After a one-year hiatus the 2024 winner of the South African Institute of Auctioneers (SAIA) SA National Auction Championship, Vincent Pike, has done it again taking top honours at the industry’s premiere event held at the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg recently.
The competition is held every year and has supported and boosted the careers of many of the country top auctioneers in recent years. It sees top auctioneers from across the country vie for top honours by auctioning various lots for charity. Competitors are judged on a host of criteria that includes preparation, engagement with the audience, control of bidders and bids, as well as the effectiveness of their chant and overall success of their auction among others.
This year, livestock auctioneer, Pike, faced the audience of peers and dignitaries as well as the expert judging panel and was able to shift gears from his highly technical and research-heavy animal sales to pull off a well-controlled and engaging auction of wine and a hunting trip that concluded with a tidy sum collected for charity at the fall of the hammer.
“This second win felt less nerve-wracking than the first one but it is no less significant for me. To me it is kind of confirmation that I am deserving of this massive honour among the highest level of competitors in the country. It really means a lot to me.”
He says that while observers may see auctions as a functional sales method there is a lot that goes into the preparation that is designed to introduce goods for sale in a positive manner and to lead bidders to paying a fair price. For him the real advantage this year was his control of the auction and engagement with the audience.
As with his day-to-day auctions as at Vleissentraal Bethlehem, Pike’s strategy during the auction was centred managing increments carefully based on demand from the bidders while maintaining the right speed and structure to keep bidders going. “As soon as I saw demand increasing, I adjusted increments and fetched a good price.
“But for me the auction started way earlier with preparation knowing the lots in detail before stepping into the ring. That included pricing context and planning the sale around the kind of demand i thought I could expect. I also planned the auction and had built up a solid narrative for each lot before I stepped up onto the stage.
“Being prepared is everything in this game and knowing the items and doing your homework is a key aspect of auctioneering. Then, when it’s your time to lead the auction, it becomes about pacing yourself, breathing, tempo and clarity and this was tough for me to do transitioning from fast-moving livestock auctions into a formal competition setting,” he says.
Pike says that winning the competition in 2024 gave his career a significant boost and thanks to his growing reputation within the livestock and auctioneering industry in general his career is flourishing. His work as an auctioneer currently spans commercial livestock, stud animals, online dispersals and some property-related sales.
He described the livestock environment as one of the most technically demanding segments of auctioneering as it requires constant calculation of slaughter values, market rates, feedlot pricing and animal condition in real time. This is something that is learned over many years and needs close attention to details including in-depth animal knowledge and a keen understanding of the market. Perhaps the finest skill he has learned for the competition is the ability to make decisions instantly without slowing the sale and this showed on the night. It also extends to sellers, where expectation management and transparency determine whether long-term relationships hold.
His victory adds to an expanding list of national achievements, including the Toyota SA National Young Livestock Championships title in 2023 and SAIA Auctioneer of the Year in 2024. He now turns his focus to the international stage the National Auctioneers Association (NAA) competition in San Antonio, Texas, taking place from 14–17 July.
He previously qualified in 2024 but was unable to attend due to financial constraints. This year, he plans to represent The SA Institute of Auctioneers (SAIA) as the 2026 SA National Auctioneers Champion, internationally and engage with auctioneers from across the world.
