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S&J Auctions: Going The Extra Mile For Customers Brings Success
S&J Auctions founder Seth Salter goes the extra mile for his customers, sometimes the extra hundred miles. “Ninety-nine percent of the people we’ve sold for, I went out there, whether they are in Texas, Montana, Wisconsin, I went there and I shook each and every one of their hands and looked them in the eye,” he says. “They know who they are selling with, they know they can trust me.”
The personal touch is important to him and his business partner Jarod Jaeger, the J of S&J Auctions. “We’re a small company. There’s just a few of us, so when I’m working with someone, it’s me talking to the customer, it’s me going out and taking pictures of the customer’s equipment, it’s me listing it, it’s me taking the phone calls,” Salter says. “I’m not passing them off to someone they’ve never met.”
Jaeger is the ag expert of the duo. He grew up on a farm and still farms today. “It allows us to be a little more in touch with our customers,” Salter explains. “We understand their needs. We’re in the field, literally in a combine, so we have firsthand knowledge in the industry, what crop yields, input prices, and commodity prices are, and it allows us to have a little bit better feel for the market as well.”
Success Is In The Details
Salter doesn’t travel alone when he goes out to meet a customer. On every trip to visit a seller, Salter brings his drone. It’s part of the attention to detail that makes his listings stand out on AuctionTime.com. “I shoot everything, photos and videos, with my drone,” he says. “I take a ridiculous amount of photos and spend a lot of time on each one.”
His photography work helps his listings stand out among the thousands of machines on AuctionTime and TractorHouse. “If there are 500 S780 combines and they all look the same, if I can do anything to make mine stand out just a little bit more, I think that adds a huge benefit to our sellers, and I’ve seen firsthand results with more calls.”
Creating A Virtual Walkaround
The photos and videos are crucial because many buyers are far away and will only see the asset online before deciding whether to bid or make an offer. “They don’t have the opportunity to get in the car and drive 15 hours to look at a piece of equipment,” Salter explains.
“If there are only four photos and two have the sun glaring in them, buyers will do one of two things. They’re either just not going to bid because they don’t know enough about the machine or, if they do bid, they won’t bid very much. That’s why I take 130 to 140 photos, so buyers can get a virtual walkaround of the equipment and feel like they know enough about it to be confident in what they are buying because it’s just not feasible for a guy in New York to go look at a tractor in Kansas.”
Success With Pre-AuctionTime
When adding items to AuctionTime, Salter frequently adds assets to Pre-AuctionTime to give them the opportunity to sell at retail or wholesale before the auction date.
“I swear by Pre-AuctionTime,” says Salter. “I can’t even count how many successes we had with Pre-AuctionTime. There have been times when we’ve taken a guy’s listing from TractorHouse that wasn’t getting calls and has been sitting for five or six months. We take it, get our own photos, and put it on Pre-AuctionTime, and it sells for what they were asking or more within a week. We’ve had assets on Pre-AuctionTime sell in less than 24 hours. I always push it with our customers if their timeline allows it. Pre-AuctionTime works.
“We recently did a small retirement sale for a guy in Kansas. We had about 10 items total, and we sold four on Pre-AuctionTime, two of which sold within 48 hours. What did go to AuctionTime had two to two and a half months on Pre-AuctionTime. We had a John Deere 8410 that was listed at $74,500 at retail and $67,500 at wholesale. We had so much interest in it we could have sold it pre-auction, but we ended up letting it go to auction, and it brought in $81,000. The seller was so happy.”
Big Goals, Bright Future
S&J Auctions hopes to continue to build on the exponential growth they’ve seen each year with some specific goals. “In the next year or two, we want to build a significant location where we can have a physical yard, take on physical consignments, and hold some live auctions,” says Salter. “We also want to get into more of the retail market and expand our overall footprint in the equipment business.”
Salter spent a lot of time in 2024 forging relationships with dealers and performing inventory reduction sales for them with great success and hopes to continue to hold more dealer auctions throughout 2025 and into the future. “Almost every dealer in America is already using Sandhills' platforms to retail their equipment. Many think they have to either hold auctions themselves or hire a third party. We are providing a middle-ground solution where they can stay with Sandhills, use a third party to handle the legwork, and still have retail and wholesale opportunities. Simply put, the best and easiest way to sell their equipment is with us through AuctionTime.”
A version of this article first appeared in Sandhills Magazine. You can find current and back issues in the Sandhills Magazine Archive.