Jerry Helmer

HALL OF FAME
Jerry Helmer , CAI, AARE
2007 MAA Hof Fame Inductee

Being one of 10 children, Jerry has always had a strong sense of family. His children and grandchildren are the lights of his life. He has always been good at selling and started at a young age. He sold ducks, chickens, bird houses, corn, Christmas cards, encyclopedias, fireplace wood and most successfully real estate. When he met Lloyd Braun in the late 60’s auctioneering had never crossed his mind. When Lloyd said he thought he would go to auction school Jerry thought it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. But he thought it sounded like an adventure and he guessed he would go along.

In 1971, Lloyd and Jerry went to Reisch World Wide College of Auctioneering. Little did he know what an adventure it would be. Their first auction received press coverage in The Detroit News and they were instantly in business. It wasn’t just the selling things that made Jerry successful, it was also the caring. Jerry wanted to help people through what can be the traumatic process of disposing of a lifetime of memories. He always saw to it that they received the most money possible for their items. Happy, grateful faces at the end of the day made all the hard work worthwhile.

They did a lot of charity from the very beginning. It was very rewarding to help so many people and do it in such a fun way and fun is what Jerry is about. He likes to laugh and make people laugh. He can tell jokes for hours and sometimes does. He has his own following at auctions with people who can help him out with the punch lines if he forgets as they have heard the many jokes over and over. But they still laugh every time. He keeps talking retirement but has too much fun doing what he does too give up auctions completely.

Jerry is a Member of the National Auctioneers Association, a Life Member of the Michigan State Auctioneers Association, has earned his CAI Designation from the Certified Auctioneers Institute and his AARE Designation from the Auction Marketing Institute. In his career, Jerry has been involved in over 3000 auctions. He was inducted into the MAA Hall of Fame at their annual conference in Lansing, Michigan on February 2, 2007.