Est. 1988 · Licensed Auction Services
GAVEL
Regional Auction Authority
Lots Sold at Auction
Combined Hammer Value
Years Active in the Region
Service Area · Winnebago County · Boone County · Ogle County · Stephenson County · DeKalb County · Lee County · Carroll County · Whiteside County
Northern Illinois · Southwest Wisconsin · Eastern Iowa
Dale Koester · Principal Auctioneer & Estate Specialist
Dale Koester
Principal Auctioneer & Estate Specialist
"When the family's been on that land since before the county was platted, you don't rush the bidding. You let the room understand what it's holding."
Dale Koester has called auctions in Winnebago, Boone, and Ogle counties for thirty-one years, beginning on the fairgrounds circuit before moving into estate work full-time in 1997. He learned the trade from his uncle, a farm implement dealer who ran consignment sales out of a converted grain elevator in Forreston — a building Dale still uses for storage auctions twice a year. His particular expertise is in mid-century American farm and household contents: cast-iron cookware, hand tools, mechanical antiques, and the category he calls 'barn finds with paperwork,' meaning equipment whose provenance can be documented back to the original purchase.
The sale locals still discuss is the 2019 Hargrove Estate liquidation in Caledonia — a four-generation farm family whose contents filled three outbuildings and a twelve-room house. Dale worked the property for six weeks before the auction date, cataloging 847 lots, and the final hammer value came to $218,000 against an estimate of $140,000. The difference, he will tell you, was in the telling: knowing which lots to hold back for the afternoon crowd, which ones to open at a number that embarrassed the room into bidding harder.
Counties
Winnebago · Boone · Ogle
Specialty
Estate Contents · Farm Implements · Mechanical Antiques
Notable Sale
Hargrove Estate, Caledonia — $218,000
Sunday,
March 15, 2026
10:00 AM — Gates open 8:00 AM
Winnebago County Fairgrounds
500 W. Railroad St., Pecatonica, IL 61063
Estate Contents & Household · 312 lots
Highlight Lot
Complete 1940s–60s hand tool collection, 84 lots
Margaret Solberg · Farm & Equipment Specialist
Margaret Solberg
Farm & Equipment Specialist
"A farmer retiring his equipment line has spent forty years making decisions about machinery. He doesn't need a salesman. He needs someone who can tell the crowd what the machine has done."
Margaret Solberg grew up on a row-crop operation in Stephenson County and began working auctions at sixteen, first as a ring person for her father's consignment sales, then calling bids herself by the time she was twenty-two. She holds licenses in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and has conducted equipment auctions in DeKalb, Lee, Carroll, and Whiteside counties, as well as across the Wisconsin border in Rock and Green counties. Her specialties are late-model row-crop and specialty equipment — combines, planters, and the GPS-enabled precision agriculture technology that now constitutes a significant share of farm estate value.
In March 2022, she conducted the Retzlaff Dairy Dispersal in Darlington, Wisconsin — 340 head of registered Holstein cattle and the full equipment inventory of a third-generation operation. The event drew registered bidders from eleven states and final receipts totaled $1.4 million. The cattle portion alone set a per-head record for the county that still stands. Margaret attributes the result to the catalog: 'We documented every animal's production history back four lactations. When a buyer from Iowa is bidding remotely, that paper is the cow.'
Counties
Stephenson · DeKalb · Lee · Carroll · Whiteside
Specialty
Row-Crop Equipment · Dairy Dispersals · Precision Agriculture
Notable Sale
Retzlaff Dairy Dispersal, Darlington — $1.4M
Download the Regional
Sale Calendar.
Every confirmed auction date across the eight-county region, mailed to you the first Monday of each month. Dates, venues, and category breakdowns — nothing more.
Friday,
April 3, 2026
9:00 AM — Equipment preview April 2nd, 1–5 PM
Ogle County Implement Yard
14882 Illinois Route 64, Oregon, IL 61061
Farm Equipment & Implements · 187 lots
Highlight Lot
2019 John Deere S780 Combine — 1,240 hours, full service record
Roy Tenbrunsel · Municipal & Government Surplus Specialist
Roy Tenbrunsel
Municipal & Government Surplus Specialist
"Government surplus is the most democratic auction there is. The county's old plow truck goes to whoever needs a plow truck and can afford it that Tuesday. There's something honest about that."
Roy Tenbrunsel spent twelve years as a purchasing officer for Winnebago County before crossing to the auction side in 2008. That background informs everything: he understands the documentation requirements for public asset disposition, the notice periods required under Illinois statute, and the liability considerations that make municipal clients different from private estates. He has conducted surplus auctions for fourteen Illinois municipalities, four county highway departments, two school districts, and the Illinois Department of Transportation's regional maintenance yard in Rockford.
His most cited engagement is the 2021 City of Freeport fleet reduction — forty-seven vehicles, including specialized maintenance equipment, sold over two days at the Stephenson County Fairgrounds. The city recovered $340,000 against an appraised value of $280,000, a result that the city administrator attributed publicly to Roy's familiarity with the secondary municipal equipment market and his practice of pre-registering dealers from the three-state region before the auction date. He now handles annual surplus cycles for six municipalities on retainer.
Counties
Winnebago · Stephenson · Carroll · Rock Co. WI
Specialty
Municipal Fleet · Government Surplus · Public Asset Disposition
Notable Sale
City of Freeport Fleet, 2021 — $340,000