Local auctioneer, 14, wins international title

Barth continues in family business

COLUMBIA BASIN - Jake Barth began selling for Chuck Yarbro Auctioneers at the age of 9, but he's been involved in the family business since nearly day one.

"I was two weeks old at my first auction sale, and I think I was 5 when I started running clerk sheets," he said. "I started ringing probably when I was 7, and I took my grandpa and said, 'Papa, I'd like to start learning how to sell.'"

"It's a wonderful thing for a grandfather to be able to have a grandchild involved in the business," Chuck Yarbro Sr. said, noting all seven of his grandchildren are involved, although Jake is the only one selling at the moment.

"My grandpa did it," Barth said of the reasons he wanted to become an auctioneer. "When I was younger, my grandpa was my idol. He still is, but my grandpa did it and it was a family business. It was cool at that time. When you're 9 and you have relatives that talk on the microphone all the time and people look up to, laugh about, always wave to and they're famous, that's definitely something you want to do."

Barth, 14 and a 9th grader at Quincy High School, was selected champion at the second annual International Junior Auctioneer contest, put on by the National Auctioneers Association in Nashville, Tenn., on, July 11. His parents are Todd and Lisa Barth, also of Quincy.

"You couldn't stop my heart," Barth recalled of his victory. "I thought it was going to bounce right out."

"It's a wonderful thing to see a youngster compete and deal with adults like he dealt with them," Yarbro said. "It makes you feel pretty good."

Yarbro said Barth was talking about joining the family business from day one, and they often traveled together when Barth was a toddler.

"He was always in his place, so to speak, never disruptive, easy to be around and the adults always liked him," Yarbro said. "So he really never came to me. I guess it was more of an assumption."

So Yarbro started teaching his grandson numbers in increments and tongue twisters in order to begin speaking like an auctioneer.

"There are several different ones you can use," Barth said. "There's tongue twisters you can use to speed up your chant, but when you speed up your chant, you also want to make it clear and have a good roll. There's also a couple tongue twisters you can speed up your chant and also slow down your chant with."

As an auctioneer, one is in charge of everything, Barth explained.

"The main thing he said is, whatever you say, it's your call," he remembered. "No one else is on top of you when you're an auctioneer. When I was young, I thought that was pretty darn cool: No one is in charge of me."

Barth also began working with his uncle, Chuck Yarbro Jr.

"My grandpa got me started, and I love my grandpa for it, he's an awesome guy, but my uncle took me under his wing and put up with me," Barth said. "There's a lot of auctioneers I like and I'll listen to some and find what I like and don't like, but my uncle's chant is the one I try to copy the most."

"It's exciting for him," Chuck Jr. said of Barth's award. "He has worked hard at this. He's committed to being a good hand and working with us. He's always one of my top choices if I have a job to take him with me. For a young man to face peers, face a crowd and take whatever emotion, if there was any fear, and take that, use that, channel it and win it, it's a big deal. A sign of maturity, I think."

Barth and Chuck Jr. work on fund-raisers in Moses Lake and in Spokane at an automobile auction every other Tuesday.

If there's a downside, Barth said, it's that he doesn't exactly enjoy waking up early in order to travel to an auction.

"But then once I get woke up, it's pretty good," he said with a grin. "My uncle's pretty nice, he'll let me sleep on the way down and then wake me up when we get 15 minutes out of town."

Barth said he is glad he realized he wanted to be an auctioneer at that early age.

"I'm having the time of my life with it," he said. "It's enjoyable and it's definitely what I want to do for a career. I'll go to college and hopefully come back to Moses Lake with the family, if they still want me."

Barth enjoys traveling and meeting people as part of the job, noting he gets to see the world.

"It's now where I'm doing fund-raisers by myself," Barth said. "I mean, I have to get someone to drive me. That's going to be great when I turn 16."

"Each of our kids have worked in it," Chuck Jr. said. "We've started them young, knowing whatever they do in life, they're going to take it with them, those skills and things they learn."

"I could stand here and brag all day long," Chuck Sr. said. "It's just nice to have a young person that is wanting to do well at what he enjoys."

For other people considering a similar career, Barth advises having a passion for it.

"If you do it because someone says you should do this or you say, 'Hey, that sounds cool,' that's great, but if you don't have the passion for it, you'll never last," he said. "It takes dedication, patience. You can't just one day say, 'I want to be an auctioneer,' and wake up the next morning and have a chant like Jeff Stokes, Bryan Knox or whoever. It's dedication and patience, but if they do that and just give it time, it's something I would say, 'Hey, look into it.'"