Ducks Unlimited Podcast

Katie Burke: Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Ducks Unlimited podcast. I'm your host, Katie Burke. And today on the show, our special guest is Grant Cole from Auctioneers, Inc., which he owns with his wife, Megan. Welcome to the show, Grant.

Grant Cole: Thanks for having me, Katie. Excited to be here.

Katie Burke: Grant, I always go back and kind of start at the beginning with these things, especially because you've never been on here before. So let's kind of go to the beginning. Maybe not decoys, but have you always kind of been into the outdoors? What was that like growing up in Michigan and that side of things?

Grant Cole: So my dad was an avid outdoorsman and loved to hunt and fish. So he duck hunted when he was younger, but then kind of transitioned into more of an upland bird hunter. And so, I mean, from the time I was a kid, we were hunting small game, squirrels, rabbits, woodcock, pheasants, you name it, whatever we could get into. And so he really had a passion for pheasant hunting. And so when I was a kid, I think the first time we went out West was I was 11. We went out to South Dakota and started chasing these wild pheasants around and hunting public land. And it was just dad and I and the truck and our yellow lab, who was not really a trained bird hunter, bird dog. But we learned kind of as we went along and just great memories being a kid out in South Dakota. And we went every year. over Thanksgiving from the time I was 11 until, I don't know, the probably ended up hunting here until my kids were born, probably like the last 10 years. So just been a great way to grow up and love the outdoors. Never really had a chance to do a lot of waterfall hunting. busy with life and kids and things like that. But after getting into selling decoys with our auction business and getting to meet some collectors, had some opportunities to go do some duck hunting with some decoy collectors and Dave Kneebone, which he's been on your show before and got to hunt with Dave. So it's been great. Really enjoy hunting and fishing and now getting to share that with my kids.

Katie Burke: Yeah, it's cool. We just did this video with my dad too. He was a big, do you volunteer? So I've had to think about it a little more about what that meant and growing and doing that stuff. It's funny that yours is South Dakota and pheasant hunting because that would be impossible for us down here as kids, but I was so jealous thinking about it. Yeah, it's nice that you had that time and especially since you did it every year, it's like a dedicated space and how that informs you. Now that you have kids and stuff, this is kind of jumping deep into the deep stuff. What is it like, and I guess I'm asking more on a personal level because I need advice. My kids are just now starting to want to go. He's little, he's five, and my oldest one is not interested. How are you trying to pass that on? What's that like with you and your kids? going well or is it like?

Grant Cole: Yeah, and so I think I just try to make it fun, you know? To me it's not about going out there like, you know, I've taken my kids deer hunting a lot and so we have a great deer population and I think it's just like getting him out there, you know, having the snacks, having their friends tag along has been a huge help and just making it fun. You know, if we go out there and we're successful, great. If we go out there and we're just out there spending time together, that's great too. Um, so I think just keeping it fun, lighthearted, you know, like It's not the guy's hunt and trip where we're just serious and we're going to grind it out, you know, 12 hours a day. Um, just keeping it fun and, you know, having their friends tag along has been a big help because some of their friends, they don't have the experience, you know, maybe to go out and enjoy the outdoors and get to experience that. And so that's been, that's been really cool and helpful to be able to, you know, introduce other people's kids to the outdoors as well.

Katie Burke: That's a good idea. That's like, also, that was the one thing, my dad did a bunch of youth stuff with DU. He's like, that's what he's known for. He did all these youth hunts. And the one thing in this little interview was like, yeah, you make it fun. No matter what you do, you just make it fun. And one of the things we've done with my son who's interested, now I don't, I have to stop. He gets upset with me because I won't let him go if it's too cold. Because I'm like, well, I don't want you to be miserable yet. You're little, like.

Grant Cole: Right.

Katie Burke: But we go to a spot that isn't a blind, it's like dry ground behind us and woods. And I'm like, go find sticks. He likes to turn all the sticks into guns.

Grant Cole: Sure.

Katie Burke: And swords. Yeah, so it's like, go find your weapons in the woods, like they can't see you back there. And then you can come back and hang out and eat a snack or whatever, and then he can play at the same time. And that's helped a lot because he's not stuck. Because we tried a blind a couple of times and it was like, well, he's stuck in the space. He's too little to walk in waiters because he's going to bust it and he's going to get wet. It's going to be awful. We're all going to have to leave and go home.

Grant Cole: Well, I think you're, you know, you're, you're putting in the effort to engage your family and, you know, trying to pass on something and they're not all gonna have that interest like we have. And I think that's, you know, that's like a hard thing as, you know, a parent. You're like, you want your kids to be interested in what you're interested in. And I think just not forcing it on them and, you know, letting them have that choice and, you know, hopefully they will. So.

Katie Burke: Hopefully they will, you never know. Yeah, right now, we haven't done friends and that's a good idea when they get older. But they have cousins that they see there and do that with. So that's kind of the big thing right now is they do that with their cousins. But yeah, it's tough. And I didn't think about it like as a kid, because as a kid, I wanted just to go so bad. And I was so sad when I didn't go.

Grant Cole: I know.

Katie Burke: So, like, I don't know. I don't know how to, like, deal with it on the other end. I never even thought about it.

Grant Cole: my dad, the first time that he was going to go to South Dakota, he really set me up. And this is kind of a funny story. I came home and, you know, he'd been kind of talking about South Dakota for a while. And, um, he kind of sat me down at the kitchen table and he's like, well, we're going to go over your report card now. And I was in fifth grade. And I remember like it was yesterday and, uh, he started going over grades and talking about this and talking about that and what I can improve on. And, um, you know, he's telling me about South Dakota and how he's leaving next week and, you know, over Thanksgiving break, you know, and I am just like begging and pleading with him to go. I'm like, Dad, I'm like, I'll go. And he's like, well, you're not old enough to, you know, be able to hunt yet, you know? And I'm like, well, I'll go and kick ditches and, you know, I'll kick the cattails and I'll go pick up the birds. And he's like, well, that's what we got the dog for. He goes, you know, We don't really need you to do that. He goes, you need to stay here and focus on school and this and that. And so we're kind of going along through the conversation and he kind of wraps it up. He goes, well, you know, you know, you need to really work hard on your studies and make sure you do your schoolwork while we're out in South Dakota because It's going to be a long days of hunting and this and then it's so funny. It's like, so like that memory and like, it was the biggest, best surprise ever. And, uh, yeah, so it's so funny how that stuff sticks with you. Cause like I wanted to tag along with my dad every time.

Katie Burke: Oh yeah. And I remember, and I, now as a adult, I was talking to my brother who was like, this is like, you know, I didn't think about this as a kid either, but. I felt so sorry for my mom on the days that we woke up and we didn't go. Like, you'd wake up at 7 o'clock and you'd realize, oh, he didn't take me. And we would cry. We would get so upset. And she had to deal with it. He wasn't there. He was hunting. But I mean, and usually there was a reason like, yeah. Cause like now kids have, we have waiters their size. We didn't have waiters when I was a kid.

Grant Cole: The gear is so much better for kids. So like you talked about making your kids comfortable. Like if you're going to take your kids in the outdoors, invest the money. And even if you don't want to invest the money to buy stuff, find a friend that maybe, Hey, could I borrow this set of waiters for the day? You know, I'm going to take my kid out fishing or hunting or whatever it is. Most people are like, absolutely, or hand-me-downs are a great option.

Katie Burke: And don't overthink that just walking in water and waders is going to entertain them more than anything. I don't know why, but they find it amazing. They'll just walk around in circles in the decoys. Yeah, he like likes to pick up the decoys because he gets to walk in the waders. That's his favorite. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool. He'll walk around. Yeah. But he's going to bust it soon. He's very close to awesome going under a few times.

Grant Cole: Yeah.

Katie Burke: All right. Well, back on. But yeah, I haven't I don't get to talk to a lot of people that do that, especially because you're a little bit ahead of me. So it's good to hear.

Grant Cole: Our son Wyatt is 10 and our daughter Harper is 12. So Harper got her first deer this year, deer hunting, which was a really awesome experience. Yeah. So Wyatt, he'll be doing his hunter safety and he's on the ticket for next year. So he's excited.

Katie Burke: Do you have to do your hunter safety before you can go there?

Grant Cole: So they have a mentorship. program. That's what Harper did this year. And so, yeah. So, we did the mentored hunter program and she's going to do hunter safety and Wyatt will do it with her. And yeah, so.

Katie Burke: Yeah, we don't have to do it until after they're 16.

Grant Cole: Oh, okay.

Katie Burke: Just so when they go get their regular license. I mean, I did it as a kid at like eight, but yeah, but it was, you know, 1990, whatever. So, it's a different situation. All right. So you grew up hunting and obviously that was all in the back. So when did you, I'm guessing because you're in Michigan, that you were, were you always kind of aware of old decoys or when did you start becoming aware? Because I mean, here in Mississippi, I grew up in Mississippi and we're in Tennessee, they weren't really around. So I didn't really know about them until I grew up much later. But you're in Michigan, so it's a little bit different.

Grant Cole: Yeah, our story with decoys and how we got into this is a little different path. My dad was an auctioneer and so I grew up in the family auction business and we sold everything. We did estates and real estate and farm equipment and benefit auctions and you name it. So, I grew up in the auction business, and when I was about 25, I was hired to be a guest auctioneer to go and work for a gentleman who was doing decoy auctions. And that was right here in Cadillac, Michigan. Just, you know, it's kind of a smaller scale, not like what Guyette and Dieter is doing. You know, no online bidding, just in-person decoy auctions. That's how I got my start. I was hired to come in as an auctioneer and start selling these decoys. And it was ducks. It was fish decoys. We would sell bear traps and just all kinds of cool sporting collectibles. And I just thought it was fascinating. And so, you know, start asking some more questions. And, you know, next thing you know, my wife and I had an opportunity in 2012 to buy out that company and we took over his company. And so, we did our first decoy auction online. I really didn't know anything about decoys other than I knew that I needed to have online bidding as an available option to reach more bidders. And so I reached out to a couple of people that he was using to help him identify decoys and just really started spending a lot of time with those collectors here locally. Ken Stein in Traverse City, he's been a longtime decoy collector and he and I have spent a lot of time and I owe a lot of credit to him. for getting me started. So, my first decoy auction was 2012. We did one that year, started with a collection in Traverse City, and then that led into another opportunity. And the more time I spent with Ken, the more time he would say, here, go read this decoy collecting book, and when you're done with it, bring it back, and I'll give you another one. And then 2015 came around, and he said, you know, if you really want to know more about decoys, you've got to go to the, at that time it was called the Midwest Decoy Collector Show, down in Pheasant Run. What year was that? That was 2015. Yeah. So, I was like, what is a decoy show? What are you talking about? I have no idea what this is. So, made a phone call, made a reservation, and I showed up for room-to-room trading, which I had no idea what that was, on Tuesday of that week. And I remember like walking into the lobby there at Pheasant Run and just being like, Oh my goodness, like there's people everywhere. And I took a right and I headed down that first aisle and I'm looking at these people's rooms and there are decoys all over the place. And they're set up like small little antique mall booths, you know, and I was just blown away. I was like, I can't believe that all these people have brought these things from all over the country to do this. And it was like, it was that day that it was just, Like, wow, this is amazing. And I was, I was hooked right there. Yeah.

Katie Burke: So, I think I was two years after you was my first.

Grant Cole: Okay.

Katie Burke: I think it was 2017.

Grant Cole: Okay. Yeah.

Katie Burke: Yeah. Cause I started this job in 2015.

Grant Cole: Okay.

Katie Burke: And then I was trying to remember if I had had Louise yet or not. I think I'd already had her. So, yeah, 2017 would have been my first one there. And yeah, it's nothing. Yeah. It's hard, especially the old one. Like, it's hard to describe.

Grant Cole: Yeah, how unique it was.

Katie Burke: How unique it was. And, um, just like, especially stepping into something when you were like, I have no idea what this is going to be like. And you're like, oh, okay, this is weird. Why are people going into people's hotel rooms? Like, yeah, it's strange.

Grant Cole: It is. such a unique opportunity to learn about decoys going to a show. I think more than anything like networking and getting to meet people, but the dealers and the collectors that want to pass on the knowledge and help younger collectors show up, like, hey, what is this? Tell me about it. Because everyone's got their own little area of collecting and what they specialize in. But the people that are there that kind of want to see younger people coming into it, that's what I love. Because there are a lot of people that want to help people learn more about decoys because I think, you know, a high tide rises all ships. What's good for decoy collecting is good for everyone. So, you know, making new people that are not even aware that maybe love like what you're doing with the DU podcast. You're bringing a new light to decoy collecting that is immeasurable. All the people that you're going to reach through these podcasts is just amazing and that's what our story was. I literally walked around that week in room-to-room trading with a stack of business cards. And I gave everyone, I tell everyone, I said, I'm going to give you my 30-second elevator speech. Like, this is who I am. I don't know really anything about decoys. I want to learn more. We have an auction house. We sell decoys from time to time. Here's my card. And that's literally what I did for that whole week. And the second day of that show on Wednesday, a collector, Len Carnegie from Michigan, called me in his room and he said, hey, I've got a few decoys I'd like to consign with you. And I was so blown away. I think my jaw literally hit the bed. I was like, yeah, that sounds great. Awesome. And so I ran back to my room and I got my couple of tubs and bubble wrap and I ran back down there with a consignment form. And that was the very first consignment we ever got at a decoy show. And I called my wife and I said, This is it. I said, we are out of the estate auction business. I said, I am going to go full-time into chasing decoys and sporting collectibles. And she thought I was crazy. And literally that day was our turning point into going to specialize in decoys and doing it full-time.

Katie Burke: That's cool. So I have a question about that a little bit. So at the time, because you're in Michigan, which has a very strong decoy background. So I'm guessing you're getting a lot of Michigan birds or the area just at first naturally, right? That's just naturally what you're getting.

Grant Cole: Yeah.

Katie Burke: And how does that evolve?

Grant Cole: So, you know, it's a mix in every collection.

Katie Burke: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Because everybody's got, like, most people have, like, a primary and then they've got some peripheral stuff they've picked up.

Grant Cole: Right. Yeah. So, I would say probably when we started, it was a lot of Michigan-based type items. You know, that first collection that we landed, the John and Midge Jones collection, they had, I guess I was very blessed to have that opportunity to work with their collection because they had decoys from every region, so it really kind of expanded us very quickly. But then when we started going to decoy shows and start networking with collectors, you know, oh I live in Michigan, you live in Michigan, and I'd go over and and spend time visiting with collectors and talking about what they have in their collection and just trying to understand because you know, decoys, you know, it's very rare to have the maker's name on the bottom of the decoy. It's all like, you know, it's in the form of how it's carved and every region has its style and every painter has its style. Like, you know, some of the best painters are, you know, from the Illinois River, you know, Elliston and Purdue and Graves and, you know, so, um, Starting off, you know, you're going down that road of, you know, we're going to take everything that we can on consignment. So it was fishing lures, it was duck decoys, it was, you know, under that sporting collectible umbrella, decoy stands and decoy reference books, and we still sell those items today. Kind of our businesses transitioned into, we sell a lot of decoys outside of our area because now we're going to decoy shows across the country. So from Minnesota to Illinois and Wisconsin and we've got the Ohio show coming up here in a couple weeks. I've just been very blessed and there's been so many people that have helped us get to the point where we're at, you know, just trying to understand paint and, you know, what to look for on original paint and how to use a black light effectively and, you know, really understand what paint is and you have to become a student of paint and decoys and what hundred-year-old paint should feel like and just there's a lot of layers to it but I've enjoyed every minute of it and like anything it's been a lot of hard work and people are there you know I think like it's very rewarding from people that want to genuinely help you and grow your knowledge base and help you network. And it's really just kind of come full circle with being able to get in the mix with decoy collectors and just knowing that this is what we love to do now and we're just passionate about decoys. decoy collecting and auction business. And even now, I'm on the board with the Great Lakes Decoy Association, serving as a board member. And so, that's just been awesome. I love it.

Katie Burke: Good. I'm glad you like it.

Grant Cole: Yeah. Yeah.

Katie Burke: That's cool. So, I'm glad they're asking us younger people too. It's nice. I had a couple questions with that. And one of the things I guess is not really a question, but I would, I'll follow with a question once a comment first, but is, you know, one of the things people ask about like the learning process of it. And I would say, and I think I talked with Dave about this actually, and the more you interact with decoys, like, I mean, just repetition, it really is how I've done it. Like that's how I get better is just keep going. Yeah, I just keep interacting over and over and eventually it just kind of sticks. It's weird. It does. Yeah, that's kind of the best thing I could come up with. But for you, like, do you have a story or a moment where working with someone that helped you that you kind of had maybe an aha moment or like you really took something from that moment that really kind of changed where you were going at that time?

Grant Cole: I can remember, you know, Mason Decoy Factory is based here in Michigan and, you know, obviously they made a ton of decoys and they're highly sought after and they made different grades. And so I can remember early on in my career trying to understand the different grades of masons. And one collector, John Crandall, we were at a decoy show and we were talking about differences between the premier grades and the challenge grades and the standard grades. And he said, you know, if you look at the way that the bills are carved, standard grades are never going to have any carving on the bill. A challenge grade is going to have this, you know, small carving around its face where the bill meets its face. And then a premier grade are going to have these nostrils. And literally we had three decoys of examples, one, two, three, right there in a row. And I was like, wow, like that is such a simple way. to identify these decoys and be able to spot them from across the room, you know, and then you kind of start dealing in more like, okay, well, you know, with Mason's, they offered, you know, a painted eye, a tack eye, and a glass eye version. And then in challenge grade, they offered, you know, solid body and hollow body, which are my favorite decoys are the challenge grade hollow bodies. And then in the premier grade, you've got all these different special order things. So, it's just, it's been really cool. to be able to kind of pick up on those little characteristics of like, I know what that is. Cause you know, of this little thing and being able to walk into, like when you're going to decoy shows and you walk into someone's room and they've got all these great decoys out, laid out in the bed. And now, you know, where we're at now is being able to have an educated conversation with a collector. hey, what do you think about that premier grade mallard on the bed?" Well, now, going through that, I can look right over there and say, yeah, well, that's a great decoy, and, you know, it looks like it's an original paint, and, you know, that should do very well, so.

Katie Burke: Yeah.

Grant Cole: Yeah.

Katie Burke: That's kind of cool, yeah, because you can kind of jump straight to it.

Grant Cole: Yep.

Katie Burke: Okay, so I have another question and this is kind of where you and I, I guess in our careers are similar, but different because you're awfully doing sales, but developing these relationships with people. It's it's really unique and I never really which we you kind of mentioned earlier like about connecting the decoy getting this decoy audience but it's funny you say it that way because that's not the way I I think about it as I know it's come across as promotion for decoys but That really wasn't my original intent with it. It was more like, to me, as someone who grew up in Ducks Unlimited and a very DU-heavy background, there's this whole other world that's so closely related that I was surprised that they don't meet that much.

Grant Cole: Commingle, yeah.

Katie Burke: Yeah, I was very, like, shocked by that when I came into decoys through the museum, and I was like, why are these separate groups? Like, they have so much in common. This doesn't make sense to me. So, that was always my intention when I got started was to blend them more.

Grant Cole: You're definitely bridging that gap for sure. Yeah, to blend that. And, you know, I think about Jim Goodman. You know, he's obviously, you know, big in Ducks Unlimited, but he's a collector. You know, and I think that every show that I've seen him here recently, like he is always bringing someone from Ducks Unlimited around and bringing them to the shows and kind of educating them. And I think that's just, they're passing on the torch in some way, just trying to bring more people into it for the awareness, because it's history. And I think eventually, you know, you keep saying the same thing to a lot of ears and it'll stick. So.

Katie Burke: That's true. We're going to take a quick break, but we got to put a pin in the Jim Goodman thing because that gets into my next question.

Katie Burke: Yeah, quick break. We'll be right back. Welcome back. I'm here with Grant Cole.

Katie Burke: We were talking about Jim Goodman and I just, I, you know, I don't think I've actually talked about him on the podcast and, and that's a shame because Jim is probably the person who, he's the one who got me to go to the show.

Grant Cole: He's your guy.

Katie Burke: He's the one who got me started to this because what we did with him and Bill Dodge, we did a collection of his masons. was the first like loan collection I did pretty early on in the museum. Because we had like the first collections that we put in the museum and those were not done by me because I came on like a month before the museum opened. So everything that was put in the museum upon opening was done by staff here at DU. But Jim's was the first one that I curated and that I put together with him and Bill. Let's say that Bill Dodge did most of the work. He wrote all the labels, because I didn't know anything at that point. They were teaching me so much, and Jim got me to go. But I always called Jim and Dailene, my Decoy Show parents, because they always take care of me everywhere I go, and they make sure I know everyone. But yeah, like people like him, and I guess I want to talk about that in that those relationships, you know, are so important personally, but they're also part of our job, right? Like it's… And I don't, I don't want to say that to discredit the relationships. It's kind of a perk of our job is that we get to create these relationships with people and get to know them. And, you know, I, I do it in a way where I get to, you know, like I have Dave's collection right now. So, you know, it's almost like I create it and then it's only a year, but you're creating these relationships as an auctioneer. and like having auction firm because you have to have a more of a longer connection because eventually they'll want to either sell or buy from you too. I'm curious with two things. One, like what is it like to, you know, you're always having to create these longer relationships, so you're creating, you're making sure that you're continuing to talk to people and staying with them. And that's to eventually sell, but what is it like on your side, I don't think I've ever asked this before, but like, to help them collect for their collection? Like, you're getting to know their collection, not only to maybe one day sell it, but also to help add to it, right? Like, so you're looking for stuff for people. And yeah, so what is, can you speak, it's hard to even ask a direct question, but I just am curious about what that's like.

Grant Cole: So, I would say that the friendships that we've made in decoy collecting has been, you can't place a value on it. It's very refreshing to be able to, you know, engage in your business while creating these network of people that are like-minded and have the same interests and hobbies. You know, you can go out and, like, duck hunting with Dave for the first time. I shot my first duck with Dave, you know, at his club. Yeah, at the West End Gun Club. And, like, to share that with Dave and then be able to sit in the blind and talk about the history of where we're hunting and duck hunting and, you know, calls and decoys and things like that is… It's icing on the cake for me. So the friendships and the networks, like I've been able to go places I never thought I would be able to go and do things that I never thought I'd be able to get to do. You know, I got invited to go out and hunt with Mike Cole out in California last year, and that was amazing. You know, just to be able to go out there and do that and see it is just fantastic and get to go fishing with different clients. Like I've, you know, we do a lot of fish spearing decoys in our business. So, I've made a great relationship and friendship with Pete Segelko from Tennessee. who primarily collects Oscar Peterson fish spearing decoys, which are made in Cadillac, Michigan, which is 30 minutes from where we live. So, awesome friendships. But you talk about like, yes, you know, eventually, you know, there's going to be things to sell. And, you know, everyone kind of knows that we're in the auction business in this collecting firm. And There's room for everybody, you know, and I know that, you know, Guy and Dieter, they're a great auction company. Steve O'Brien, they run a great auction company. Our auction company, we offer something that's just a little bit different than what those guys do. But there's room for everybody in this business, I believe. And we all help each other whether we know it or not. And so, you know, the business side is great. You have these relationships and it's not always, like you said, it's not always about trying to get them to consign something because it's not. I can remember one of my earliest shows in Ohio. And I went out to dinner with a client and we're sitting there talking and he says, well, I've got this great Illinois River buffalo head and it had something to do with the carriage rig. And I thought, man, Illinois River buffalo head, you don't see a lot of those. And that's pretty cool. And I sent, uh, I sent Dave a message while we were at dinner. I said, what do you know about the carriage rig and buffalo heads? And he goes, and he sent me a text message back, like, what are you talking about? He goes, I didn't see a buffalo head. And so. I was able to connect Dave with this other collector that had this decoy that hadn't even been seen yet. And Dave went down to his room when we got back from dinner, and Dave still has that decoy in his collection today, to this day. And it's so cool when I get to go and visit he and Jeanette's collection and still see that decoy sitting there because he loves that decoy. He was very happy to be able to add that to his collection. I think like that is you can't measure that like we helped someone who was looking for something and we helped someone that was selling something but like financially we didn't take anything from either end of it. We were just doing something putting two people together to help them and we do that a lot at shows. I'll be walking around rooms and I'll see something that I think you know, I know someone that's at the show collects this certain thing. And I'll say, Hey, did you see that in so-and-so's room on, you know, the third floor? No, I didn't see that. And, you know, so I think that's where like, you know, the business hat kind of comes off a little bit and it's more of that, uh, friendly, you know, collaboration, uh, networking. So.

Katie Burke: Yeah, that's interesting. Yeah, because that's different that you get to do that because that's very different from what I do. Like, honestly, you know, like having them on the podcast and stuff and then, well, having their collections is great, but it's, it's short-lived, right? Like, it doesn't, yeah, I mean, we have this relationship after, but that working part kind of is short-lived. Like, and it's, that's done and, you know, maybe in 15 years we'll do it again, but you can't do it again right away, right?

Grant Cole: Right, right. Well, you have, I mean, there's so many great collections out there. Yes. You know, I would imagine that your job is, it's a very interesting job and unique and it's changing all the time because you're trying to come up with something new and something that hasn't been done and there's a lot of aspects. It is.

Katie Burke: And there's a lot of, you know, it's kind of like dating in a way. There's a lot of collections that are worth being in the museum, right? But timing is everything. You know, people have stuff going on in their lives and some people are ready to loan you their stuff for a year and some people are like, no way. I'm not giving you anything for a year. And I'm like, well, it's really not that long. A year is pretty quick. It's only 12 months. Yeah, it's not that long. You won't miss it. And you'll just fill it up with more stuff. It'll be fine. So, do you collect anything now? People ask me this all the time.

Grant Cole: Yes, I've gotten bit by the bug. So, I bought my very first decoy. So, my grandfather carved decoys, but he did more of like the decorative type carving, you know, back in the 70s and 80s. And so, like, my aunts and uncles all had one of my grandfather's decoys. So, I was kind of interested in it a little bit, but I remember buying my first Mason decoy at a garage sale before I even knew what it was, just because I thought it was cool. And so, after, you know, getting to know what we had, you know, I ended up with a nice challenge grade Mason Redhead Drake. and I didn't even know what it was. I still have that decoy today, but kind of the problem with being an auction company that sells a wide variety of decoys from lots of different regions is that it's good and bad. It's you get an admiration for Michigan decoys and, you know, Ben Schmitz and Masons and Illinois River and Wisconsin and Minnesota and now on, you know, Canadian decoys and obviously decoys that are on the East Coast. So, it's very hard. Like, I'm like a squirrel on the road. I'm like, I want that one, that one, that one, that one. And, you know, but… You know, with kids and being young in the home, you know, we don't have a great decoy collection like a lot of our friends do, but I'm pretty happy to have what we do. So we got some fish and some decoys by various different makers, both new and old.

Katie Burke: You can only have so much that they won't mess up. Theirs are getting older. They're not going to be too much. They won't. They're moving out of it. You don't have a two-year-old at home like I do.

Grant Cole: The Nerf gun bullets still fly around the house.

Katie Burke: Yeah, I could see that. We have like an armory of Nerf guns. Yeah. Literally, we do. We have like an armory of Nerf weapons. Yeah, they're everywhere. That's good stuff. Yeah, because yesterday there was snow and he yesterday was like, can I take my gun out in the thing out in the snow? I'm like, well, yeah, just I guess bring it back. I don't know. It's gonna get wet. He's like, yeah, I was like, okay. He's like, I was like, I don't know why you're asking me that question. You couldn't take it outside. I'd prefer you to take it outside. That would be great. No, but we have, yeah, no, I don't know what it, we have two boys and so, and already the little one's already on all the weaponry. The big sister's not happy. Does your big sister not like it either?

Grant Cole: You know, she actually roughhouses. She puts… Oh, good for her. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, mine, Louise hates it. She roughhouses and she likes to put her little brother in his place. Oh, good.

Katie Burke: Good for her. No, Louise, my oldest is a gentle soul. She's not into it. No. But he's got a little brother, so it's fine. All right, so you start going to the, let's talk a little bit about the North American Decoy Collector. So you start going to the Midwest show. How soon do you start branching out to the other shows? Do you just immediately jump in?

Grant Cole: Yes. So that first show, April 2015, we'd made that transition of saying, we are going to go all in on this. And it's just like, I want to know You know, what other shows are going on around the country? What other clubs exist? When do they happen? Where do they happen? How do they happen? Because each show and each club runs a little bit differently. And so you don't know what you don't know until you get there to see it firsthand, you know? And so, um, I know that 2015, we kind of finished up and we did a couple of small shows. And then I went to the Minnesota decoy show January of 2016 for the very first time. And that was a great experience. Great people. Love that club. I actually get the opportunity to serve as their auctioneer for their club auction now, which is really cool.

Katie Burke: They have a cool little auction.

Grant Cole: They do. Yeah. Yeah. So love the Minnesota group. And then, you know, the Henry, Illinois show is right after that, like the next weekend. And so that's always a great show. A lot of people through that show. And then the Edgerton, Wisconsin show is right the day before Henry. so while we sit those back-to-back and then we go to the let's see the next show on our schedule is going to be the Oshkosh show and that's a nice show that's become a like a three-day show room-to-room trading the two-day ballroom event And then the Great Lakes Decoy Association and the ODCCA, the Ohio Decoy Collectors Association, have come together and they brought those two clubs back together. And I have the privilege to serve on the board with John Dieter and Marty Hanson and Ken Cole. And then… That's a fun board. It is. It is a fun board.

Katie Burke: It's a fun board.

Grant Cole: you know, just having that opportunity to get involved with that show. And then, you know, I, so my responsibility and my wife helps out a lot also is the, I'm responsible for the vendor rooms on who goes in what room and just making sure that everyone's kind of taken care of with their reservations and things. and then also with the membership. So, that's kind of our responsibility with the show there. And that's a really fun show because you've got the GLDA, the Great Lakes Show, which is the vintage side, and then the ODCCA, which is more of like the contemporary carvers.

Grant Cole: Oh, interesting.

Grant Cole: Yeah, yeah. So, do that show and then obviously Dave and Jeanette Nibone, they run a show in September down in Illinois, which is like just a nice one-day show. You know, there's really no other decoy shows in the Midwest that are happening in the summer or early fall. And so, always hit that one up.

Katie Burke: So, we're doing like… That's a nice time, too, because you're getting ready to start duck season. So, it's right before… Yeah.

Grant Cole: Yeah. Yeah.

Katie Burke: That's a good time to… It is. That's a good time to have a show.

Grant Cole: Yep. So we're doing probably 10 to 12 decoy shows a year. Some of them are more like fish decoy related, like the one that happens in Cadillac in September, and then some of them are more duck decoy related.

Katie Burke: Okay. That brings me to my next question, which I don't know why I've never asked this question. And I guess I want to know how it evolved too. So obviously like each of those little hotel rooms and then other shows you have a table, right? But we'll just, we'll use Chicago as, we'll just go with that one. Okay. So you have your hotel room, which eventually does become a table. But early on, what did you put, how did you pick what you brought and how have you changed that? And what are some of the things you've learned that worked and didn't work? And have you figured it out?

Grant Cole: I, I think if you ask my wife, I haven't figured it out, but I try. So there's a, there's an A for effort. Um, you know, what we bring to promote. So ours is a little bit different than a lot of the other vendors.

Katie Burke: Cause you're promoting your auction.

Grant Cole: Right. Right. So like a lot of the other decoy vendors that are there, they're doing the buy-sell trade for the room-to-room, they are selling their items that day, right? And so like for us, we are bringing items there to promote for an auction that's going to be upcoming. How many auctions do y'all do a year? We are doing anywhere from five to seven auctions a year. So we're kind of promoting what we have coming up. And typically when I go to those bigger shows, I try to bring better quality decoys. You know, I look at it as kind of like a job interview. So if we're going to be in Illinois, I'm going to try and bring heavy, heavily Midwest type items. You know, any of the good decoys from the Illinois River area. But, you know, we're so close and we have so many people come to that show from such a wide variety. Like we've had decoys, you know, we'll bring the best decoys we have. To a certain extent, you know, you don't want to pack up 300 decoys, you know, to bring them. That's, you know, a lot of handling. I like to try and bring a nice selection of different things. And every show that I go to is a little bit different. But with Chicago coming up, we do a lot of deliveries at the Chicago show. So if people have bought from prior auctions, I think that that is like, hey, we're going to offer delivery to these shows. And for our company, Like when we ship out a box of decoys to someone, we're dropping in flyers for the North American Decoy Collector Show as well as other shows. So we're trying to like always drop in a postcard about the upcoming show and then we send out emails say, hey, You know, like our next auction is going to be April 13th. You can come and pick up your items from me personally in Lombard, you know, save yourself some money. That's right. Yeah. Come and pick them up in person. And I, you would be amazed how many people do that, you know, because If they were on the fence about going to the show or not, you're like, well, I can come and pick up my items. I can hit the room-to-room trading. I can go and check out Guyette and Dieter's preview. And so there's a lot of great things there at the show to look and see. Obviously, a lot of great dealers and vendors that are set up. It's like, uh, I tell everyone that the, the Chicago show, the North American decoy collector show is like our super bowl. Like that is like my favorite week of the year. Um, you see people from all over the place. You're going to see decoys there that you'll never get to see in any other, uh, show. So yeah.

Katie Burke: Yeah, I've always wondered that like I'm assuming there is some strategy behind what you're bringing to where and I mean I know just with looking through John's catalog like obviously he changes what he puts in for like there's heavy like Midwest birds. Sure. Always for that one but.

Grant Cole: Well, I was like listening to one of the podcasts that you did with John. And, you know, one of the points that he brought up with that is how the online bidding has changed a lot of things. So, you know, like for us, we're Midwest based, but we sell a ton of decoys that are outside the Midwest. You know, our highest priced decoy that we've sold has been an Elmer Kroll Merganser. Well, with the online strategy of online bidding, you know, it allows those people that, A, you know, don't have the time to be there, can't be there in different aspects. And that's the same with, you know, Guy and Dieter's business as well. You know, I know that this upcoming auction, they've got a fantastic collection that they're selling with the Ted and Judy Harmon collection. And that is primarily East Coast. But those are, what a fun opportunity to go and see those pieces in person. I can't wait.

Katie Burke: Oh, I am excited. I got to see them. They were at the Haverter Grace Museum, the decoy museum. So I saw them there, but they won't be behind glass this time. So it'll be more fun. He's got some cool stuff. It's some weird stuff in there. That's fun. I want to ask this because you deal with this a little more. I mean, they do now that they do their online auction a little bit more. Cooper is dealing with that, but I mean, you're dealing with a kind of a wider range of collectors than say like, I mean, Dieter and Copley, like they're dealing with. you know, these bigger, like especially because they got this huge price thing. So you're dealing with a lot of newer, with newer collectors, do they reach out and are you able, do you hear from them often or no, like younger collectors? And do you wish they would more, like?

Grant Cole: I do wish they would more. Because I guess as a business owner, you don't know what those questions are unless they're being brought up to you. Hey, how does the online bidding work? How does shipping work? What does it mean when you say, Uh, this particular decoy is a combination of original and old working paint. Like there's so many things that, you know, people might have a question about, but maybe, you know, they're a little bit hesitant to send an email. And I would tell people, like, the worst question you can't ask is the one you don't ask, right? So, like, ask the questions and we are here just like any of the auction houses. If you have questions, whether it's regarding shipping or online bidding or, you know, a description, how you word things in a catalog, you know, sometimes if you don't really know what that means, like, you're going to be more standoffish. And so, It's been good to have collectors like ask questions because I was that guy back in 2015. I was just question after question before like a barrage of questions. And so you know I think people that really care about what they're doing like they appreciate being asked questions because it's like yeah. Like, we're gonna get this new person to come along and, you know, get into decoy collecting and we want to help them, you know. An educated collector is a good collector and, you know, you've got to kind of share that knowledge and that's kind of how we got to where we're at is because people took the time to share their knowledge with us.

Katie Burke: Yeah. You know, when you say that, I was just thinking, so I was helping someone with an appraisal because they had like an insurance thing. Sure. Shipping breakage situation. So, I was helping them just kind of get some estimates on their, on the decoys before they're broken so they can tell them, you know, the shipping company, you know, hey, you owe me money. So, which was kind of actually sad. But anyway, like I was going through as you, as we do in our jobs, you go through and you're on, you're like going through all the auction sites and you're looking at comparables and blah, blah, blah.

Grant Cole: Correct.

Katie Burke: And you're looking at the descriptions of decoys. And one thing I would notice, and I am guilty of it as someone who writes a lot of descriptions of things, and I do it for like cataloging lists to sell, but just to have.

Grant Cole: Sure.

Katie Burke: And I'm like just describing, We don't always, I mean, we do the best we can to describe decoys and put everything in there, but I think sometimes we're too close to objects. And I could see where someone who knows nothing doesn't quite understand. The lingo. Yeah. I think with… People who collect decoys get it, right? They know what we're talking about and that sort of thing. But I was just noticing, and everyone's was a slightly different, like I looked at yours and I looked at like everyone was, I went through them. But yeah, I would say that's something to pay attention to if you're a new collector because we're not always great at it. Like we make mistakes or we don't, or we think that it's not important. Like, oh, that doesn't need to be put in there. That's obvious. Yeah, because we may not write the obvious thing.

Grant Cole: Well, that's a very good point because I think that like, you know, what is second nature to us might, they don't even understand what you're talking about. And so, you know, I think that like our descriptions for how we write our catalog descriptions are very, to the point about who, what, where, when, and why. You know, where if you look at Guyette and Dieter or Steve O'Brien's catalogs, they have a lot of history behind those decoys, where they were gunned at, you know, what clubs they were used with, you know, what collector owned them. Certainly, we do that with our decoys when it's deemed necessary, or if it's going to add that kind of that next level of value to that decoy, we do that. But, you know, there's a lot of decoys out there that are just, they're just good decoys. And, you know, we don't write a paragraph about each one of them, you know?

Katie Burke: No. And I don't think, and I think about this all the time, but like, I guess like the most, stereotypical thing that's in every single description. It's like minor gunning wear. And I'm like, I bet so many people look at that. I'm like, what does that mean?

Grant Cole: What is minor gunning wear? Right. Yeah. Because you can only say, you can only say the same thing so many times, you know, dents and dings and a few rubs. And you know, it's, you're always trying to be a little bit creative. But yeah, minor gunning wear. I use that one a lot. Yeah, everyone does.

Katie Burke: Everyone does. I was like, you know, if you're a new person just getting into this and you don't really know what that means, you're like, well, yeah, I could see that one being like, well, can you describe minor gunning worthy? Like what is, what is, what is, what makes it minor?

Grant Cole: And then what makes it not? Yeah, I guess in my opinion, like minor gunning wear is going to be maybe a few shot marks, a few paint rubs. And like on average, it's going to be a pretty good decoy, you know, um, heavy gunning wear would be maybe like a broken neck, you know, or a reset, a reset bill, or, you know, maybe an issue with like a tail or something like that. So like, I guess for your listeners, yeah, in my opinion, um, for your listeners, you know, if they see minor gunning wear, it's, it's probably a pretty nice decoy, you know, that's been lightly used. You know, and every auction house has their different terminology. And I would say that if you question any of that, just get on the phone and call us.

Katie Burke: The other one that everyone writes is like crack and then, or something about neck seam. Yeah, the seam separation.

Grant Cole: Yes, that's what everyone writes. Yeah.

Katie Burke: Those are the two most ones. And I never really thought about two you're talking about. I was like, I bet that people look at that and it's like, what are they talking about? Because a lot of these people haven't been, which is why I always like promote going to the show and seeing the decoys in person.

Grant Cole: Oh, absolutely.

Katie Burke: Because once someone tells you mining, gunnawear, seam separation, like in person and shows it to you from then on, you're like, okay, I know what that means.

Grant Cole: You get it, right. You know, you talk about going to shows and actually like understanding decoys and understanding paint and like what a bill repair is, you know, and it's so much more than what our eyes can see. And you learn about, you know, bill repairs a lot of times, you know, if that paint is old on that decoy, it's gonna have texture, it's gonna have a grittiness to it, and you can't replicate that. So when you feel a bill that has been repaired nine times out of ten, not always, but nine times out of ten, it's smooth. Like that bill on the bottom of it has been sanded down, And it is very smooth, right? So, like, if your hand is coming across the head and then, oh, there's some texture, there's some roughness to it, you know, you can feel that grit and that age and that paint. And then you get to the bill and it's like, well, why is that so smooth, you know? And you can almost kind of tell right there that there's probably been something done to that bill.

Katie Burke: There's a question that needs to be asked.

Grant Cole: Yeah.

Katie Burke: That's really good.

Grant Cole: And that's not an original thought, by the way.

Katie Burke: No, I know, I know, but it's just good that we haven't said that on here and I like the way you said that on here. Yeah, it was good. So what's it like getting to do this with your wife as a business? I'm sure it's good and bad.

Grant Cole: It's different, you know, like it's normal to us, you know, you know, we we just we work hard when we work, you know, and we're like decoy season is just it's it's very busy. But it allows us a lot of opportunities and a lot of different ways to travel and, and visit with people. And, you know, when we get time off, we get that good quality family time off. So like one of our favorite things is, is being able to, you know, go camping with our kids, you know, and we can really slow down because the decoy business is slower. Usually, when the weather's nice, everyone else wants to be outside too, hunting and fishing and doing that kind of thing. And so, our busy time is during the winter. But working with my wife has been fantastic. There's a lot of dynamics. It's just like being married, right? Everyone's got their certain roles that they play in the business. My wife, God bless her, her first auction she ever went to is when we were dating. And so she had never even been to an auction and, you know, and of course it's kind of like a bar trick, you know, Oh, you're an auctioneer. You're one of those fast talking guys. And it's like, so she's heard that so much now she just is like, Oh yeah, he's going to do the auction thing again. but it's fun. And so we just, um, with Megan and having kids and a business and there's a lot of aspects to it. Um, but she's self-taught in the auction business and, you know, she runs our website. She does our social media. Um, you know, she does all the billing for our auction company and the settlements for the consignors and things like that. And so it's like, I'll be busy and going out and doing decoy shows, you know, she doesn't get to go to all of them with us. Um, but I'll be busy out on the road traveling and picking up the decoys. And so like we share that workload because I'm busy on the front side of an auction and I do, you know, photography in the catalog and in the, right in the descriptions. And then it's like, Once that catalog is uploaded, it's all on her. You know, she uploads it. She does all the photography. She makes sure that all of the, you know, information on our website is accurate. And so, it's great. You know, you have that partner that you rely on, you know, for everything and we're both in it together, you know. And so, but, you know, like anything, it's always a work in progress.

Katie Burke: Oh, yeah.

Grant Cole: You know, I'm always saying the wrong things at the wrong time, so I'm trying though. That's life. I'm learning.

Katie Burke: That's life. You'll never get it perfect.

Grant Cole: No, no. And I tell her all the time, I said, well, I said, it sucks to be human.

Katie Burke: Yeah.

Grant Cole: So I get to try again tomorrow.

Katie Burke: Yeah. Do your kids care about decoys or do they like don't give a… Yeah, they're actually, you know, I think it's like,

Grant Cole: it's very second nature to them. They're just like, oh, mom and dad have another decoy auction this Sunday. But like they have, you know, they grew up at our warehouse, you know, and like they've been here on, you know, late Wednesdays where we're trying to finish some, you know, photography. So like both of our kids have like helped out with, you know, taking pictures a little bit and, you know, they're not full time by any means, but I think they, it's kind of cool. They might not admit to it, you know, but, uh,

Katie Burke: Yeah, you know, it's funny like did I ever think I was gonna work at Ducks Unlimited? Absolutely not like that was not something and my dad dragged me literally our family vacation was National Convention every year like yeah, and so and Yeah, I did not think that would- it would embed itself into me like into my later life, so you never know No, you don't Someone the other day said something really funny to me and I didn't think about it But they were- they took their kid hunting that had never really been hunting before and they were like, oh and it- Oh, no, it wasn't that Their dad came home with ducks and they'd never been around like the kid had never been around ducks and then this side of the family, it's their son-in-law and this side of the family doesn't really hunt at all and she was like, oh and she- the little girl just picked up the dead duck and I was like Yeah. Well, yeah. And I was like, and then, and I think of, I was like, oh yeah, I guess that is strange. Like my kids have never like known another life where there weren't.

Grant Cole: Right. Yeah.

Katie Burke: Like hunting, we didn't hunt animals. They've just like been around it forever. Right.

Grant Cole: And that's how our kids are with decoys. Like, so when we would go to Chicago before the kids were old enough to be in school, my mother-in-law who lives in Southern Illinois would drive up and meet us at the show. And they spent the week there together. Like Megan and I were doing the show thing and we would get a room for my mother-in-law. They were in the pool, weren't they? Yes, they were. I remember them. Yeah. They were always hanging out at the pool. Actually, so 2015, my first show, um, I went down there by myself, you know, did like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and my wife and mother-in-law and kids came down on, I want to get this right. I think it was Thursday cause they were, she was going to come and help me with the, uh, mega center, the ballroom deal. on Friday and Saturday. And, um, when we left and went home, Wyatt was a year old and he's in his car seat and you know, everything's backwards and they're crammed in there. And we had gotten so many consignments that year, like, and I didn't bring a trailer cause I really had no idea if we were going to get anything or not. We had decoys packed around both kids and their car seats in the back seat of the truck, like, we're heading home, you know? So, like, I think it's just very second nature to them. And so now with the kids, like when we do our virtual auctions, we run them from our home around our conference table.

Grant Cole: Yeah.

Grant Cole: And I have two guest auctioneers. So Harper and Wyatt come in and usually sell a couple of items apiece because I think it's important for them to kind of have a little bit of an understanding of what we do and whether they get involved in the business in the future, I don't care, just as long as they have some understanding of what it is and, you know, it's kind of neat.

Katie Burke: Circle back. It's fun to like get to do that. Yeah. No, I used to love my dad when he was like area chairman and district chairman and then when he was state chairman, he would always let me come up and like pull raffle tickets or do something stupid. He would give me a job to do something and I always thought that was so fun. Even though like, I didn't know who knew what I was doing, but I liked it.

Grant Cole: It was like good core memories for you.

Katie Burke: Yeah, it's always fun to be involved. When you're a kid, it's always fun to get included in adult things and be trusted to do something. It's always fun to do that.

Grant Cole: Yeah, a little responsibility.

Katie Burke: Yeah, it's good. All right. Well, Grant, this has been really fun. Can you think of anything that we haven't talked about that we should talk about?

Grant Cole: Oh, my goodness. I don't know. Probably a bunch. I think we covered a lot of different things. I can't believe the time is already almost up. Thank you so much for having me on. This has been a lot of fun, and I hope to get to do it again, and hope to get to see you at a decoy show soon. What's your next decoy show?

Katie Burke: Chicago.

Grant Cole: You'll see me in Chicago.

Katie Burke: And I'm there the whole time this time. Awesome.

Grant Cole: What are the dates for Chicago?

Katie Burke: You shouldn't ask me that. Um, it's the last week of, uh, April.

Grant Cole: It is. Yeah. So Easter's late this year. So Easter's going to be Sunday the 20th and I think I'm taking off to head down there for room to room on Monday the 21st of April.

Katie Burke: The 21st. I'll be there the 23rd.

Grant Cole: Ooh. Well, I'll save you a seat.

Katie Burke: On Wednesday, right before the, um, preview.

Grant Cole: Okay. Awesome.

Katie Burke: And then I'll be there through Sunday.

Grant Cole: Yes.

Katie Burke: Yep. This time. Usually, I try to cut out a little early, but now that I have responsibilities, I have to stay the whole time.

Grant Cole: I think I'm gonna take off Monday morning and head down for room-to-room and get set up and just I like to try and get there early and you know.

Katie Burke: I have a question about that real quick. Is it quiet on Monday and Tuesday or no? Are you mostly just seeing people in the other rooms?

Grant Cole: Yeah, so it's a trickle in, right? So, like, Monday, you know, there'll be a few people, you know, and then Tuesday is really starting to ramp up with the vendors starting to show up. I would say a majority of the people that are there on Tuesday for room-to-room stuff. So, you know, the early bird gets the decoy.

Katie Burke: Yeah. I guess. Yeah. And then Wednesdays when you get your people who don't necessarily have a room, like show up.

Grant Cole: Yeah.

Katie Burke: I would say just attendees.

Grant Cole: Attendees. Yeah. People are coming to check in because, you know, the great thing on Wednesday is being able to go to the guy in Dieter preview. And I think they're going to have some seminars as well.

Katie Burke: Yes. I have to do one.

Grant Cole: Yeah. Awesome.

Katie Burke: So, which I should probably, I can announce. So, I'm doing an interview with Judy Harmon. Oh, that'll be awesome. a live interview, so we're going to do this on a stage with microphones. That's awesome. I don't have Chris to edit me on a later date.

Grant Cole: Well, that'll be a really good interview. Judy's, you know, it's funny, Judy and Ted, they have a very similar story on decoy collecting, and they ran an auction house for many years. And Judy is just a very special person, and that'll be a lot of fun.

Katie Burke: Yeah, I will say this, and I don't know if you did this to Megan, but if you did, she should be mad at you. Hopefully you didn't take the money that they had saved… For the washer and dryer. For the washing and dryer. for her to not have to hang diapers on a line anymore and bought decoys instead.

Grant Cole: Yeah. Kind of maybe in a roundabout way. Kind of maybe. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the very first significant decoys I ever went out and bought was a mason goose. And it was at an auction and I had been chasing this goose for quite a while. And I had tried and got it consigned and we didn't get it consigned and it went to another auction company. And I was in attendance when that decoy came up and we had just sold our very first house. And so I think we had like a whopping, you know, $8,000 saved or something like that. And this goose came up and I had no intentions of bidding on this thing whatsoever. But I knew that goose. I really knew that goose. I'd been chasing it for like two years. And I ended up buying that goose decoy for like $7,000. And I was so excited to win it. And then like I got really nervous because I didn't tell my wife that I was going to bid on that goose. And so I remember like walking outside and calling her and I said, Hey, you remember that, that really nice Mason premier, you know, Canada goose? She goes, yeah. She goes, what about it? And I said, well, good news is that we just got it consigned for our next premier auction. She's like, Oh, that's terrific. Who consigned it? I said, you and I did. There was just dead silence on the phone. And, uh, she's like, I'm waiting for her to say something. She's like, well, that's pretty cool. So she was all in on it, you know, super supportive. So, um,

Katie Burke: Worked out for you.

Grant Cole: Yeah. Yeah. It was a great piece to offer, so very happy.

Katie Burke: And it's a nice piece. Yeah. Those are cool.

Grant Cole: Yeah.

Katie Burke: All right. Well, thanks, Grant, for doing this. This is really fun.

Grant Cole: Yeah. Thank you.

Katie Burke: Happy to see you and Megan, too, in Chicago. Yes. All right. Well, thank you, Grant, for coming on the show. Thanks to our producer, Chris Isaac, and thanks to you, our listener, for supporting wetlands and waterfowl conservation.