Premiere industrial auction moves to Marysville

Founded in 1970 in Kenmore, James G. Murphy Co. (JGM) commercial industrial auction company recently moved into the Cascade Industrial Center. With additional locations in Oregon and Hawaii, as well as auctions held at various organizations, JGM reaches more than three quarters of the United States with their Murphy Auctions.

City staff talked with President Tim Murphy, Marysville Manager Ray Gombiski and Vice President and Sales Manager Todd Meyers.

Over 50 years of history for a company is a big deal. How did it all start?

Murphy: My father, Jim Murphy, first started JGM in 1966 auctioning household estates, and then turned it into a full-time business in 1970. You know, we were doing auctions where the whole estate would bring $2-3,000 versus now where it would bring over $2-3 million. My father would say, ‘If we could just do $100,000 an auction- that would be great.’ And now we have equipment that sells for more than $100,000 at the auction. So it has been a big deal.

And now you’re one of the premier industrial auction companies in the country. What does it take to maintain that standard?

Gombiski: We're very diverse in our offerings. We can handle things from sawmills to Picasso paintings to dry docks. We even have a guy in-house that specializes in coins. We've done enough auctions with the experience we have that we're pretty versed in lots of different areas, and with that experience comes the ability to auction almost anything that has a valid value.

Meyers: However, we're still a family-owned company. We still have that personal touch. If there's an issue with a buyer or seller, we don't have to call a corporate office and wait for three days waiting to get an answer. It's all handled right here and right now.

Why did you decide to move into the Cascade Industrial Center?

Gombiski: We did a study prior to selecting this location and found that 60% of our registered customer database was from King County to the Canadian border. We have hundreds of thousands of people in our database, but we found that a good sector of our customer base is from the north end here.

Murphy: Our previous location actually had seven acres of property, but the City of Kenmore wouldn’t allow us to use a large part of that. The process to relocate here actually went really smoothly thanks to the City of Marysville. Now, we have a 24,000-square-foot building versus the previous 5000-square-foot building.



Meyers: All of our customers just love that we're here now. We’ve always had customers in Marysville, and being here puts us in a better position with our north end customers because it's closer for them. I think there will be a lot more new customers coming to this facility because Kenmore was just a difficult facility to get in and out of.

How has your staff responded to the move?

Gombiski: It’s been pretty positive. We've had some staff members move to the area since cost of living up here is much lower than it is down in Kenmore. And then one unique thing we do is we hire local people part-time to help with the auction and make sure that our customer service is spectacular. We've found some local people actually before we even got here because they heard we were coming. They have been great in helping us make our operation that much smoother, and it’s fun for them.

So now that you’re here, what are your new goals for the future? 

Murphy: We’re just thankful that we’ve finally made our move. It was a long process, but city staff here were very good. They were just great to work with and got us here in a timely fashion. We’re already doing construction outside; once we get the place filled up, we can figure out how many more auctions we can do per year.

Meyers: More yard space means we can bring more equipment in -- more auctions. This location is going to create a lot more business for us, and the relationship with the city is great. It's been wonderful since we've started this whole process and we look to keep having a great relationship with the city of Marysville.

Watch the short video interview:

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