also — there is actually a car back in there, but we haven’t seen it. There is supposedly an old Triumph Spitfire; it’s got to be way in the back with four thousand things piled on top of it.
Q: What’s strangest thing you ever auctioned off?
A: We did a doctor’s house and he had two human skulls in there. A lady in Oswego bought those. She paid $500 apiece. Her daughter took one to school one day. She called me and told me that somebody stole it out of her daughter’s locker. They found it lying on the railroad tracks. The cops called me and wanted to know if it was [a missing person]. I said no [she] bought it at an auction. That was definitely a strange moment.
I’ve sold everything from cars to airplanes, even an airport over in Waterloo — their old airport.
We sell more than 100 houses every year. We do the Jefferson County tax collection, tax delinquent properties.
Q: How has business been?
A: Counting all the auctions since I started, we just exceeded 8,600 auctions in 52 years. We’re still in business, still busy. I got 30 days’ worth of auctions coming up in the next two months. We have had 10-day auctions on just one person’s house — they have so much stuff we call them members of hoarders anonymous. However, as the old-timers are passing away these days, they have all these antiques and things the younger generation — the IKEA generation — they just are not fond of antique things for the most part. Some are, but not enough to sustain the price that things used to bring even just 10 years ago.
Q: What’s coming up?
A: We are starting to sell homes that are furnished. The furniture will add more value to the house. We are doing Constable, Camillus, Skaneateles, Marcellus and Sherburne. I have another two-day auction up in Taberg where we are selling a house that’s loaded with antiques.
Q: Do you have a big staff?
A: We have three women in the office doing the advertising and the real estate. And my sister-in-law, she’s worked with me for 40 years. She handles the contents, the personal property aspect for auctions.
Q: What are your hours?
A: We’ve basically been doing an auction every other day for 52 years, that’s our schedule. Now we are getting older, so we used to do 300 auctions a year back in the beginning. But now we have slowed down, only 100 auctions every year. But 100 is still more than what most auctioneers do. If they do one or two a month, they are doing good. We are doing three auctions every week right now.
Q: What’s the best part of your job?
A: We are helping people turn their hoards, so to speak, into cash. Nobody takes any of this stuff with them when they go. Everybody today is burdened with a lot of stuff. Most old-timers don’t sell their stuff when they are alive — it would kill them (laughs). We call it “I can’t get rid of it itis.” We got up the other day at 4 and we didn’t get home until 9. Business is good. People are having a need to get rid of things. Helping people out. I call myself the boulder remover. I take the boulder off of the top of people. They are loaded with all these things. Somebody left them all these things and now they want to downsize and an auction is the best way to get the highest price for them because you are selling every item to the person who paid the most.
Q: Do you do auctions online?
A: We don’t do things online because it is just too much manpower. We don’t lie, don’t cheat, we don’t steal. We treat everybody fairly. We videotape the whole auction. We have fun. I crack a few jokes along the way.
Q: Ever think about retiring?
A: No! I look at people like Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — they aren’t retiring. I tell people retirement leads to death. I do this for fun. I do auctions for fun. I used to farm it. But I don’t make a very good farmer because I have hay fever.
