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History of Rasmus Auctioneers

By admin posted July 25, 2011

Part I

It all began when the man that “put the R.L. in R.L. Rasmus Auctioneers” Ronald Rasmus, founder of Rasmus Auctioneers and father of present CEO Chris Rasmus, quit his job in the corporate world as the president of a technology company that manufactured switchboards at the exact WRONG time. Just as computers really began to hit the scene of the US marketplace, Ron’s patience was up and he decided to move on to something new.

Being the entrepreneur that he was, he decided to go into business for himself for the first, but not the last time. He ended up in radio, and along with a business partner invented a carousel wheel that would automatically insert tapes and allow for radio stations that were entirely automated. Unfortunately, some other people also had the same idea at the same time, and since with this venture Ron was already “going for broke” he was, in the end…actually broke.

Ron had come to a crossroads, and to him there were only two options…either become a beachcomber, or a junk dealer. Fortunately for everyone here at Rasmus, he chose the latter. At the time that Ron chose this path, there were not many people in the area of professionally dealing used items like furniture and computers. Ron started off by finding out when government agencies were relocating or redecorating, and going to the loading dock where all of the furniture, and everything else in the building, was going to be thrown on a truck and hauled off to the dump. When Ron made an offer to buy that truck full of “junk” people thought he was crazy. Nobody bought used back then! Right? Wrong. Well, not after Ron got his hands on some high quality “junk”. It turns out that the government only buys the best, and Ron ended up with truckloads of beautiful, lightly used designer furniture.

Want to know the rest of the story? Check back with us as we continue to update our blog and you can follow the Rasmus Auctioneers saga.