Sold!

April 30, 1987 — When Sandra Collier calls auctions, it’s anything but tongue- in-cheek business. “A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk,” sing-singed Mrs. Collier, a Shenandoah resident and one of Page County’s first, if not only, licensed woman auctioneers.

The chant was just one of several auction calling lessons taught at Mendenhall School of Auctioneering in High Point, N.C. For two weeks, Mrs. Collier and 64 classmates — 55 men, nine women — learned the fine points of soliciting bids at a breakneck pace from a staff of 17, including Don Williams, 1982 world champion caller.

Mrs. Collier graduated from the school Feb. 13 with high honors, 93 of 100 possible points on the final exam after earning the maximum 110 credit hours. In the second week of classes, Mrs. Collier collected four 9s (on a 10-point scale) in presentation, clarity, smoothness and speed.

With license in hand, she plies her craft at F&S of Virginia Inc. in New Market where used cars are peddled to the highest bidder. Her Virginia license also entitles her to call in West Virginia and North Carolina.

~ From the public archives of the Page News and Courier