Meet Ben Pernfuss and the job he couldn’t refuse
Miller & Miller looking to fill two more positions
Meet Ben Pernfuss, Miller & Miller’s first full-time Consignment Director.
Ben Pernfuss was going to pursue a teaching career but decided instead to become Miller & Miller Auctions’ first full-time Consignment Director – a newly-created position that requires some of the same qualities: great communicator, a relationship builder, honest, respectful and a go-getter.
In mid-March Ben completed his degree in teaching but chose to follow a different path and a different passion.
“I wanted to do something I loved. Every day here is pretty exciting and you’re rewarded for your hard work,” says the 24-year-old, now officially the company’s Consignment Director of Sports Cards & Memorabilia. “It’s a great feeling making people happy on both the buyer’s side and the seller’s side.”
Launched in 2016, Miller & Miller is now a leading auction house in Canada. It specializes in selling high-value collections within niche collector market segments, such as Petroliana & Advertising, Canadiana & Folk Art, Luxury Watches, Firearms, and now Sports Memorabilia. Its annual sales have doubled year-over-year since 2022 - impressive progress that has led to a search for suitable candidates to fill two new positions similar to Ben’s: Consignment Director of Canadian Post-War Folk Art and Consignment Director of Luxury Watches.
As Ben is discovering, the auction business is full of surprises. Miller & Miller, for example, holds the world sales record for a Maud Lewis painting. In 2022 they sold Black Truck by the famous Canadian folk artist for $350,000 – a painting that had once been traded for a few grilled cheese lunches. The ‘story’ generated international media attention.
Once traded for a few grilled cheese sandwiches, Miller & Miller sold ‘Black Truck’ by Maud Lewis for a record-breaking $350,000 in May 2022 - a story that garnered international media attention.
Prior to his official appointment, Ben had been working part-time with Miller & Miller for about eight years, often accompanying Ethan Miller, the company’s CEO, on summer trips in Western Canada to secure consignments. Watching and listening led to learning. Combined with Ben’s own interest in collecting (his grandfather loved petroliana and he loves advertising and sports memorabilia) he soon picked up key trade secrets.
“Ben is a superhero in the making,” says Ethan. “He can read between the lines, he’s indifferent to rejection and he knows what he doesn’t know but who to ask that does.”
Ben is responsible for building three auctions a year in his category. He recently proved he could put a sale together from scratch and successfully completed the first of its kind in January. The Pre-1980 Sports Cards & Memorabilia sale saw two 1952 Topps #311 Mickey Mantle cards sell for a combined value of $88,500. His first sale grossed over $448,000 - well above the sales target of $350,000.
The auction highlights above are all from Ben’s debut sale as Consignment Director of Sports Cards & Memorabilia. View the full catalogue here.
Miller & Miller’s consignment directors get to work months in advance of the auction date to find the content that’s right for their sales. The director decides what is and isn’t allowed to be included based on the kind of collector they want to attract. In Ben’s case, they were collectors interested in pre-1980 sports memorabilia. No content newer than 1980 was allowed. Once the sales target and auction date are set, the pressure is on the consignment director.
“It’s definitely stressful, but it’s also very motivating – and fulfilling. The challenge is you set a date, stand by it and produce a Miller & Miller-quality offering. You can’t get that at the supermarket,” he jokes.
A consignment director’s job involves networking, getting to know the collector community, going to shows, trolling social media sites for content, following up on leads, and generating new leads. You need to have a competitive spirit, be persuasive, charming, honest and have a high level of emotional intelligence. Having an interest in the subject matter and a sound general knowledge are must haves. The overarching challenges, says Ben, are time management and relationship building. It also means being on the road 25 to 50 per cent of the time and not always between nine and five.
Ben Pernfuss is pictured among potential inventory during a trip with Ethan Miller, the company’s CEO, to secure consignments across Western Canada.
While consignment directors need to possess the right characteristics, what they don’t necessarily need is an encyclopedic knowledge of their category. Miller & Miller’s consignment directors work with authorized specialists who possess exceptional knowledge in their fields. And they are there to help.
“Right from day one I’ve had a support system around me that wasn’t going to let me fail,” says Ben. “There’s a marketing team, an accounting team, consulting specialists, cataloguers. Your job is to go out and find things. Plus, Ethan is always just a phone call away. To be honest, I couldn’t have done this without his mentorship. I‘ve learned he’s a great communicator. Communication – and honesty, of course - is everything in building relationships and trust. This process is about creating a rapport with people and when the time comes to get down to business it’s about making sure we’re all on the same page – both consignor and the auction house – and that everybody is happy.”
Miller & Miller is now turning its attention to finding the right people for the other two consignment director positions. “This is how we see ourselves growing,” says Ethan, “through attracting and supporting consignment directors”.
As for Ben, he’s in a very good place. “I’ve always had a back seat and now I’m in the driver’s seat.”
By Diane Sewell
Diane Sewell has been a writer for more than 25 years, producing feature stories for some of the country’s top newspapers and consumer magazines, as well as client newsletters and commissioned books.
Know someone who may be interested in joining the Miller & Miller team as Consignment Director of Canadian Post-War Folk Art or Consignment Director of Luxury Watches? Get in touch today.
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