20 For 20: When the World Stopped, the Auctions Didn’t

By Jason R. Roske

20 for 20: Stories from 20 Years in Auctions

When I was thinking about March Madness this week, it occurred to me that what we went through during Covid is a huge part of our 20 years of business. Six years ago this week fans were allowed to go the first-round games of the tournament at T-Mobile Center, but the second round games were cancelled. Not just for fans but cancelled altogether. This was a weird, scary and uncertain time in our lives and in our business.

We were getting ready to publish an online auction for the King Estate which was a nice collection of Americana and primitives. The client was extremely concerned that no one would want to bid in the auction. Society was concerned that the economy was going to tank and we were looking at immediate options in case those scenarios played out in real life.

Before Covid, most of the auction and dealer world was still built around people being in the same room. Live auctions, antique shows, estate sales with lines out the door, fundraising events packed with bidders. That was still the backbone of how things worked. We had already moved to online-only auctions years earlier, which at the time felt like a leap. But we were in the minority. Most of our colleagues across the country were still relying on live events in some form. When those disappeared overnight, a lot of people didn’t just lose traffic. They lost their entire business model.

Even for us, with an online model already in place, there were no guarantees. Before moving forward, I felt like we needed something more than optimism. We needed evidence. We had been tracking our auctions for years. Daily numbers. Registered bidders, bids placed, lot views. So, I went back and started building a baseline of what a normal auction should look like, day by day.

By day three, we should see a certain level of activity. By day five, more. By day seven, more again. I brought that information to our client and said, “Let’s not guess. Let’s test it.” We scheduled their auction to be online for three weeks instead of two and watched the numbers closely.

What happened next shifted everything.

The activity didn’t drop. It increased.

More bidders. More views. More bids. Every metric was outperforming what we had seen before. When the auction closed, the results were strong. Stronger than expected. That gave us confidence. Not just to keep going, but to lean in.

At the same time, we started thinking about the people around us.

Many of our friends in the business were full-time antique dealers who relied on shows to make a living. With shows canceled indefinitely, they were stuck at home with inventory and no outlet. So we created Remote Auctions Kansas City, or RAKC.

It wasn’t complicated, and that was part of the point. We gave dealers access to our platform and, just as importantly, our buyer base. They handled their own photos, descriptions, and pickups. We handled the visibility. Emails, social media, auction calendars. We drove traffic to their sales and let them keep working. It gave them a way to generate revenue at a time when their normal channels had disappeared.

At the same time, nonprofits were facing their own version of that same problem.

Fundraising events that had been planned for months or even years were canceled almost overnight. For many organizations, those events weren’t optional. They were essential. We were able to help several groups transition their auctions online. The Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, Symphony in the Flint Hills, Owen-Cox Dance Group, and the Kansas City Symphony Secret Art Auction all come to mind.

Instead of a single evening event, bidding stretched over days. Instead of a ballroom, the audience was wherever people happened to be. But the purpose stayed the same. Raise funds. Stay visible. Stay connected. Looking back, that part of it matters just as much as anything else we did.

There were also smaller things that came out of that time, things that probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise. We ran appraisal specials because people were finally home long enough to go through drawers, safes, and collections that had been sitting untouched for years.

And I started a podcast, Behind the Gavel With Jason. It gave me a reason to connect with people when everything else felt disconnected. I talked with dealers, gallery owners, nonprofit leaders, journalists, and anyone I thought would be interesting. Not just locally, but from all over. Everyone had time. Everyone was open to it. And for a while, it worked really well.

That series is dormant now. Like a lot of things, it takes more time than I have these days to do it the way I would want to. But during that window, it was a meaningful way to stay engaged.

Behind all of this activity, there was also a quieter reality.

Like everyone else, we didn’t know how bad things might get.

There were real conversations happening at home. Stacey and I talked through worst-case scenarios. What if this lasted longer than expected? What if the market did drop? Would we sell our home or the business building? Which one would we keep, and why? Those aren’t conversations you expect to have when things are going well.

But that time forced a level of reflection and planning that most businesses never slow down long enough to do. It wasn’t just about reacting. It was about preparing.

And then, unexpectedly, the market did something no one predicted.

Our buyers didn’t disappear. They were home. They were spending time in their spaces. Renovating, redecorating, paying attention to their surroundings in a way they hadn’t before. They weren’t traveling or going out, and in many cases, they had more disposable income than usual.

And they were online. Traffic went up. Bidding went up. Prices went up. For about two years, the market was incredibly strong. Eventually, things leveled out. As the world reopened, prices stabilized. By 2023 and 2024, we started to see a pullback from those peak levels.

But that period changed how I look at the business.

What This Moment Taught Me About Auctions

Auctions are adaptable. The format can change quickly if it needs to.

Data matters. Having real numbers to rely on made it easier to move forward when things felt uncertain.

Relationships matter. RAKC and the nonprofit auctions weren’t just business decisions. They were about helping people navigate a difficult moment.

Our business is nimble. Even in a situation where everything feels unstable, there is usually a way forward if you are willing to adjust.

Looking Back

That time was uncertain, and because of that, it forced us to be focused.

We were solving problems in real time, paying attention to what was actually happening, and making decisions based on that.

Many of the changes that came out of that period are still part of how we operate today. In some ways, they made us better.

If you are working through an estate, holding onto a collection, or just not sure what the next step looks like, we are always happy to talk it through with you.