Marv and Nancy Boldt are pictured inside Nancy’s former hair salon on April 13. The Boldts have been together for more than 50 years and recently celebrated retirement in tandem from their respective, longtime Traer businesses.

TRAER — After meeting cute at a local high school basketball game over 50 years ago and embarking on a life together that included working on opposite sides of their shared Traer building for the last 11 years, Nancy and Marv Boldt recently made the decision to sell their longtime auction house and try something new together – retirement.

“If I wasn’t working here, I was working over there,” Nancy, now officially retired from cutting hair, said last Thursday of her former salon and Marv’s auction house, respectively, as she stood beside her chair – a spot where until recently she cut hair from morning to night many days.

With Marv seated off to Nancy’s right, the Boldts proceeded to describe their last 50 years of combined employment – Nancy cutting hair straight out of high school and seemingly never looking back, and Marv coming to auctioneering by way of his time with the Rock Island Railroad where he worked as an assistant chief engineer in the track department.

“I’ve been on the railroad all my life but in 1991 I had a chance to buy into a business that rebuilt locomotives,” Marv explained. “We bought a lot of locomotives and had spare parts – they were going to hire an auctioneer [to sell the parts], but I thought, hey, I could do it.”

After 18 days spent at auctioneering school in Kansas City, Marv graduated fifth out of his class of 280, and a new path for both him and Nancy opened.

For years Marv ran his auction business, Boldt Auction Company, on-site but decided to start an auction house roughly a dozen years ago in their current building which is located a few blocks south of Traer’s downtown at 606 3rd St.

Shortly after purchasing the building, Marv added space onto the west side for Nancy’s salon.

On her final day of work, Friday, March 31, Nancy marked 50 ½ years cutting hair for members of the Traer and outlying communities. For many of those customers, the transition has been a tough one.

“Most of my clients are 80 and 90 years old,” Nancy explained.

But once she made the decision to hang up her shears, the Boldts’ three children – Michael Boldt, Rachelle (Boldt) Cochran, and Bradley Boldt – began to encourage their dad to do the same with his auction house.

“I was going full board until the family got on me,” Marv said. “Telling me I need to give it up. I wish I wasn’t [retiring]. But people are worn out.”

Those people include his ringman Jay Owens – who recently retired as well from the insurance business – and Larry Sheda, a retired high school math teacher.

Also included in that bunch is Nancy herself as she’s been assisting Marv with the auction business for years including packing up consignors’ homes into hundreds of totes, transporting the totes to the auction house where everything must be unpacked and sorted, and then packing it all up again when things don’t sell.

It’s tough work, Nancy said, something she didn’t necessarily anticipate when Marv came home all those years ago from Kansas City.

“This was supposed to be a part-time job,” Marv admitted. “Turned out to be full time.”

In spite of the sheer amount of labor involved, both Boldts have loved interacting with the public through the auction house – Marv in particular.

“The only thing I haven’t done and sold was ice to an Eskimo, as they say,” Marv joked. “I’ve sold everything. I’ve sold sheep poop – it’s manure, it’ll sell. I’ve sold houses, vehicles, cattle.

“I love it, just love it. I’m a people person, I love people. The thing I’m going to miss the most is the people,” Marv said before choking up a little.

“He loves to talk,” Nancy added with a smile.

While Marv will continue to work as an auctioneer on location, the building has been sold to James Erhardt who also owns the building next door.

Saying goodbye

On April 15, Marv auctioned what should be his final sale in the building – his own.

Marv anticipated the event would provide him with the chance to “see all my friends for the last time – in the building anyway.”

With the sale of the auction house, it’s not just the end of an era for the Boldts, it’s a change that will be felt across the area — there are no other auction houses left now in Tama County, and few in the surrounding area.

“Everybody went online because of COVID,” Marv said. “I refused to go online — I want to know what I’m touching, buying.”

Next up for the Boldts is a trip to Texas for Marv to firefighting school — he’s been a volunteer firefighter with Traer Fire for almost 50 years — and a trip this summer to Europe for Nancy with their grandson, North Tama sophomore Johnathan Cochran.

“But maybe we’ll have one more sale [in the auction house] on the 29th,” Marv said, eliciting another smile from Nancy.

Fair warning has been given.