Next up on our Q&A series featuring the 2026 Used Car Week Hall of Fame honorees is a conversation with Bob McConkey, president and CEO of the McConkey Auction Group.

McConkey, along with MAG chief operating officer David Pendergraft and DAA Northwest general manager Collin McConkey, sat down with Cherokee Media Group’s Joe Overby to discuss the power of independent auctions, the dynamics of a family-run business, collaboration with competitors and the origins of the group’s annual Rock & Roll Sale.

An excerpt from that conversation can be found below. Listen to the full interview here and catch the recognition ceremony with our UCW Hall of Fame honorees next week at Used Car Week.

What was the impetus for your family starting this auction?

In some ways, we’re a generational business and in some ways we are not … My father started in Seattle in 1954 and we joined him for the last four or five years that the auction was under private ownership and made a decision to sell toe GE Capital, which in essence went and became Mannheim shortly after that. And so, my brother and I both had a career in the corporate world for a while and got out of the business. So there was a there was a pause for me before (getting back in to the auciton business, after having a chance to really say, “Well, what else is there in life?”

I was an auctioneer. I love the car business, but I really started over mentally in terms of what I was going to do when I was in my late 20s and early 30s. And so we just made a decision that this was a good industry, without actually being tied to it anymore and so started over basically on our own in 1992 in Spokane. There was a pause there and and now we’re truly a second-generation business with my three sons and (McConkey Auction Group chief operating officer) David (Pendergraft) and a whole bunch of really young talent that are bringing(the business) into the next generation.

What makes the Pacific Northwest (where the McConkey Auction Group calls home) such a special place for you guys and your business and families?

Throughout my career, being able to travel really throughout the whole continental United States — so many good conferences in so many places — but every time I do that, when I come home, I think, ‘We live in a pretty special place.’ We’ve got beautiful scenery, we’ve got mountains everywhere and the recreational opportunities are really hard to beat … Even though it’s hard to get to — we’re in the corner of the planet here — I think for me it’s been fun over the last couple days (at the NAAA World Remarketing Convention in Seattle) to hear from so many people who have never been here who recognize that this is, just aesthetically the from a nature perspective, it’s a special place. And we’ve always known that. It’s good to share it. Obviously, it’s not a secret anymore — Seattle’s a big town; we live in Spokane. Bwe we just think the region is pretty special; so it’s really nice to share it.

What have been some keys to making a family business run successfully?

It was really important for me that they (the three McConkey sons) didn’t start their career in the auction business. They all went out and applied for jobs, built a resume, got promoted and in essence … they built their own their own brand and own self-esteem.

If you come into a business and you work for daddy from Day 1, there’s problems within the rest of the organization with that entitlement.

There’s problems in terms of just self-esteem: do I really deserve this? … all three of my boys, who I love dearly, have never worked for me directly. We have a big enough organization where it isn’t just (a situation) where they excel right up into the C-suite, so to speak. So, there’s always been layers of management that they have been in the middle of and have contributed to, and gained their own level of self-respect and respect amongst their peers, instead of just starting working for dad. They don’t work for dad now and they never have and they never will … Right now, I’m working for them.

What value have you found in in-person events?

(It’s) the relationships that you build, and especially in an era that we’re in now where there’s so much ability to communicate without actually sitting in front of somebody face to face … The industry is unique in that people move around within it, but if they’re good at it or they find the passion to be in it, they normally stay in it. There’s a longevity to these relationships and I’ve always made it a priority to be to be friends first.

It’s a very transparent business, so this idea of being hyper competitive and not allowing conversations or interaction with competitors I think is ill-advised. In this industry, because it is so transparent, it doesn’t really do you any good to shut yourself off from your competition … all of that (relationship building) comes to fruition when you come to these conferences and you meet with people one-on-one or in groups.

It’s been a huge part of the development of our company, of our national brand and everything that we do — to just really intentionally communicate with the industry over the last 35 years.