Through The Vine Auctions, LLC is a family owned and operated auction service that was established in 2017, by father and son team, Troy and Andrew Heard. What began as a side hustle and a way to spend some extra time with one another soon grew into a passion to seek out forgotten and underappreciated treasures and make them available to others who will enjoy these unique finds. This passion led us to begin a Facebook auction group. Dad and I would “treasure hunt” during any free time we could muster. We bought from yard sales, purchased abandoned storage lockers, looked for good deals on Facebook marketplace and Craigslist, bought pallet loads of store returns and even bid on numerous other auction platforms to supply our auctions with an ever-changing inventory of goods. At that time, we were working from a spare bedroom at my parent’s home, but we quickly outgrew that space and had to build a small shed/workspace out back. After only a month or two, we also outgrew this location and that led us to renting the only available storage unit in town at that time, a small 8’ X 10” unit to help store the overflow. We made do with these cramped quarters for quite some time, all the while our little Facebook group continued to grow beyond our expectations.
Finally, we received word that the RV storage unit (15’ X 60’) we had been on the waiting list for had become available. For two years, Dad and I spent our nights and weekends working in extreme heat, freezing cold and loud rainstorms putting together weekly auctions of 50 – 100 lots from that unit. Throughout all of this we witnessed blessing after blessing from God on our little business venture. Each week we would have more and more people joining our group and bidding in our auctions. We never had to advertise our group, but rather relied on the word of mouth from family, friends and members (hence one of the meanings behind our chosen name).
In February of 2022, dad was able to retire and devote a bit more time to our business. Shortly after that in June of 2022, after serving my two weeks’ notice, I too chose to pursue this passion of ours and make a go turning our hobby into a legitimate business. We chose to move from the unprofessional appearing storage locker in Ardmore, TN. to a storefront rental in Pulaski, TN. At this time we have only been at this location for a few months but dad and I continue to see significant growth in our auctions each week and with it our dreams and plans for the future grow as well.
