Miller & Miller Auctions partners with “justdiscovered"
A new auction company enters the collector space
Meet the justdiscovered team. From left to right: Sean Usher, Meagan Brignell, Peter McCormick, and Dave Hummel.
A deal between a Fort Macleod collector and Miller & Miller auctions prompted the founding of a new London, Ontario-based auction company, and a partnership geared to optimizing the collector’s return on investment.
Last spring Miller & Miller’s CEO Ethan Miller was on a flight to Fort McLeod, Alberta to look at a collection of gas and oil memorabilia he heard was for sale. Miller knew nothing of the Western Canadian town except that the Ghostbusters: Afterlife throwback movie was filmed there in 2021. But that was all about to change. The collector he was going to see was Barry Yorgason, a gas and oil guy. "He had been at it for years", Miller was told. Soon Yorgason and Miller were face to face, with Yorgason’s hand on the door knob of the quonset hut that contained the collection.
"It was absolutely overwhelming”, Miller recalled. "The arched walls were lined with hundreds of gas, oil and automotive signs. Shelves and showcases contained thousands of oil cans. Oil racks were lined up like coal cars on a freight train and over 30 gas pumps towered over them. The ‘wow factor’ was putting it lightly.”
A glimpse inside the spectacular Quonset hut that housed Barry Yorgason’s collection.
Like many longtime collectors, Barry was on the fence about selling. Miller and Yorgason went back and forth but it finally boiled down to one sticking point. Miller recalls Yorgason saying, “I’ll sell my collection with you, but you have to take it all”. It was a deal Miller didn’t want to lose, so he agreed. His mind raced with possibilities.
Typically, 80 per cent of the value in any given collection lies in about 20 per cent of the items. Miller & Miller's strategy has been to take the best and set the seller up with a reputable company to handle the rest. With Miller’s promise to “take it all”, this was not an option. The entire collection - everything - must be taken from the quonset hut in Fort Macleod to Ontario. The floor must be broom-swept, and a cheque must must be sent after everything is sold.
"This was a whole new thing for us,” Miller confessed.
Achieving top dollar for the seller was foremost on Miller’s mind. Miller & Miller is known for short, high impact auction productions. The firm keeps its sales short intentionally to prevent bidder drop-off. Large lots would be the only way to sell thousands of items in a 300 lot auction, but Miller was concerned about diminishing returns for the seller. Take for instance three Purity Motor Oil quart cans in the collection. Miller & Miller would group those three cans into a single lot to keep the sale moving. But what if a potential bidder only wants one of those three cans? Grouping to achieve a lower lot count might save bidders from fatigue, but it can also mean leaving money on the table.
Three Purity Motor Oil quart cans from the Yorgason Collection illustrate the challenge: grouping similar items keeps an auction moving, but selling individually can attract more bidders and maximize returns.
“So many collections include interesting ‘smalls’ that buyers would prefer to buy piece-by-piece, one at a time, but the business model makes that impossible" notes Miller.
The tradeoff reminded Miller of his late father's journey for “the perfect vehicle” in the mid-1990s. He needed a vehicle with enough power to tow a car trailer, enough seats to transport a young family, and enough cargo space to haul the antiques he dealt in. He bought a GMC Suburban thinking he had found "the perfect vehicle” only to realize its limitations. He coined the motto, “there is no one vehicle for all situations”. He kept the Suburban, but bought a van.
Just as “there is no one vehicle for all situations”, Miller was realizing there was no one auction company for all collections. To properly achieve full market value for those Purity Motor Oil quart cans, Miller & Miller needed the expertise of a company that specializes in the sale of entire collections. It turns out the problem needed a custom-made solution. justdiscovered was launched to optimize Yorgason's return on investment in a way Miller & Miller couldn’t. To sell the Yorgason collection, the two firms are partnering up.
Miller & Miller Auctions’ CEO Ethan Miller is pictured above with Dave Hummel, Operations Manager for justdiscovered.
Owned and organized by Miller & Miller executives and auction industry veteran Dave Hummel, justdiscovered is an independent online auction house focused on serving collectors. Like Miller & Miller it specializes in properly handling, describing, promoting high value collections. It has its own website, bidding platform and clientele. Hummel heads operations with his team of three full-time staff at a 10,000 square-foot facility in London, Ontario.
A sneak peek inside the new 10,000 square foot justdiscovered facility in London, Ontario.
“This is just part of our business evolution,” Miller points out. "It has forced us to grow. It’s exciting to see what two companies with shared values but different approaches can do to maximize the value of a collection”, says Miller.
The dynamics between Miller & Miller and justdiscovered ensure that the Yorgason collection will be sold to its maximum potential. The collection will be sold in three sessions. All sessions will be accessible on a landing page through Miller & Miller’s website. The premier session on October 18 consists of fewer than 300 curated pieces to tempt Miller & Miller’s most powerful buyers. It will be made available for live-simulcast bidding through Miller & Miller, Live Auctioneers and the justdiscovered HiBid platform. The two remaining sessions will be online-only auctions via the justdiscovered HiBid platform. Each will include upwards of 1000 lots. Items like the Purity Motor Oil quart cans will be sold one-by-one, like collectors want to buy them.
Progress shots from the transformation of the justdiscovered facility.
While justdiscovered was custom-built to optimize Yorgason’s return on investment, demand for the service is already welling up.
"Some of the best products and services in history have come about in real situations solving real problems. This is a classic example,” Miller reflects. "justdiscovered is like an olympic stadium: built for a specific purpose, but serving others long after the event is over. It's a really exciting time for all of us".
The justdiscovered team has been hard at work preparing for the Fall 2026 auction lineup.
And just as Barry requested, the quonset hut was left broom-swept and empty, its collection headed to new homes and, in the process, giving rise to justdiscovered.
The quonset hut after the Yorgason Collection was packed, loaded and bound for Ontario.
Story by Tess Malloy
Tess is a freelance writer and history enthusiast who enjoys unearthing interesting stories about remarkable people and objects. Tess has written for The Miller Times for seven years.
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