The generalist sells everything. The specialist sells one thing — and knows it the way a maker knows it. A cattle auctioneer reads a load of feeder steers the way a picture specialist reads a canvas; a bloodstock auctioneer hears a pedigree the way a wine auctioneer tastes a vintage. This guide maps the specialists of the auction world, sector by sector: thirty-five houses whose whole business is a single kind of thing.
The list covers seven sectors. Automotive, from the concours rostrums of RM Sotheby's and Gooding Christie's to the televised volume of Mecum and Barrett-Jackson and the screen-only marketplaces of Collecting Cars and Bring a Trailer — the last entered honestly as a marketplace, not a house with salerooms. Real estate, from Sotheby's Concierge Auctions and the no-reserve doctrine of Platinum to DeCaro and the distressed-property giant Auction.com. Land and ranch, livestock, equipment and industrial plant, wine, and bloodstock. For each house: its ownership as it stands in late 2026, its chief executive and its chair — verified individually — what it sells and how, its departments in full, its salerooms or their admitted absence, its sale calendar in words, and its published figures where it gives them. Where no official figure or title exists, the entry says "not published" rather than estimating one.
THE SPECIALISTS CHANGE HANDS, TOO
The succession season that swept the art majors in 2025–26 ran through the specialist trades in the same months. Zachys, the Scarsdale wine house family-led for eighty years, took in private investment that made the Zacharia family minority owners and confirmed its first non-family chief executive, Eileen Rizzo, with Jeff Zacharia moving to chairman. DeCaro, the Florida luxury-property firm, appointed a chief executive from outside for the first time — Mario Vargas, hired from its largest rival, Concierge Auctions. In Australia, Elders' managing director of twelve years, Mark Allison, handed over on 1 October 2026 to René Dedoncker. At Tattersalls, Matt Prior became managing director on 1 January 2026 beneath Edmond Mahony, chairman since 1993. Auction.com formalised a co-chief-executive structure. Hilco Global became majority-owned by ORIX USA. And RB Global, the Ritchie Bros. parent, agreed in March 2026 to absorb BigIron, the Nebraska farm platform — while its great British rival Euro Auctions remains defiantly independent, the one house in this guide whose independence is certified by a competition regulator: the CMA blocked Ritchie Bros. from buying it in 2022.
Two entries carry a cross-reference rather than a fresh claim to discovery. RM Sotheby's and Gooding Christie's appear in LIKE®'s general guide, The World's Auction Houses, as the motoring arms of the two great art houses; here they are covered from the motoring-specialist angle, against Broad Arrow, Mecum, Barrett-Jackson and the online platforms that are their real competitive set. The rest of the roster is new to these pages — including the oldest foundation in either guide's specialist ranks, Tattersalls (1766), and the youngest, Collecting Cars (2019).
HOW TO READ THE GUIDE
Three cautions, printed once here and applied in every entry. First, "saleroom" means different things by sector: a bloodstock pavilion, a cattle ring, a Borderway mart, a plant yard in Dromore — or no room at all, where the sector has moved entirely online, as with Purple Wave's iron sold from the seller's own field. The entries say which. Second, figures are never compared across definitions: Keeneland's $536.7 million is one sale's ring gross, Tattersalls' 426 million is a year's turnover in guineas, BigIron's $885 million is a marketplace's transaction value, and RB Global's $4.59 billion is a listed group's revenue — each is labelled with what it is. Third, the entry route is the point of a specialist guide: every entry ends with how a reader consigns, bids or sells — through a local representative in the livestock and land trades, through curation on the car platforms, through a listing brokerage in luxury property, or through the ring at Newmarket, Lexington and Carlisle.
AUTOMOTIVE
1. RM SOTHEBY'S — BLENHEIM, ONTARIO, CANADA
Founded 1991 (RM Auctions; restoration business 1976) · Automotive — live & online · Worldwide (motoring)
Ownership: Privately held, founded and led by Rob Myers, with Sotheby's holding an ownership interest first set at 25% in 2015 with governance participation and options to increase. The current percentage in 2026 is not published — named gap, flagged rather than assumed — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Rob Myers, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (founder) — both titles held by the same person
Chair: Rob Myers (see CEO field)
Sells: Live collector-car auctions, online auctions, private sales, sealed-bid sales, financial services and its own restoration shop — the only house in this guide that can restore what it sells
Departments: Collector Cars (single-marque, single-owner and estate collections); Automobilia; Private Treaty Sales; RM Auto Restoration
Salerooms: No fixed saleroom circuit in the gallery sense: sales are staged at Monterey, Amelia Island, Arizona, Paris (Rétromobile week), London, Milan/Modena, Munich, Dubai and at its Ontario headquarters previews
Calendar: The concours calendar is the calendar: Arizona in January, Paris in February, Amelia Island in March, Monterey in August as the peak, London and European autumn sales, and Dubai in the winter season
Scale: Not published as an annual total in sources checked, October 2026
Access: Register to bid per sale — in person, by telephone or online — with the financial verification the house publishes for high-value motor cars. Consign through car specialists in any office; private treaty and sealed formats are offered alongside the rostrum
Website: rmsothebys.com · Contact: Consignment, client services and office contacts via rmsothebys.com · Phone: +1 519 352 4575 (Ontario) · Headquarters: One Classic Car Drive, Blenheim, Ontario, Canada
Rob Myers's Ontario restoration shop of 1976 became RM Auctions in 1991 and the high-end collector-car market's leader; in 2015 Sotheby's took an ownership interest and the house became RM Sotheby's. CROSS-REFERENCE: this house also appears in LIKE's general guide, The World's Auction Houses, as the motoring arm in the Sotheby's orbit; it is covered here from the motoring-specialist angle. Seven of the ten most expensive cars ever sold at auction in the house's own count, and a name that is itself the record of a partnership: RM kept its initials, Sotheby's added its name and its client list. Notes: Cross-reference entry (see History). The relationship to Sotheby's is a minority ownership interest plus a comprehensive partnership, not ownership of RM by Sotheby's; the unpublished current stake is named as a gap
2. GOODING CHRISTIE'S — LOS ANGELES (SANTA MONICA), CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
Founded 2003 (as Gooding & Company) · Automotive — live & online · United States and worldwide (motoring)
Ownership: Christie's (Artémis) — wholly acquired 2024; the founding team and structure remained in place on the acquisition (Christie's release) — verified October 2026
Chief executive: David Gooding, President (founder; the house's chief executive in function — the president title is the house's own and is printed as published)
Chair: No separate chairman of Gooding Christie's is published — named gap; group chairmanship sits at Christie's
Sells: Live collector-car auctions at Pebble Beach and Amelia Island, geared online sales, and private sales, now marketed inside Christie's luxury division; its August 2025 Pebble Beach sale totalled over $128m in reported coverage
Departments: Collector Cars; Automobilia; Private Sales
Salerooms: Sales staged at Pebble Beach, California and Amelia Island, Florida; headquarters and previews in Los Angeles (Santa Monica)
Calendar: Two live anchors — Amelia Island in March and Pebble Beach in August, the latter the centrepiece of Monterey Car Week — with online geared sales and private treaty through the year
Scale: Gooding contributed $234m of sales in 2025 within Christie's reported totals (Artnet reporting of Christie's 2025 results)
Access: Register to bid per sale in person, by telephone or online with the house's published verification. Consign through Los Angeles or London specialists; private sales are conducted year-round
Website: goodingco.com · Contact: Consignment and bidding contacts via goodingco.com · Phone: +1 310 899 1960 (Los Angeles) · Headquarters: Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States (house headquarters; full street address via the website's contact page)
Founded in 2003 by David Gooding, Christie's former motor-car managing director, and Dawn Ahrens; acquired by Christie's in September 2024 — Christie's largest acquisition in two decades in its then CEO's words — and rebranded Gooding Christie's. CROSS-REFERENCE: this house also appears in LIKE's general guide, The World's Auction Houses; it is covered here from the motoring-specialist angle. The mirror image of RM Sotheby's: where RM kept its independence and took a partner, Gooding sold outright — the two houses now embody the two ways a car auctioneer joins an art major. Notes: Cross-reference entry (see History). Street address is stated at district level because the house's current contact page was not captured in this pass — named gap rather than a recalled address printed as verified
3. BROAD ARROW AUCTIONS — GROSSE POINTE, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES
Founded 2021 (Broad Arrow Group; first live auction August 2022) · Automotive — live & online · United States and Europe (motoring)
Ownership: Hagerty, Inc. (NYSE: HGTY) — Hagerty took a strategic stake and joint-venture position in 2022 and then agreed to acquire Broad Arrow Group outright (definitive agreement, 2022); the house trades as 'Broad Arrow Auctions, driven by Hagerty' — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Kenneth Ahn, Chief Executive Officer of Broad Arrow Group and President of Hagerty Marketplace (he continues to lead Broad Arrow within Hagerty in 2026 house releases)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap; group chairmanship sits at Hagerty, Inc.
Sells: Live collector-car auctions at concours events, Broad Arrow Private Sales, and online offerings inside Hagerty Marketplace — a concours-grade house built inside an insurance-and-membership ecosystem
Departments: Collector Cars (pre-war classics to modern supercars and hypercars); Private Sales; Automobilia within selected sales
Salerooms: No permanent saleroom: sales staged at Monterey Jet Center, Amelia Island (Ritz-Carlton), Las Vegas (Wynn, Concours at Wynn), Newport (Audrain, from October 2026) and Zürich (with Auto Zürich)
Calendar: Amelia Island in March, Monterey in August, Newport and Las Vegas in October and Zürich in November anchor the year, with private sales continuous
Scale: Over $111m at the single 2026 Amelia Concours Auction, 92% of 179 lots sold (house release, 9 March 2026) — a sale total, not an annual total; an annual total is not published
Access: Register to bid per sale — in the room, by telephone or online — after the house's published verification. Consign through Broad Arrow specialists; private-sales team acts year-round
Website: broadarrowauctions.com · Contact: Specialist, consignment and bidding contacts via broadarrowauctions.com · Phone: Not published as a single headquarters line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Grosse Pointe, Michigan, United States (headquarters; full address via the website)
Formed in 2021 by a team of collector-car specialists drawn from the major houses, Broad Arrow held its first live auction at Monterey in August 2022 and within four seasons was setting the Amelia Island record: its March 2026 Amelia Concours Auction realised over $111m, the highest-grossing sale in that event's 31-year history (house release). The fastest-built house in this guide: four years from founding to the largest Amelia Island sale ever held, powered by Hagerty's member base rather than a saleroom network. Notes: Kenneth Ahn's dual title (Broad Arrow CEO / Hagerty Marketplace president) is printed as the houses publish it
4. MECUM AUCTIONS — WALWORTH, WISCONSIN, UNITED STATES
Founded 1988 · Automotive — live (volume) & online · United States
Ownership: The Mecum family — private, family-owned and family-run, with Dana and Patti Mecum and their four sons in the business — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Dave Magers, Chief Executive Officer (titled CEO in house and trade sources); Dana Mecum is President and Founder
Chair: No separate chairman is published — the founder-president is the house's named head; named gap by structure
Sells: Live auctions at more than one a month across the United States, streamed and televised, plus online bidding: more than 20,000 lots a year spanning entry-level to investment-grade cars — volume is the model, where the concours houses sell scarcity
Departments: Collector Cars; Vintage and Antique Motorcycles; Road Art (signs, petrol pumps, pedal cars and automobilia); Collector Tractors and Farm Relics (within selected sales)
Salerooms: No single saleroom: a travelling circuit — Kissimmee, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Harrisburg, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Monterey and others — from the Walworth, Wisconsin headquarters
Calendar: Kissimmee in January, billed by the house as The World's Largest Collector Car Auction, and the Las Vegas motorcycle sale the same month; Indianapolis in May; Monterey in August; and a near-monthly national circuit between
Scale: More than 20,000 lots offered per year (house figure, mecum.com, 2026). A house-reported annual sales total: not published in sources checked
Access: Register to bid in person, by telephone or online (MyMecum account); consign through mecum.com or the published phone line, with entry-level and no-reserve routes published per event
Website: mecum.com · Contact: Consignment and bidder registration via mecum.com · Phone: +1 262 275 5050 · Headquarters: Walworth, Wisconsin, United States (headquarters; full street address via mecum.com — not captured in this pass)
Founded by Dana Mecum in 1988 around his family's dining-room table in Marengo, Illinois, with a first sale of some 40 cars at Rockford airport; grown into the world's largest collector-car auction company by volume, still single-family owned — 'the longest continued single-family ownership in the auction business' in the house's own account. The democratic pole of the car market: a first-time buyer with a five-figure budget and a seven-figure collector cross the same block in the same hour, on television. Notes: The phone number is the house's long-published consignment and information line; the headquarters street address was not captured in this pass and the field says so
5. BARRETT-JACKSON — SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES
Founded 1971 · Automotive — live (volume) & online · United States
Ownership: Majority-owned through IMG: IMG/Endeavor acquired a 51% stake in August 2022 (a $261m investment valuing the company at about $520m in reported coverage); on Endeavor's 2025 take-private the IMG portfolio passed to MARI, the Ari Emanuel vehicle — current listings show 'MARI (2025–present)' as owner; Craig Jackson remains chairman and CEO — verified October 2026 with the MARI transfer flagged to its listing source
Chief executive: Craig Jackson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (since 1997); Steve Davis is President
Chair: Craig Jackson — the chairman and CEO roles are held by the same person (see CEO field)
Sells: Live automotive-lifestyle auction events — most cars offered at no reserve — with streaming, a sponsor midway and automobilia sales wrapped around the block; the event, not the catalogue alone, is the product
Departments: Collector Cars; Automobilia; Charity Cars (a house signature — celebrity and first-VIN cars sold for charity); Future Collectibles and Resto-Mods within the car docket
Salerooms: Scottsdale (WestWorld) flagship; Palm Beach, Florida and further United States event venues in the house calendar
Calendar: Scottsdale in January is the flagship — 200,000-plus attendees in reported coverage — with Palm Beach in spring and further events through the year
Scale: Flagship Scottsdale sales reported in the $100–150m range in event coverage — printed as reported event ranges, not a house-published annual total; an audited annual total is not published
Access: Register to bid in the room, by telephone or online through the house's streaming/bidding platform; consign through the house's consignment team per published event deadlines
Website: barrett-jackson.com · Contact: Bidder registration, consignment and event contacts via barrett-jackson.com · Phone: Not published as a single headquarters line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Scottsdale, Arizona, United States (headquarters; full address via the website)
Founded in Scottsdale in 1971 by Tom Barrett and Russ Jackson; led since 1997 by Craig Jackson, who made its flagship January Scottsdale sale — held since at WestWorld — a televised automotive festival and pioneered the no-reserve format across most of its docket. No reserve as theatre: because nearly everything must sell, the room itself sets the price in public — the format Craig Jackson built the brand on and the majority sale to IMG/MARI has left in his hands. Notes: Ownership chain (Endeavor/IMG 2022, MARI 2025) is printed with its sources; the stake percentages beyond the reported 51% of 2022 are not published
6. COLLECTING CARS — LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM
Founded 2019 · Automotive — online only · Worldwide (online)
Ownership: The Collecting Group — private, founder-led (Edward Lovett); the group also operates Watch Collecting (launched 2021). No outside controlling owner announced — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Edward Lovett, Founder and Chief Executive (the platform's founder and named head in group materials; the group publishes its management on thecollectinggroup.com)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap
Sells: Online-only timed auctions of collectible cars, motorbikes, number plates and automobilia, plus watches through Watch Collecting: sellers keep 100% of the hammer price in the platform's model and the buyer's fee is capped — the fee structure is the pitch
Departments: Collectible Cars; Motorbikes; Number Plates; Automobilia; Watches (Watch Collecting, sister platform)
Salerooms: Online only — no saleroom; in-person Coffee Run community events and partner venues worldwide stand in for a saleroom
Calendar: Continuous: auctions end daily, with curated themed collections and marque weeks through the year rather than a seasonal calendar
Scale: Registered users exceed 400,000 across 100 countries, and tens of thousands of vehicles sold totalling hundreds of millions in value (platform FAQ, checked October 2026) — cumulative platform figures, labelled as such
Access: Register free, verify through the platform's payment partner, and bid online during each timed auction; consign by submitting a car for curation — the platform photographs, writes and markets accepted lots
Website: collectingcars.com · Contact: Consignment and support routes via collectingcars.com and thecollectinggroup.com · Phone: Not published in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: London, United Kingdom (headquarters; full address via the website)
Launched in London in 2019 by Edward Lovett, of the Dick Lovett dealer family, after 20 years in the family motor trade: a curated, timed online auction platform built explicitly against the saleroom model — no venue, no rostrum, seven-day auctions with community commentary on every lot. The classifieds disruptor, in its founder's own framing: built to take momentum and transparency from both the auction houses and the classified ads, with open commentary under every lot. Notes: Filed honestly as an online auction platform and marketplace, not a house with salerooms — the same framing the platform uses of itself
7. BRING A TRAILER — SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
Founded 2007 · Automotive — online marketplace · United States and worldwide (online)
Ownership: Hearst Autos (Hearst) — acquired in June 2020 for an undisclosed price; the platform continues as an independent business within Hearst Autos alongside Car and Driver, Road & Track and Autoweek — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Randy Nonnenberg, Co-Founder and President (he continues to lead the business under Hearst ownership, in the acquisition releases and current profiles; the platform uses the president title)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap; group leadership sits at Hearst Autos
Sells: Online timed auctions of enthusiast cars, motorbikes, parts and automobilia, with a comment thread under every lot that functions as public due diligence — FRAMED HONESTLY: an online marketplace and community, not an auction house with salerooms, previews or its own specialists inspecting cars
Departments: Enthusiast and Collector Cars; Motorcycles; Parts and Automobilia; BaT Premium and curated no-reserve listings within the auction feed
Salerooms: Online only — no saleroom, no premises where lots can be inspected; cars stay with their sellers
Calendar: Continuous: hundreds of auctions close every week, with premium and charity listings through the year
Scale: More than 415,000 users and 175,000 registered bidders at the 2020 Hearst acquisition (acquisition releases) — dated figures, printed as such; a current house-published total is not published
Access: Register, place a credit-card hold as published, and bid online; to sell, submit a car for the platform's curation — accepted listings are written up with seller-supplied photographs and documents
Website: bringatrailer.com · Contact: Listing submission and support routes via bringatrailer.com · Phone: Not published — an online platform; see contact route · Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States (headquarters; the platform publishes no saleroom address)
Founded in San Francisco in 2007 by Randy Nonnenberg and Gentry Underwood as a curation blog pointing readers at interesting cars for sale — 'bring a trailer' was classified-ad shorthand for a project car — it added its own auctions in 2014 and became the American enthusiast market's town square. The comment thread is the institution: thousands of enthusiasts interrogate every listing in public, and sellers answer in public — the trust mechanism that replaced the saleroom. Notes: Included, as briefed, as the online-marketplace pole of the motoring sector — its entry states what it is and is not, rather than dressing it as a saleroom house
8. ICONIC AUCTIONEERS — WARWICKSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM
Founded 2011 (as Silverstone Auctions) · Automotive — live & online · United Kingdom
Ownership: Nick Whale, owner — private, owner-led; no outside owner announced — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Rob Hubbard, Managing Director and Principal Auctioneer (appointed on the 2023 rebrand, from Sales Director; formerly 14 years at Bonhams)
Chair: Nick Whale, Chairman (owner; moved to the chairmanship at the 2023 rebrand)
Sells: Live auctions at major British motoring events, an online-only platform (from 2024) and private sales — cars and motorcycles for the enthusiast market, with no seller's commission on no-reserve lots in its published model
Departments: Classic and Collector Cars; Competition Cars; Motorcycles; Automobilia; Private Sales
Salerooms: Sales staged at the Silverstone Festival, the NEC Classic Motor Show (Birmingham), Race Retro (Stoneleigh) and other United Kingdom event venues
Calendar: Race Retro in February, the Silverstone Festival sale in August and the NEC Classic Motor Show sale in November anchor the year, with online sales between
Scale: Not published as an annual total in sources checked, October 2026
Access: Register to bid in the room, by telephone or online per sale; consign through the specialist team — the house publishes free valuations and per-sale entry routes
Website: iconicauctioneers.com · Contact: Consignment, valuation and bidder contacts via iconicauctioneers.com · Phone: Not published in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Warwickshire, United Kingdom (headquarters county as published; full address via the website)
Started in 2011 by racing driver and dealer Nick Whale as Silverstone Auctions, leasing the circuit's name and launching at the Silverstone Classic; renamed Iconic Auctioneers on 9 August 2023 when the house outgrew a single venue's name — the sale of Diana, Princess of Wales's 1985 Ford Escort RS Turbo S1 for £722,500 in 2022 is its signature result. The event house: it sells where the enthusiasts already are — festivals and shows — and vies with Bonhams, in trade coverage, for the title of Britain's biggest live motor-car auctioneer. Notes: Founding year is given by the house's own rebrand account ('started 12 years ago', August 2023)
9. H&H CLASSICS — WARRINGTON, CHESHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM
Founded 1993 · Automotive — live & online · United Kingdom and Europe
Ownership: Employee-owned: in 2021 Simon Hope transferred his 100% shareholding to an Employee Ownership Trust for the staff — 'now completely employee owned' in the announcement — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Colette McKay, Managing Director (the house's senior executive, leading day-to-day management with Director Damian Jones)
Chair: Simon Hope, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Employee Ownership Trust (founder; the chairmanship he holds is of the trust board, printed as published)
Sells: Live auctions at museum and garden venues and live online auctions through the year — six car sales, three motorcycle sales and online sales between in the house's published rhythm at the trust transfer
Departments: Classic Cars; Competition Cars; Classic Motorcycles; Automobilia and registration plates within selected sales
Salerooms: Imperial War Museum Duxford; the National Motorcycle Museum (Solihull); the Pavilion Gardens, Buxton; private-sales garage near Hindhead, Surrey
Calendar: A through-the-year circuit of Duxford, National Motorcycle Museum and Buxton sales — four strategic United Kingdom locations in the house's 2026 programme
Scale: Not published as an annual total in sources checked, October 2026
Access: Register to bid in the room, by telephone or live online; consign through the specialist team in Warrington or the regional specialists
Website: handh.co.uk · Contact: Specialist contacts — Colette McKay colette.mckay@handh.co.uk and Damian Jones damian.jones@handh.co.uk are published on the house site — and consignment routes via handh.co.uk · Phone: Published per specialist on handh.co.uk — see contact route · Headquarters: Warrington, Cheshire, United Kingdom (head office; full address via the website)
Established in 1993 by Simon Hope with a first auction at the Pavilion Gardens, Buxton; the longest continually trading specialist automotive auction house in the United Kingdom and Europe in its own description, selling cars and motorcycles with royal and celebrity provenance from King Charles III to Sir Elton John. The employee-owned house: every member of staff a reader deals with is, through the trust, one of the owners — a structure the founder chose over a trade sale after 28 years. Notes: The chairman field is precise about which board Simon Hope chairs (the ownership trust), so it is not mistaken for a separate operating chairmanship
REAL ESTATE
10. SOTHEBY'S CONCIERGE AUCTIONS — NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
Founded 2008 (as Concierge Auctions) · Real Estate — live & online marketplace · Worldwide
Ownership: Sotheby's and Anywhere Real Estate (joint 80% owners since November 2021), with the founding team holding the balance and operating the business independently — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Chad Roffers, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder (titled CEO in the firm's 2025–26 releases; Laura Brady was CEO at the 2021 acquisition — the succession is stated here rather than the older title being carried forward)
Chair: No separate chairman is published in current sources checked — named gap (a board of managers chaired by Sotheby's International Realty's Philip White was announced at the 2021 acquisition; a 2026 re-confirmation was not found)
Sells: An online bidding marketplace culminating in live auction events — at Sotheby's salerooms and on property — for luxury homes sold in cooperation with the listing brokerage; most sales are run on a published timetable of weeks, not months
Departments: Luxury Residential Estates; Penthouses and Trophy Apartments; Private Islands; Land and Development Sites; Key for Key giving programme alongside sales
Salerooms: No saleroom of its own: live finales at Sotheby's New York and partner venues, and on-site at properties; bidding is online throughout
Calendar: Continuous: properties launch and close through the year, grouped into Sotheby's global sales moments and standalone date-certain campaigns
Scale: Over $5bn in total sales across 46 United States states and 35 countries, with nearly $400m facilitated in 2024 (firm figures, LEADERS interview, 2025) — cumulative and dated figures, printed as such
Access: Sellers engage the firm (usually with their listing brokerage) for a date-certain campaign; buyers register, complete published due diligence and bid online or at the live finale
Website: casothebys.com · Contact: Property enquiry and bidder registration via casothebys.com / conciergeauctions.com · Phone: Not published as a single line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: New York, United States (headquarters; full address via the website)
Founded in 2008 by Chad Roffers and Laura Brady to sell luxury homes by auction with a date certain; jointly acquired by Sotheby's and Realogy (now Anywhere Real Estate) in November 2021 — an 80% stake, the founders retaining 20% and continuing to run it — and rebranded Sotheby's Concierge Auctions. It holds the record for the most expensive home sold at auction in the United States, The One in Los Angeles. The brokerage-cooperation model: it sells with the listing agent, not against them, and borrows Sotheby's salerooms for its finales — a marketplace wearing a great house's name. Notes: The trading name is Sotheby's Concierge Auctions; the firm was founded as Concierge Auctions and both names are given so older coverage resolves
11. PLATINUM LUXURY AUCTIONS — MIAMI, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES
Founded 2010 · Real Estate — live (non-distressed) · United States and international
Ownership: Private, founder-owned (Trayor Lesnock); no outside owner announced — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Trayor Lesnock, President and Founder (the firm's chief executive in function; both titles are the firm's own)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap by structure
Sells: Live, date-certain auctions — almost exclusively without reserve in the founder's account (29 properties offered in a recent year, only two with reserve) — of luxury homes, estates and islands, with remote bidding worldwide
Departments: Luxury Residential Estates; Waterfront and Island Properties; Equestrian Estates; Mountain and Resort Homes
Salerooms: No saleroom: auctions are held on-site at the property or at a designated venue, with global remote bidding
Calendar: No fixed seasons: individual property campaigns launch and close through the year, each on its own published auction date
Scale: More than $990m in completed luxury real estate auction sales in the firm's published biography (and $1bn in closed sales experience in founder interviews) — cumulative firm figures, printed as such; an annual total is not published
Access: Sellers consult the firm confidentially (published route in); buyers register per property, review the published terms — including the confidential opening-bid incentive in its terms of sale — and bid live on site or remotely
Website: platinumluxuryauctions.com · Contact: inquire@platinumluxuryauctions.com (published on the firm site) · Phone: +1 800 262 5132 · Headquarters: 201 S. Biscayne Boulevard, 28th Floor, Miami, FL 33131, United States
Founded by Trayor Lesnock to sell multimillion-dollar homes for sellers who do not need to sell — the 'non-distressed' model it trademarked as the luxury auction — typically in cooperation with the listing brokerage, whose commission it protects. Zero reserve as doctrine: removing the safety net is the firm's stated method for creating urgency and true price discovery in a market of patient sellers. Notes: The firm site also carries a 'founding in 2011' line in one article; the founder's own account and interviews give 2010, which is printed, with the discrepancy named here
12. DECARO AUCTIONS — FLORIDA, UNITED STATES
Founded 1980s (firm states more than four decades; exact year not published — see Notes) · Real Estate — live (luxury) · United States and international
Ownership: Private, founder-owned (Daniel DeCaro); no outside owner announced — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Mario Vargas, Chief Executive Officer (appointed 2026, firm release; formerly Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Concierge Auctions). Founder Daniel DeCaro remains the firm's principal
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap
Sells: Boutique, high-touch live auctions of luxury real estate — absolute and reserve formats — marketed with in-house cinematic media (Narr8 Media, integrated 2026 in the firm's release) and sold on-site before registered bidders
Departments: Luxury Estates; Generational Ranches; Private Compounds; Yachts and other high-value assets (historic specialism, in the firm's own account)
Salerooms: No saleroom: auctions are held on-site at the property (a March 2026 sale in Weston, Florida is the current pattern)
Calendar: Individual date-certain campaigns through the year; no published seasonal calendar
Scale: Billions of dollars in transactions across four decades (firm's own cumulative account) — printed as a firm claim, not an audited figure; an annual total is not published
Access: Sellers engage the firm for a private-client campaign; buyers register per auction (registration links are published per property) and bid on site or remotely as published
Website: decaroauctions.com · Contact: Auction registration and enquiries via decaroauctions.com · Phone: +1 800 332 3767 (published in firm releases) · Headquarters: Not published in sources checked, October 2026 — see contact route
Founded by Daniel DeCaro, a licensed broker and auctioneer who built the firm over more than four decades selling landmark estates, ranches, compounds — and, in its early signature, yachts and aircraft — by live, on-site auction; in 2026 it appointed its first chief executive from outside the founder's chair. The old-school pole of luxury property auctions: one founder's name, on-site theatre and absolute-sale certainty, now professionalised under a chief executive hired from its largest rival. Notes: The founding year is not published as a single year in sources checked; the firm consistently states more than 40 years (and 35-plus years in 2014–15 releases), consistent with a 1980s founding — the field is printed in those terms rather than a guessed year. Headquarters street address likewise not captured
13. AUCTION.COM — IRVINE, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
Founded 2007 · Real Estate — online marketplace (distressed) · United States
Ownership: THL Partners holds a majority stake (per Auction.com leadership announcements); the company is private — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Jason Allnutt, Co-Chief Executive Officer (CEO since 2018), and Ali Haralson, Co-Chief Executive Officer (President from 2021, promoted to co-CEO and the board in 2026, HousingWire) — a formal co-CEO structure
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap; the co-CEOs sit on the board
Sells: Online auctions of foreclosure (trustee/sheriff) and bank-owned (REO) homes, courthouse-step sales with Remote Bid, and SmartSale for pre-foreclosure and retail sellers — the volume, distressed counterweight to this section's luxury houses
Departments: Foreclosure Auctions; Bank-Owned (REO) Homes; SmartSale (pre-foreclosure and traditional sellers); Commercial and land lots within the marketplace
Salerooms: Online only, plus the physical courthouse-step sales its platform supports and remote-bids
Calendar: Continuous daily auctions across all 50 states; no seasons
Scale: Over 533,000 homes sold and $66bn in total sales, with more than 8 million registered users (company figures, 2025–26 profiles) — cumulative marketplace figures, printed as such
Access: Buyers register, fund bidder deposits as published per sale, and bid online or by Remote Bid at live foreclosure sales; sellers and servicers list through the platform's client programmes
Website: auction.com · Contact: Buyer, seller and servicer routes via auction.com · Phone: Not published as a single line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Irvine, California, United States (headquarters; full address via the website)
Built from 2007 as the online marketplace where America's foreclosure and bank-owned homes are sold — trustee and courthouse-step sales moved onto a screen — and now the nation's largest distressed-property marketplace, expanding into pre-foreclosure and traditional-seller sales (SmartSale). Scale at the other end of the market: the same auction mechanism as the luxury houses, industrialised for hundreds of thousands of ordinary homes. Notes: Included to complete the real-estate sector honestly: the largest real-estate auction business in America is a distressed-property marketplace, and the guide says so
LAND & RANCH
14. HALL AND HALL — BILLINGS, MONTANA, UNITED STATES
Founded 1946 · Land & Ranch — live & online (auction arm) · United States (Rocky Mountain West, Great Plains and beyond)
Ownership: A partnership — owned by its partners across its offices; no outside owner — verified October 2026
Chief executive: No chief executive title is used: the firm is led by its managing partners (James H. Taylor is the long-published managing partner). For this guide the operative head is the auction arm: Scott Shuman, Partner, head of Hall and Hall Auctions (printed with the partnership structure stated, not a CEO title invented)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap by partnership structure
Sells: Live and online auctions of investment-quality rural real estate — ranches, farms and sporting properties — inside a full-service firm that also brokers, finances, appraises and manages land, so an auction is one exit among several the same partners can advise on
Departments: Ranch Auctions; Farm and Farmland Auctions; Sporting and Recreational Properties; Auctions alongside brokerage, finance, appraisal and management services
Salerooms: No saleroom: auctions are held on-site, at regional venues and online, from 21 regional offices (firm profile)
Calendar: Individual ranch campaigns through the year, weighted to the land market's spring and autumn selling seasons
Scale: More than 800,000 acres under management and a loan portfolio exceeding $1.2bn (firm profile, 2026) — firm-service figures, printed as such; an auction-only annual total is not published
Access: Landowners engage a partner for valuation and a sale-method recommendation (auction or brokerage); buyers register per auction and bid live, by telephone or online as published
Website: hallhall.com · Contact: Auction and office contacts via hallhall.com · Phone: +1 406 656 7500 (Billings) · Headquarters: Billings, Montana, United States (headquarters; full address via hallhall.com)
Formed in 1946 as an agricultural mortgage company and built, as a partnership of its offices, into the largest full-service rural real estate firm of the Rocky Mountain West and Great Plains; its auction arm — Hall and Hall Auctions, headed by partner Scott Shuman — was created to bring price discovery to investment-quality ranches that had rarely been auctioned. The partnership that sells the West: the same firm can lend on a ranch, manage it for decades and then auction it — and its auction arm exists because its partners concluded no outside auctioneer knew the asset well enough. Notes: Leadership is printed in the firm's own partnership terms; assigning a CEO title would misdescribe the structure and is not done
15. UNITED COUNTRY AUCTION SERVICES — KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, UNITED STATES
Founded 1925 (United Country Real Estate, parent) · Land & Ranch — live & online (network) · United States
Ownership: United Country Real Estate — private franchise network; United Country Auction Services operates within it — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Shawn Terrel, President, United Country Auction Services (the auction arm's chief executive in function; Mike Duffy is President of the parent, United Country Real Estate)
Chair: No separate chairman is published in sources checked — named gap
Sells: Live and online auctions run by local affiliates under a national brand: land, farms, ranches, country homes and personal property, marketed through the parent network's national advertising programme and buyer database of more than one million opt-in buyers (company figure)
Departments: Land and Farmland; Farms and Ranches; Country Homes and Lifestyle Property; Personal Property and Estates (affiliate sales)
Salerooms: No central saleroom: affiliate auction yards, on-site sales and online platforms across the network
Calendar: Continuous affiliate sales through the year, with land campaigns weighted to local seasons
Scale: Not published as an auction-arm annual total in sources checked, October 2026 (the parent publishes network marketing reach, not an auction turnover figure)
Access: Sellers engage a local United Country affiliate (found via the site); buyers register with the affiliate per sale and bid live or online
Website: unitedcountry.com · Contact: Affiliate finder and auction contacts via unitedcountry.com · Phone: +1 800 999 1020 (published on unitedcountry.com) · Headquarters: Kansas City, Missouri, United States (headquarters; full address via the website)
The auction arm of United Country Real Estate, founded in 1925 and in its centennial year in 2025 — a national franchise network of auctioneers and real-estate professionals specialising in lifestyle, land and rural property, describing itself as the nation's largest organisation of its kind. The franchise model at national scale: a century-old land brand whose auctioneers are local owners trading under one flag and one national marketing machine. Notes: Shawn Terrel's presidency is confirmed in the arm's July 2025 GlobeNewswire release; the parent presidency (Mike Duffy) is distinguished from the auction arm's in the entry
16. FARMERS NATIONAL COMPANY — OMAHA, NEBRASKA, UNITED STATES
Founded 1929 · Land & Ranch — live & online (land auctions) · United States (Midwest and Plains)
Ownership: 100% employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (since the 2000 sale by MetLife) — verified October 2026
Chief executive: David Englund, President (named president on Jim Farrell's retirement, effective 1 January 2020; Farrell had been President and CEO 2004–19. A 2026 re-confirmation of the presidency was not found — vintage flagged)
Chair: No separate chairman is published in sources checked — named gap
Sells: Farmland auctions — live, online (through its land-platform partners) and hybrid — inside a landowner-services company managing millions of acres: the auction is the exit route for managed and privately held farms coming to market
Departments: Farmland Auctions; Farm and Ranch Brokerage sales alongside; Appraisals; Farm Management; Oil and Gas Management; Crop Insurance (company services feeding the sale pipeline)
Salerooms: No saleroom: auctions on-site, in regional venues and online across its territory
Calendar: Farmland campaigns weighted to the post-harvest and winter land season (roughly November to March) and to estate timetables through the year
Scale: Manages some 5,000 farms and ranches and about 2 million acres, and sells more than 600 farms and ranches a year (company figures in Federal Reserve / company profiles, dated) — service figures, not an auction-only total
Access: Landowners engage a local Farmers National agent or manager for a sale-method recommendation; buyers register per auction and bid live or online as published
Website: farmersnational.com · Contact: Land-sale and auction contacts via farmersnational.com · Phone: Not published as a single headquarters line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Omaha, Nebraska, United States (headquarters; full address via the website)
Founded in Omaha in 1929 to make absentee farmland ownership workable; owned by MetLife from 1986 to 2000 and then sold to its employees — the farm-management giant whose land-sales arm auctions farms and ranches across the Midwest and Plains. The manager-auctioneer: no firm in this guide knows more individual farms from the inside, because it has farmed so many of them for other people for nearly a century. Notes: Presidency vintage (2020) is flagged in the CEO field and the gaps; the employee-ownership fact is the entry's headline and is well sourced
17. SCHRADER REAL ESTATE AND AUCTION COMPANY — COLUMBIA CITY, INDIANA, UNITED STATES
Founded 1944 · Land & Ranch — live & online (farmland) · United States
Ownership: Private, family-owned (the Schrader family) — verified October 2026
Chief executive: R. D. Schrader, President (titled president in the company's 2022–24 releases; Luke Schrader, fourth-generation auctioneer and broker, leads a national team of some 60 sales agents in company profiles)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap by structure
Sells: Live farmland auctions with internet bidding, using the multi-tract system the house is identified with, plus private listings of farms and land — one of the nation's largest auctioneers of agricultural land in its own description
Departments: Farmland Auctions (multi-tract); Ranchland; Equipment and Personal Property (selected sales); Residential, Commercial and Development Land
Salerooms: No saleroom: auctions in regional venues and on-site across 33 licensed states (company profile), with online bidding
Calendar: Farmland campaigns through the year, weighted to the winter land season and estate timetables; the firm's Farmers Update sessions tour Florida, Wisconsin and Indiana each winter
Scale: Not published as an annual total in sources checked, October 2026
Access: Landowners engage the company for a tract plan and marketing campaign; buyers register per sale and bid in the room or online, on individual tracts, combinations or the entirety
Website: schraderauction.com · Contact: Auction information line and contacts via schraderauction.com · Phone: +1 800 451 2709 · Headquarters: Columbia City, Indiana, United States (headquarters; full address via the website)
A family farmland auction house built in Columbia City, Indiana, now in its fourth generation of Schrader auctioneers; known nationally for its multi-tract method — land offered in parcels, in combinations and as a whole in the same sale, so the bidders themselves decide whether a farm is worth more together or apart. The multi-tract method as a house style: a Schrader sale is an argument, conducted in public, about what a farm is — and the whiteboards showing parcels, combinations and the whole are its theatre. Notes: Founding year is the company's own long-published date; the presidency is sourced to 2024 releases and the fourth-generation team's scale to its Land Report profile
LIVESTOCK
18. SUPERIOR LIVESTOCK AUCTION — FORT WORTH, TEXAS, UNITED STATES
Founded 1987 · Livestock — video & online · United States
Ownership: National Livestock Credit Corporation (Oklahoma City) — which acquired Superior in May 2013 from Farm Credit — verified October 2026 to the acquisition record; no later change found
Chief executive: Danny Jones, President (titled president in the company's acquisition releases and industry coverage through 2020; a 2026 re-confirmation was not found — vintage flagged)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap
Sells: Satellite video and internet cattle auctions (Superior Sunrise / SuperiorClickToBid) of feeder cattle, bred cows and cow-calf pairs, sold in load lots off the ranch with value-added and verified-programme cattle identified in the catalogue
Departments: Feeder Cattle; Bred Cows and Pairs; Reputation Feeder Cattle and value-added programme lots; Superior Productions (video) alongside
Salerooms: No saleroom: sales broadcast from the Fort Worth Stockyards facilities and online; cattle never leave the ranch until delivery to the buyer
Calendar: Sales through the year on a published video calendar — winter, spring grass, summer video (the season's peak) and autumn calf sales in rhythm with the cattle year
Scale: Markets well over one million head of cattle annually (company account at acquisition); 1.38 million head sold in 2019 (president's account, 2020) — dated company figures, printed as such
Access: Ranchers consign through a local Superior representative, who films and represents the cattle; buyers register, watch the broadcast or bid online and by telephone, and take delivery direct from the ranch
Website: superiorlivestock.com · Contact: Representative finder and consignment routes via superiorlivestock.com · Phone: Not published as a single line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Fort Worth Stockyards, Fort Worth, Texas, United States (auction facilities; full address via the website)
Founded in 1987 and the company that introduced satellite video marketing to the American cattle industry: cattle are filmed on the ranch, sold by video to a national buyer base and delivered direct — the auction came to the cattle, not the cattle to the auction. The largest livestock auction in the United States by head marketed, with no yard at all: the video catalogue and the ranch gate replaced the ring. Notes: Presidency vintage is flagged honestly: Danny Jones is the last president named in company and industry sources found in this pass
19. WESTERN VIDEO MARKET — COTTONWOOD, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
Founded 1989 · Livestock — video & online · United States (West)
Ownership: Private — owned by its founding partners and affiliated auction yards (20 affiliate yard companies, 60-plus representatives, in Livestock Marketing Association accounts); no outside owner announced — verified October 2026
Chief executive: No chief executive title is published in sources checked — named gap. The company's founders are John Rodgers and Ellington Peek; Lex Machado, its auctioneer, is its public voice in 2025–26 sale coverage (printed as such, not promoted to a CEO title)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap
Sells: Satellite video and internet auctions of Western feeder and slaughter cattle and bred females, consigned through affiliate yards in 16 Western states and filmed on the ranch — the cooperative answer to Superior's national model
Departments: Feeder Cattle; Bred Cows and Pairs; Slaughter Cattle; Special and customer-appreciation sales within the video calendar
Salerooms: No saleroom of its own: sales broadcast and streamed from its California base, anchored by the annual July sale gathering; affiliate yards host consignors locally
Calendar: Several video sales a year on a published calendar, with the July sale — part market, part ranch-family reunion in its own coverage — as the peak
Scale: Not published as an annual head total in sources checked, October 2026
Access: Ranchers consign through a local WVM representative or affiliate yard; buyers register and bid by satellite broadcast, internet or telephone as published per sale
Website: wvmcattle.com · Contact: Representative and consignment contacts via wvmcattle.com · Phone: Not published in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Cottonwood, California, United States (base; full address via the website)
Co-founded in 1989 by Ellington Peek of Shasta Livestock and John Rodgers to let fixed-facility auction yards across the West sell cattle by video together; both founders — Peek in his late nineties — still attend its July sale, in 2025–26 coverage. A federation, not a corporation: independent Western yards pooling their cattle into one video market while keeping their own names, yards and customers. Notes: The leadership gap is real and is printed: WVM publishes founders and representatives rather than corporate officers, and this guide does not invent a chief executive for it
20. HARRISON & HETHERINGTON — CARLISLE, CUMBRIA, UNITED KINGDOM
Founded 1875 · Livestock — live (saleyards) & online · United Kingdom (North of England and Scottish Borders)
Ownership: H&H Group plc — a Carlisle group with farming-family and private shareholders; Harrison & Hetherington is its Farmstock business — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Robin Anderson, Managing Director, Harrison & Hetherington (appointed in the group's 2025 leadership change, succeeding Scott Donaldson, who became H&H Group Director; Richard Rankin is H&H Group Chief Executive)
Chair: Will Hamilton, Chairman, H&H Group plc (quoted in the group's 2025 appointments announcement) — group chairmanship, printed as such
Sells: Live auction-mart sales of prime, store and pedigree cattle and sheep, with MartEye timed online auctions and live ring streaming alongside — the traditional ring, digitised, across nine marts at the leadership announcement and seven listed marts in 2026
Departments: Pedigree Cattle and Sheep Sales; Prime and Store Cattle; Prime and Store Sheep; Dairy Sales; Dispersal and Invitational Sales; MartEye Online Sales
Salerooms: Borderway Mart, Carlisle (headquarters); Kirkby Stephen; Lazonby; Lockerbie; Middleton-in-Teesdale; St Boswells; Wooler
Calendar: Weekly prime sales at the marts, with the pedigree calendar — autumn bull and ram sales, spring and autumn breed sales, and show-and-sale fixtures — as the year's peaks
Scale: Annual turnover in the region of £180m with throughput of more than 850,000 head of livestock across its marts and online platforms (H&H Group figures at the Donaldson appointment) — dated group figures, printed as such
Access: Farmers enter stock through any mart (entry forms and fixtures published on the site); buyers register at the mart or bid through MartEye live streaming and timed sales
Website: harrisonandhetherington.co.uk · Contact: Mart and sale-office contacts via harrisonandhetherington.co.uk (general enquiries line published on the site) · Phone: +44 1228 406 200 (Borderway main sales office) · Headquarters: Borderway Mart, Rosehill, Carlisle CA1 2RS, United Kingdom
The livestock arm of H&H Group plc of Carlisle — the United Kingdom's largest livestock trading company in its own description — selling from Borderway Mart and a circuit of northern marts whose pedigree sales (the Perth Bull Sales tradition its leaders grew up in) are fixtures of the British cattle and sheep year. The saleyard major the brief asked for, verified to standard: a plc-scale ring business whose managing director took the rostrum at Perth at 21 and whose pedigree sales set breed records year after year. Notes: The 2025 managing-director change (Donaldson to Anderson, Donaldson to Group Director) is the entry's headline and is sourced to the group's own announcements; mart count is printed with both its vintages
21. ELDERS — ADELAIDE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIA
Founded 1839 · Livestock — live (saleyards), agency & online · Australia
Ownership: Elders Limited (ASX: ELD) — listed, widely held; no controlling shareholder — verified October 2026
Chief executive: René Dedoncker, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (from 1 October 2026, succeeding Mark Allison, managing director for 12 years — the succession was announced in 2026 and Dedoncker, formerly of Fonterra, began in the role on 1 October 2026)
Chair: Chairman of Elders Limited: not captured from an official source in this pass — named gap (the board chair is not printed here rather than a name being carried from memory)
Sells: Livestock agency auctions at physical saleyards nationwide (cattle, sheep, lambs and specialty sales), stud-stock agency, wool selling, and online livestock auctions through AuctionsPlus, in which Elders holds an interest — agency selling, where Elders acts for the vendor rather than owning the yard in most locations
Departments: Beef Cattle Agency; Sheep and Lamb Agency; Stud Stock; Wool; AuctionsPlus online sales (associated platform); Feedlot and rural services alongside
Salerooms: Saleyards across Australia where Elders agents sell — a national circuit rather than one flagship yard; the company's livestock calendar is published per region
Calendar: Weekly and seasonal saleyard sales nationwide, with weaner, breeder and stud-sale seasons through the Australian pastoral year
Scale: Elders reported first-half fiscal 2026 underlying EBIT of A$76.6m and revenue growth of 32% (company results, May 2026) — group figures for a diversified rural-services company, NOT a livestock-auction total; a livestock-only total is not published
Access: Producers engage a local Elders livestock agent to enter stock for saleyard or online sale; buyers register at the saleyard or on AuctionsPlus and bid in person or online
Website: elders.com.au · Contact: Branch and livestock-agent finder via elders.com.au · Phone: Not published as a single headquarters line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Adelaide, South Australia, Australia (headquarters; full address via the website)
Founded in Adelaide in 1839 and woven into Australian pastoral life ever since: a listed rural-services company whose livestock agency network sells cattle, sheep and wool through saleyards across the country and holds a stake in AuctionsPlus, the online livestock platform — the Southern Hemisphere's livestock-marketing institution. 187 years of continuity and a change at the top the month this guide closed: Elders is the rare livestock entry whose chief executive can be dated to 1 October 2026. Notes: Framed precisely: Elders is a livestock agency and marketing network (and AuctionsPlus shareholder), not a single saleyard owner — the entry says so rather than overstating the model
EQUIPMENT & INDUSTRIAL
22. RITCHIE BROS. (RB GLOBAL) — WESTCHESTER, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES
Founded 1958 (Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada) · Equipment & Industrial — live, online & marketplace · Worldwide
Ownership: RB Global, Inc. (NYSE / TSX: RBA) — listed, widely held; the parent of Ritchie Bros. and IAA — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Jim Kessler, Chief Executive Officer, RB Global (from August 2023; previously the company's President and Chief Operating Officer)
Chair: Erik Olsson, Chairman of the Board, RB Global (per company listings, 2026)
Sells: Unreserved live and online equipment auctions (the Orlando February sale is the industry's largest), timed auctions, Marketplace-E price-controlled sales and IAA salvage-vehicle auctions — plus RB Asset Solutions data, financing, inspection, shipping and refurb services around the hammer
Departments: Construction Equipment; Trucks and Transport; Agriculture Equipment; Mining and Energy Equipment; Salvage Vehicles (IAA); Marketplace-E and RB Asset Solutions services
Salerooms: Permanent auction sites worldwide — Orlando, Edmonton, Las Vegas, Fort Worth, Phoenix, Brisbane, Dubai, Rotterdam and dozens more — plus IAA salvage facilities
Calendar: The February Orlando auction anchors the year; regional site sales run in near-weekly rhythm worldwide, with timed online auctions continuous
Scale: RB Global revenue US$4.59bn in 2025 (company reporting as listed) — group revenue, printed as such; Ritchie Bros.' gross transaction value is published in the parent's results rather than as a standalone house total
Access: Sellers consign equipment to a site sale, a timed auction or Marketplace-E (consignment and at-risk options published); buyers register free, inspect on site or by published reports, and bid live, online or timed
Website: rbauction.com · Contact: Consignment, buying and site contacts via rbauction.com and rbglobal.com · Phone: Not published as a single headquarters line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Westchester, Illinois, United States (headquarters; full address via rbglobal.com)
Founded by the Ritchie brothers in Kelowna in 1958 from a used-furniture store's first auction; built into the world's largest industrial auctioneer on unreserved live sales — every lot sells to the highest bidder on the day — then rebased as RB Global after the 2023 IAA salvage acquisition made vehicles half the empire. The sector giant by any measure: an unreserved-auction machine so large that in March 2026 its parent agreed to absorb BigIron, the American farm platform (see separate entry) — and whose great European rival, Euro Auctions, it was forbidden by competition regulators to buy (see Euro entry). Notes: The entry is filed under the trading name readers know (Ritchie Bros.) with the listed parent (RB Global) stated in the ownership and leadership fields
23. EURO AUCTIONS — DROMORE, COUNTY DOWN, UNITED KINGDOM (NORTHERN IRELAND)
Founded 1998 · Equipment & Industrial — live & online (unreserved) · Europe, Middle East, Americas and Australia
Ownership: The Keys family — private and independent: the Ritchie Bros. transaction terminated in 2022 and Euro Auctions continues as 'a leading independent global auctioneer' in its own words, expanding by acquisition on its own account (Michener Allen 2023; Jardine and North Toronto Auction 2025) — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Derek Keys, Founder and Managing Director, Euro Auctions Group (titled founder and managing director in the group's 2025 releases)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap by family structure
Sells: Unreserved live and online auctions of construction plant, commercial vehicles, agricultural machinery and industrial equipment — everything sells on the day — through its own sites and its Yoder & Frey (United States) and Canadian banners
Departments: Construction and Earthmoving Plant; Trucks and Commercial Vehicles; Agricultural Machinery; Industrial Equipment; Collector Cars (Coast2Coast, within its Canadian group)
Salerooms: 15 permanent auction locations in the group's 2025 account — Dromore and sites across the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, the United States (Yoder & Frey) and Canada
Calendar: More than 300 auctions a year across the group (2025 account), anchored by multi-day site sales at Dromore, Leeds, Brisbane, Dubai and its North American yards
Scale: Not published as an annual total in sources checked, October 2026 (the terminated 2021 transaction valued the group at £775m — a deal price, printed in the history, not a sales figure)
Access: Sellers consign to any group site for an unreserved sale; buyers register, inspect at the yard and bid live in the ring, by simulcast or in timed online sales
Website: euroauctions.com · Contact: Site, consignment and buyer contacts via euroauctions.com · Phone: Not published as a single headquarters line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Dromore, County Down, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom (headquarters; full address via the website)
Founded in Dromore in 1998 by Derek Keys and his brothers, explicitly modelled on Dave Ritchie's customer philosophy; grew into Europe's leading unreserved equipment auctioneer — and the company whose £775m sale to Ritchie Bros., agreed in August 2021, was abandoned in April 2022 when the UK Competition and Markets Authority found no realistic prospect of approval. The blocked merger made it: the CMA's decision is the documentary proof that in British equipment auctions there are two giants, and this is the one that stayed family-owned. Notes: Ownership is the entry's headline and is stated with its full 2021–22 history so no reader mistakes Euro for a Ritchie Bros. subsidiary — a common error in older directories
24. HILCO INDUSTRIAL (HILCO GLOBAL) — NORTHBROOK, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES
Founded 1987 (Hilco Global) · Equipment & Industrial — auctions, dispositions & advisory · Worldwide
Ownership: Hilco Global — majority-acquired by ORIX Corporation USA in 2025 (agreement and closing in September 2025 reporting), with Hecktman and the executive team retaining a minority position and operating autonomy; Hilco Industrial sits within the Hilco Commercial Industrial / industrial-services platform — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Jeffrey B. Hecktman, Founding Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Hilco Global (the group's chief executive; Thomas Greco is titled CEO, Valuation and Industrial Services in group directories — both printed, at their own levels)
Chair: Jeffrey B. Hecktman, Founding Chairman (see CEO field — the roles are held by the same person at group level)
Sells: Industrial auctions (live, webcast and online), negotiated and orderly-liquidation sales, and turnkey plant dispositions, alongside Hilco valuation, advisory and capital-solutions services — monetisation, not a standing sale calendar
Departments: Metalworking and Fabrication; Food, Chemical and Process Plants; Construction and Mining Equipment; Inventory and Intellectual Property dispositions (with Hilco sister companies)
Salerooms: No saleroom circuit: sales are held at the plants being sold and webcast worldwide
Calendar: No seasons: a project calendar of plant sales and auctions as engagements arise, published per project on the Hilco sites
Scale: Not published as an auction-only annual total in sources checked, October 2026
Access: Engagements come from owners, lenders and advisers (published team contacts); buyers register per sale and bid live at the plant, by webcast or online
Website: hilcoglobal.com · Contact: Industrial team contacts — published named executives with direct lines on hilcoglobal.com (Hilco Commercial Industrial leadership page) — and project routes via the site · Phone: Published per executive on hilcoglobal.com — see contact route · Headquarters: Northbrook, Illinois, United States (headquarters; full address via hilcoglobal.com)
The industrial auction and disposition arm of Hilco Global, the Northbrook asset-valuation and monetisation group founded by Jeffrey B. Hecktman in 1987: where Ritchie Bros. sells working fleets, Hilco sells whole plants — machinery, inventory and intellectual property of businesses closing, moving or restructuring. The undertaker of industry, in the honourable sense: when a factory's life ends, Hilco is the firm lenders and boards call to turn plant, stock and patents into money — auctions as one instrument in a restructuring toolkit. Notes: Filed as Hilco Industrial as briefed, with the current group structure (Hilco Commercial Industrial; the 2025 ORIX majority acquisition) stated so the entry matches how the firm now trades
25. TROOSTWIJK AUCTIONS — AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
Founded 1930 · Equipment & Industrial — online (B2B) · Europe and worldwide (online)
Ownership: TBAuctions holding company (formed by the 2018 Auctio–Troostwijk merger); the group's ultimate investor ownership is not published in sources checked — named gap — verified October 2026 to the holding structure
Chief executive: Tom Christenson, Chief Executive Officer, TBAuctions (the group chief executive, in the group's 2023–24 accounts); Andy Vons is Managing Director, Troostwijk Auctions
Chair: No separate chairman is published in sources checked — named gap
Sells: Online B2B auctions of surplus and end-of-life business assets — machinery, production lines, vehicles, stock — plus tenders and private-treaty sales and a valuations arm: 'everything has value' is the house motto, and second life for equipment its stated mission
Departments: Agriculture and Food Processing; Metalworking; Construction and Earthmoving; Transport and Logistics; Infrastructure; Real Estate and Art within the wider TBAuctions platform
Salerooms: Online only as a platform — assets stay at the seller's premises or Troostwijk logistics points; viewing days are published per auction
Calendar: Continuous online auctions through the year — the group reports more than 810,000 lots a year for Troostwijk, with buyers in 147 countries (company account)
Scale: More than 810,000 lots auctioned per year (Troostwijk company account, 2023–24) — a lot count, printed as such; a group revenue total is not published in sources checked
Access: Companies engage Troostwijk to value and auction surplus assets (published seller route); buyers register, view on published viewing days and bid online during each timed auction
Website: troostwijkauctions.com · Contact: Seller and buyer routes via troostwijkauctions.com · Phone: Not published as a single line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Amsterdam, Netherlands (headquarters; full address via the website)
Amsterdam industrial auctioneers from 1930; in 2018 Troostwijk merged with Auctio (owner of BVA Auctions) under the TBAuctions holding to form what the partners called Europe's largest online auction platform — Troostwijk remaining the business-to-business brand for industrial assets. Europe's B2B online specialist: a 1930 auction house that now sells a dismantled food factory or a climbing-plant nursery's machinery, lot by lot, to buyers in 147 countries. Notes: Leadership is printed at both levels (group CEO; brand managing director) because Troostwijk publishes both; the founders-era CEO names in older coverage (Dieker, Duijmelings) are superseded
26. PURPLE WAVE AUCTION — MANHATTAN, KANSAS, UNITED STATES
Founded 2000 · Equipment & Industrial — online only (no-reserve) · United States
Ownership: Purple Wave Inc. — private, founder-led; no outside controlling owner announced — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Aaron McKee, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (the founder-CEO in the company's own accounts)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap by structure
Sells: Online-only, no-reserve auctions of used construction, agriculture and fleet equipment and vehicles, run as a full-service clearinghouse — marketing, listing, payment collection — while the iron stays on the seller's premises
Departments: Construction Equipment; Agriculture Equipment; Fleet Trucks and Vehicles; Government and Utility Fleets (seller segment)
Salerooms: Online only — no yard, no saleroom, by design
Calendar: Equipment auctions close on a rolling weekly rhythm through the year, lots online for at least three weeks in the company's published model
Scale: Not published as an annual total in sources checked, October 2026
Access: Sellers list equipment through a territory representative (full-service listing and marketing); buyers register free and bid online, then collect from the seller's location
Website: purplewave.com · Contact: Seller and bidder routes via purplewave.com · Phone: Not published in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Manhattan, Kansas, United States (headquarters; full address via the website)
Founded in Manhattan, Kansas in 2000 by Aaron and Suzy McKee as a full-service auction company; pivoted in 2008 to online-only, no-reserve equipment auctions — equipment is never moved to a yard: it is photographed where it sits, sold where it sits, and collected by the buyer. No-reserve as a creed, defended in print by its founder: with enough exposure and a loyal buying pool, he argues, the market price is the fair price — and no diesel is burned hauling iron to a sale yard. Notes: A September 2026 company release (Watkins Construction fleet partnership) confirms the firm active and independent at this guide's date
27. BIGIRON — NEBRASKA, UNITED STATES
Founded 1984 (roots; BigIron Auction Company) · Equipment & Industrial — online (agriculture) · United States
Ownership: RB Global, Inc. agreed on 4 March 2026 to acquire BigIron for an undisclosed sum, with closing expected in the second half of 2026 and BigIron continuing as a stand-alone brand; until closing completes the Stock brothers continue to run it — status as verified October 2026, with completion a named watch item
Chief executive: Mark Stock, Co-Founder (co-leading the business with co-founder Ron Stock in the acquisition releases; a separate CEO title is not published — printed as published)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap
Sells: Online auctions of farm equipment and vehicles, farmland and rural real estate, livestock and other farm and ranch assets, sold weekly from sellers' premises to a national bidder base
Departments: Agricultural Equipment; Farmland and Rural Real Estate; Livestock; Trucks and Farm Vehicles
Salerooms: Online only — no saleroom; assets sold from the farm
Calendar: Weekly online auctions through the year, weighted to the farm calendar
Scale: Roughly $885m in gross transaction value in the 12 months to 30 September 2025 — about $520m commercial assets and vehicles and $365m farmland and real estate (RB Global acquisition release, 4 Mar 2026) — a dated, sourced figure, printed as such
Access: Farmers and landowners list through BigIron representatives; buyers register and bid online, collecting equipment from the seller or selling land through the platform's published closing process
Website: bigiron.com · Contact: Seller and bidder routes via bigiron.com · Phone: Not published in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Nebraska, United States (headquarters state as published; full address via the website)
A Nebraska farm-auction business with roots in 1984, built by brothers Mark and Ron Stock into a scaled online marketplace for agricultural equipment, farmland, livestock and rural assets — and, in March 2026, the agreed next acquisition of RB Global (see Ritchie Bros. entry). The farm gate goes digital at scale: nearly nine-tenths of a billion dollars of iron and land a year — large enough that the world's largest equipment group bought it rather than compete with it. Notes: The RB Global completion (expected H2 2026) had not been confirmed in sources checked at this guide's close and is flagged, not assumed
WINE & LUXURY GOODS
28. ACKER (ACKER MERRALL & CONDIT) — NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
Founded 1820 (wine merchant; auctions from 1998) · Wine & Luxury Goods — live & online · United States and Asia
Ownership: The Kapon family (Acker Merrall & Condit Companies) — private, third-generation family ownership; no outside owner announced — verified October 2026
Chief executive: John Kapon, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (titled Chairman in the firm's 2026 auction catalogues and Chairman and CEO in trade coverage — the roles are held by the same person)
Chair: John Kapon (see CEO field)
Sells: Live-online fine and rare wine auctions (New York and Hong Kong), weekly internet auctions and a fine-wine retail business — its October 2026 Delaware catalogue runs past 1,200 lots in a single sale
Departments: Fine and Rare Bordeaux; Burgundy (Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is its signature consignor category); Champagne; Italian and California Cult Wines; Rare Spirits within selected sales
Salerooms: New York sales (restaurant and venue sales, livestreamed) and Hong Kong sales; auction operations entity Acker Auctions DE, LLC, Newark, Delaware (catalogue imprint)
Calendar: A through-the-year rhythm of flagship live-online sales (the La Paulée sale in March is a signature), weekly internet auctions and Hong Kong sessions
Scale: Its March 2026 La Paulée auction surpassed $25m in three days with 460 new world records, including $812,500 for a bottle of 1945 Romanée-Conti — a world auction record for a bottle (house release, 2026). An annual total: not published in sources checked
Access: Consign a cellar through the firm's consignment team (published route in); register to bid live online, by absentee bid or in the room as published per sale; weekly internet auctions are open after account registration
Website: ackerwines.com · Contact: consignments@ackerwines.com for consignment donations is published in firm releases; general: info@ackerwines.com (catalogue imprint); bidding via bidlive.ackerwines.com · Phone: +1 302 525 8601 (Acker Auctions DE, LLC, catalogue imprint) · Headquarters: New York, United States (headquarters); Acker Auctions DE, LLC, 1800 Ogletown Road, Suite D, Newark, DE 19711 (auction entity, catalogue imprint)
America's oldest wine merchant, selling fine wine since 1820; in 1998 third-generation merchant John Kapon took the shop into live auctions — dropping the seller's commission, holding sales in great restaurants, and building what the firm describes as the world's largest fine and rare wine auction house. The convivial auction: Kapon turned the wine sale into a dinner party with a rostrum — bring-your-own-bottle sales in great restaurants — and the rest of the trade followed. Notes: The name is printed in both its forms — Acker, and Acker Merrall & Condit (spelled Merrall in the firm's own usage) — because sources use both
29. ZACHYS — NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
Founded 1944 · Wine & Luxury Goods — live & online · United States, United Kingdom and Asia
Ownership: In 2025 Zachys took in private investment (investor not named in the announcement coverage) under which the Zacharia family became minority owners — 'a pivotal moment' in the company's own words — verified October 2026 to The Drinks Business report of the announcement
Chief executive: Eileen Rizzo, Chief Executive Officer (acting CEO from July 2024, confirmed in post in March 2025 reporting — the first non-family chief executive in the company's history; Andrew McMurray continues as President)
Chair: Jeff Zacharia, Chairman of the Board (third-generation head of the firm; chief executive 2000–23 and president for over three decades, now chairman and senior adviser in current profiles)
Sells: Live and online fine-wine auctions in New York (Le Bernardin and Smith & Wollensky are its dining-room salerooms), Hong Kong and London, e-commerce and fine-wine storage — retail, auction and storage under one name
Departments: Bordeaux; Burgundy; Champagne; Italian Wines; California and New World Icons; Rare Spirits within selected sales; Single-Collector sales (a house signature)
Salerooms: New York venue sales; Hong Kong and London sales; Scarsdale retail flagship (the founding store)
Calendar: New York spring and autumn seasons keyed to La Paulée weeks, a February Hong Kong sale and London sessions in the trade calendar, with online auctions between
Scale: Not published as an annual total in sources checked, October 2026
Access: Consign through the auction team (published consignment route); register to bid in the room, by telephone, absentee or live online per sale; retail and storage services are open to account holders
Website: zachys.com · Contact: auction@zachys.com is the house's long-published auction contact form (printed as 'auction [at] zachys [dot] com' in its releases); consignment and department routes via zachys.com · Phone: Not published as a single line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: New York, United States (headquarters; full address via zachys.com)
Founded by Zachy Zacharia in 1944 as a Scarsdale liquor store and built by his son Don and grandson Jeff into a fine-wine merchant and, from the 1990s–2002, an auction house selling in New York, Hong Kong and London — family-led for eighty years until the change recorded below. The succession story of the wine trade: an eighty-year family house that in 2025 handed its chief executive's office to an outsider and its ownership to investors, keeping the founder's grandson as chairman — the same transition the art majors made a generation earlier. Notes: The 2025 investment and CEO confirmation are reported by The Drinks Business (March 2025) from the company's own announcement; the investor's identity was not disclosed in that coverage and is not guessed here
30. HART DAVIS HART — CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, UNITED STATES
Founded 2004 · Wine & Luxury Goods — live & online · United States
Ownership: Private, partner-owned (its founding principals and shareholders); no outside owner announced — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Paul Hart, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (styled CEO in the firm's 2025 releases; Ben Nelson is President; Michael Davis is Vice-Chairman)
Chair: Paul Hart — the chairman and CEO roles are held by the same person (see CEO field). John H. Hart, co-founder and former chairman, has been Chairman Emeritus since 2016
Sells: Live auctions in Chicago with its own live-bidding platform and mobile app, mobile-only auctions, and a fine-wine retail business — provenance standards are its stated signature ('the highest standards of quality and provenance of any auction house in the world', in its own words)
Departments: Bordeaux; Burgundy; Rhône; Italian Wines; California Cabernet and Cult Wines; Champagne and Spirits within selected sales; Single-Cellar sales
Salerooms: Chicago saleroom (sales webcast worldwide); consignments gathered nationally
Calendar: Live sales in a near-monthly rhythm through the year (winter, spring and autumn peaks) with mobile-only auctions between
Scale: The firm reported dominating the United States fine-wine auction market in 2021 (its year-end account) — a market-position claim, printed as such; a current annual sales total is not published in sources checked
Access: Register to bid live in the room, on the HDH platform or app, or by absentee bid (email route published); consign through the firm's specialists, who publish cellar-evaluation routes in
Website: hdhauctions.com · Contact: Bidding and consignment routes via hdhauctions.com / hdhwine.com; media contact published on firm releases · Phone: +1 312 445 0100 (bidding department, firm releases) · Headquarters: Chicago, Illinois, United States (headquarters; full address via hdhwine.com)
Founded in Chicago in October 2004 by Paul Hart, Michael Davis and John Hart — the team that had run Chicago wine auctions for Christie's and Sotheby's — and within a decade the leading wine auction house in the United States in its own long-published description. Chicago's answer to New York's wine duopoly: a house built by the majors' own alumni that took the American wine-auction lead on technology — its live platform and app were industry firsts in its account. Notes: Titles are printed from the firm's current (2025) releases, which style Paul Hart as CEO; the fuller 'Chairman & CEO' styling is from its own company descriptions
31. IDEALWINE — COLOMBES (PARIS), FRANCE
Founded 2000 · Wine & Luxury Goods — online only · France and worldwide (online)
Ownership: Founder-led with Capital Croissance as an accompanying investment fund (financial operation announced 2021); the founders remain in executive roles — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Cyrille Jomand, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder (Angélique de Lencquesaing and Lionel Cuenca are Managing Directors in the company's accounts)
Chair: No separate chairman is published — named gap
Sells: Online-only wine auctions through its auction arm International Wine Auction (IWA), fixed-price sales sourced from 300-plus domaines, cellar valuation and management tools and the Winedex indices — an auction house that is also the market's price index
Departments: Bordeaux; Burgundy; Rhône; Champagne; Loire and Alsace; Natural and 'clean' wines (a tracked specialism); Spirits within IWA sales
Salerooms: Online only — no saleroom; offices in Paris (Colombes), Bordeaux, Hong Kong, London and New York (opened in the 2024–25 account)
Calendar: Continuous online auctions through the year; the house also conducts the Hospices de Nuits-Saint-Georges charity auction (first in 2024) in the Burgundy calendar
Scale: IWA auction sales €39.1m in 2024 — 261,465 bottles (750ml equivalent) — named France's leading wine and spirits auction house by the auction regulator's report (The Drinks Business, Jul 2025); iDealwine revenue €53.2m announced March 2025 — auction and group figures distinguished as published
Access: Create an account to bid in timed online auctions or buy at fixed price; to sell, request a free cellar estimate online and consign through IWA; cellar-management tools are free to account holders
Website: idealwine.com · Contact: Account, consignment and valuation routes via idealwine.com · Phone: Not published in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Colombes, Hauts-de-Seine, France (headquarters; full address via the website)
Founded in Paris in 2000 by three former Paris stock-exchange colleagues — Cyrille Jomand, Angélique de Lencquesaing and Lionel Cuenca — who set out to give wine what the bourse gave shares: an organised marketplace and a published price. France's leading online wine auction house for eleven consecutive years on the regulator's figures. The bourse for wine: founded by stock-exchange professionals, it publishes the price indices (Winedex) the rest of the French wine market trades against — the auctioneer as market-maker. Notes: Scale figures are printed with their definitions kept apart (€39.1m IWA auctions 2024; €53.2m company revenue) on the same discipline as the Artcurial entry in the general guide
BLOODSTOCK
32. KEENELAND SALES — LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES
Founded 1936 (Keeneland Association) · Bloodstock — live & online · United States and worldwide
Ownership: Keeneland Association, Inc. — a private, not-for-profit association; sales proceeds are reinvested in the industry and the grounds in its own account — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Shannon B. Arvin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Keeneland Association (in the role through the record 2026 September sale and the October 2026 Championship Sale announcements)
Chair: A chairman of the association separate from the president and CEO is not named in the sources checked — named gap (Keeneland is governed by its board of directors and trustees; no chairman title is borrowed into this field)
Sells: Live Thoroughbred auctions with online bidding — yearlings, breeding stock, horses of racing age and curated fractional-interest sales — where the lot walks through a ring on the sales grounds and the buyers sit in the pavilion Keeneland built for the purpose
Departments: September Yearling Sale; November Breeding Stock Sale; January Horses of All Ages Sale; Horses of Racing Age Sale; Championship Sale (fractional interests, inaugurated 2024)
Salerooms: Keeneland Sales Pavilion and grounds, Lexington, Kentucky; the 2026 Championship Sale was staged at Historic Castleton farm
Calendar: January Horses of All Ages; September Yearling Sale (the peak); the Championship Sale in Breeders' Cup week in late October; November Breeding Stock and Horses of Racing Age sales — the bloodstock year in four acts
Scale: $536.7m gross at the September 2026 Yearling Sale — a world record for a Thoroughbred auction, with 70 yearlings at $1m or more (sale reporting, Sep 2026; the 2025 sale's $510.5m was the previous record) — a single-sale figure, printed as such
Access: Consignors enter horses through the sales office by published deadlines (horses are inspected for the September sale); buyers register for bidder credit, inspect on the grounds and bid in the pavilion, by telephone or online
Website: keeneland.com · Contact: Sales team and entry routes via keeneland.com (catalogue at catalog.keeneland.com) · Phone: Not published as a single line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: 4201 Versailles Road, Lexington, KY 40510, United States
Keeneland, Lexington's not-for-profit Thoroughbred institution, is both a racetrack and the world's largest Thoroughbred auction company: its September Yearling Sale is the global bloodstock market's annual benchmark, and its sales pavilion and grounds sit beside the racecourse it reinvests in. The market itself: more top-class horses change hands in its September fortnight than anywhere on earth, and the institution running the sale owns no profit interest in the outcome. Notes: The September 2026 figure is taken from sale reporting within days of the sale's close; it is a ring gross and is labelled as such
33. FASIG-TIPTON — LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, UNITED STATES
Founded 1898 · Bloodstock — live & online · United States
Ownership: Owned since 2008 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's interests (acquired May 2008, in company and Godolphin accounts) — no change published — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Boyd T. Browning Jr., President and Chief Executive Officer (titled in the company's October 2026 sale coverage)
Chair: No separate chairman is published in sources checked — named gap
Sells: Live Thoroughbred auctions with online bidding — selected and open yearlings, breeding stock, weanlings and horses of racing age, plus digital sales — from permanent sales grounds in Kentucky, New York, Florida and Maryland
Departments: The Saratoga Sale (selected yearlings); Kentucky October Yearlings; November Sale (breeding stock); Kentucky Winter Mixed; Midlantic Two-Year-Olds in Training (Timonium); Gulfstream Sale; Fasig-Tipton Digital
Salerooms: Lexington, Kentucky (Newtown Paddocks); Saratoga Springs, New York (Finney Pavilion); Timonium, Maryland; Ocala/Gulfstream, Florida (two-year-old sales)
Calendar: Winter Mixed in February; two-year-old sales in spring; Saratoga in August; October Yearlings in Lexington; the November Sale in Breeders' Cup week — the American bloodstock circuit in full
Scale: Not published as a single annual total in sources checked, October 2026 (sale-by-sale grosses are published per sale by the company and BloodHorse)
Access: Consignors nominate horses for selection (selected sales are inspected and curated); buyers register for credit and bid in the pavilion, by telephone or online; digital sales are open after account registration
Website: fasigtipton.com · Contact: Entry, nomination and bidder routes via fasigtipton.com · Phone: Not published as a single line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Lexington, Kentucky, United States (headquarters; full address via the website)
America's oldest Thoroughbred auction company, founded in 1898 and selling at Saratoga Springs since the early twentieth century; its Saratoga selected yearling sale — two August evenings under the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion — is the boutique pole of the American market against Keeneland's scale. The connoisseur's sale: 222 selected yearlings over two Saratoga nights in 2025 against Keeneland's thousands — scarcity, theatre and the highest percentage of Grade 1 winners per catalogue in its own claim. Notes: The 2008 ownership is stated from the company's and Godolphin's own accounts of the acquisition; the holding vehicle is not named in those accounts and is not guessed here
34. TATTERSALLS — NEWMARKET, SUFFOLK, UNITED KINGDOM
Founded 1766 · Bloodstock — live & online · United Kingdom, Ireland and worldwide
Ownership: Tattersalls Limited — private; the company also wholly owns Tattersalls Ireland and holds an interest in Australia's Inglis (in its chairman's account). No outside controlling owner published — verified October 2026
Chief executive: Matt Prior, Managing Director (appointed 6 November 2025, effective 1 January 2026 — the company's chief executive in function; the managing-director title is printed as the company publishes it)
Chair: Edmond Mahony, Chairman (chairman since 1993; of both Tattersalls and Tattersalls Ireland, continuing in the role under the November 2025 appointments)
Sells: Live bloodstock auctions in guineas at Park Paddocks — yearlings, breeze-ups, horses in training and mares — with Tattersalls Online and racecourse sales at Cheltenham and Ascot, and Tattersalls Ireland selling at Fairyhouse
Departments: October Yearling Sale (Books 1–4); Breeze Up Sale; Autumn Horses in Training Sale; December Sales (foals, yearlings and mares); July Sale; Tattersalls Online; Cheltenham and Ascot sales
Salerooms: Park Paddocks, Newmarket; Fairyhouse, County Meath (Tattersalls Ireland); Cheltenham and Ascot racecourse sales
Calendar: February Sale; Breeze Ups in spring; July Sale; the October yearling fortnight (the peak); Autumn Horses in Training in late October; the December fortnight closing the year
Scale: Turnover of 426,389,509 guineas on 5,212 horses sold in 2025 (the chairman's figures, Thoroughbred Daily News, Feb 2026) — house figures in guineas, printed as such
Access: Vendors enter horses by published closing dates (yearlings are inspected); purchasers register, open accounts as published and bid in the ring, by telephone or through Tattersalls Online
Website: tattersalls.com · Contact: Entry, catalogue and bidder routes via tattersalls.com · Phone: Not published as a single line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Park Paddocks, Newmarket, Suffolk, United Kingdom (full postal address via tattersalls.com)
Founded by Richard Tattersall at Hyde Park Corner in 1766 — older than the Thoroughbred stud book's modern form — and selling from Park Paddocks, Newmarket since the nineteenth century: Europe's leading bloodstock auctioneer, and the world's oldest, in its own long-standing description. The guinea survives here: Tattersalls still sells in a currency unit abolished in 1971 because the bloodstock world refuses to let it go — and its chairman has held the rostrum, figuratively, for over thirty years. Notes: The managing-director appointment (announced 6 Nov 2025, effective 1 Jan 2026) is the freshest leadership fact in this guide's bloodstock section and is dated in the entry
35. GOFFS — KILL, COUNTY KILDARE, IRELAND
Founded 1866 · Bloodstock — live & online · Ireland and United Kingdom
Ownership: Private Irish company; no outside controlling owner announced — verified October 2026 from available sources
Chief executive: Henry Beeby, Group Chief Executive (the company's long-serving group head and its public voice in sale coverage; title printed as the company publishes it)
Chair: A chairman separate from the group chief executive is not confirmed in sources checked, October 2026 — named gap (Henry Beeby has also been styled chairman in older coverage; the current styling found is Group Chief Executive and the entry prints that, flagging the point)
Sells: Live Thoroughbred auctions with online bidding — yearlings (the Orby Sale is Ireland's flagship), breeding stock, foals and horses in training — plus Goffs Online timed sales
Departments: Orby Sale (Book 1 and Book 2 yearlings); November Foal and Breeding Stock Sales; February Sale; Autumn Yearling Sale; Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale and Horses in Training (Doncaster); Goffs Online
Salerooms: Kildare Paddocks, Kill, County Kildare; Doncaster, England (Goffs UK)
Calendar: February Sale; spring horses in training; the Orby in late September–October (the peak); November foals and breeding stock closing the Irish year
Scale: Not published as a single annual total in sources checked, October 2026
Access: Vendors enter horses by published deadlines (Orby yearlings are inspected); buyers register for credit and bid in the ring, by telephone or online
Website: goffs.com · Contact: Entry and bidder routes via goffs.com · Phone: Not published as a single line in sources checked — see contact route · Headquarters: Kildare Paddocks, Kill, County Kildare, Ireland
Ireland's bloodstock auction house, founded in 1866 by Robert J. Goff and selling from its Kildare Paddocks sales complex at Kill — with Goffs UK at Doncaster — the Irish market's own ring, in the country that breeds a disproportionate share of the world's top racehorses. The home ring of Irish bloodstock: in a country of breeders, Goffs is the national marketplace in a way no other house in this section quite is for its own country. Notes: The chairmanship styling is flagged rather than resolved because sources differ by vintage; the group chief executive role is the consistently published current title
NAMED GAPS
Twenty-two houses in this guide publish no separate chairman in the sources checked, and each entry says so rather than borrowing a title from an owner, a founder or a parent company. Elders Limited's board chairman was not captured from an official source in this pass and is printed as a gap. The presidencies at Farmers National (named 2020) and Superior Livestock (company sources through 2020) could not be re-confirmed to 2026 and are flagged with their vintages, as is the differing chairman styling at Goffs. Western Video Market publishes founders and representatives rather than corporate officers, and no chief executive has been invented for it. Williams & Williams of Tulsa was considered for the real-estate section and dropped because its leadership could not be verified past 2011 — the reason is stated in the README, not hidden. Where a house publishes no annual sales total, the entry reads "not published." The full method, counts and gap list are in the README that accompanies the master CSV of this guide.
Original reporting and writing for LIKE® Magazine. Company figures are the houses' own, labelled and dated in each entry.