UCN
Used Car News
9/27/2021
Nichols Takes Gavel as NAAA President
Buy with Total Confidence.
IN THIS ISSUE:
Rush - Dated Material
• NAAA • Taxes • Retail Markets
Charles Nichols is the incoming president of the National Auto Auction Association. He is also president of BSC America, with auctions in Belcamp, Md., and Tallahassee, Fla. UCN: You are part of an auction family. Tell us about your journey in the auction business. Nichols: My journey in the auction business started out when I was a young man. We sold repossessed vehicles in downtown Baltimore. I was more enthralled about repossessing the vehicles. That was the fun part. Every Saturday, we used to sell vehicles. My mom actually ran the organization at that point. I did a little stint at Warwick Community College. I was always into fishing and hunting. So, I talked my family into buying a marina complex and shopping center. All my family is from the eastern shore of Maryland, so I moved at that point. Went to college and ran the marina complex and shopping center that we redeveloped. I learned a lot about property management, construction, permitting and zoning. During that time, my mom and dad bought Bel Air Auto Auction in 1980. It was a two-lane facility at that point. I was helping out on the construction side. We bought another auction in New Orleans, but 16 years later, Hurricane Katrina wiped it out. We built different businesses over the years. But in 2000, when my mom passed away, the family decided to pull things in, since we were pretty spread out. I called our national accounts and continued to run our operations. I’ve worked very closely with my sister Michelle and my dad, Ray, in our family business. It has been a lot of fun; I’ve met
a lot of people and learned a lot of great things. This led us to build our new facility in Belcamp, Md. We like doing real estate and development to this day. I don’t repo cars anymore. UCN: Were there specific challenges in an auction family that someone else might not have had in a chain? Nichols: Our auction family started with my mom and dad. It wasn’t all about the auction. It was all about the relationships – how you treat the customer and work with the customer. It’s a work philosophy that’s served us well. Getting up early. Doing what you gotta’ do and looking out after your family. These things are pillars in our family. Education is also very important along with deep-rooted values. We are blessed to be very good partners in this business. It’s probably more of a competitive thing than anything. The good part is, we all have our own skill set. UCN: How was your experience running an auction going through the last two years of the pandemic? Nichols: We operate in two different states (Maryland and Florida) and two different counties. In Maryland, our Gov. Larry Hogan and County Executive Barry Glass-
man, were joined at the hip. So, we didn’t have these differences between county and state rules. We didn’t miss a sale in either market since we were deemed an essential business. For 28 weeks, we ran 100% digitally. Once our state went to 75% (capacity) in Maryland, we started running cars again and we have not stopped. Florida ran cars the whole way. Continued on page 3