It’s Time for a Return to "Penny Auctions"

By: Donald V. Watkins

Copyrighted and Published on October 29, 2025

A "penny auction" in Michigan in 1936, complete with hangman's nooses in the background.

An Editorial Opinion

President Donald Trump’s draconian immigration policies, chaotic tariffs, and disastrous trade wars have plunged American cattle ranchers and soybean farmers into dire financial straits. Thousands of these ranchers and farmers are on the verge of bankruptcy. Many of them have already received foreclosure notices that threaten to take away ranches and farms that have been in their families for generations.

It’s time to bring back a modern version of the 1930s-era “penny auctions.”

When Political Action Fails, Community Action Becomes Necessary

At penny auctions, ranchers and farmers engaged in collective action to offer low bids, resulting in a low return to the creditor.  The final buyer would then return the property to the destitute rancher or farmer.  Onsite hangman nooses served as a warning to squirrelly bidders.

The photograph featured with this article depicts a penny auction at a foreclosed farm in Michigan in 1936, according to Dallas-based History of the World.  

The penny auction was one of the most defiant, ingenious, and effective acts of resistance during the Great Depression. When banks repossessed ranches and farms after families could no longer meet their mortgage payments, local communities often took matters into their own hands. 

Ranchers and farmers would gather in large groups and agree beforehand to bid only pennies on each item -- from livestock to land -- driving the auction prices down to virtually nothing. The final “buyer,” usually a trusted neighbor, would then return the property to the original owner, ensuring the family could remain on their land.

The nooses seen hanging in the background were not there for decorative purposes. They served as chilling warnings to outsiders who might attempt to outbid the crowd. These were not empty threats — solidarity and survival left little room for betrayal.

The penny auctions became powerful symbols of rural unity and defiance.  They weren’t just about saving one farm, but about preserving a way of life, one desperate bid at a time.

By 1933, more than 200,000 farms were foreclosed across the Midwest, sparking organized movements like the Farmer’s Holiday Association, which fought to halt foreclosures entirely.

The Trump-Vance Team has Abandoned American Ranchers and Farmers

Today, Vice President J.D. Vance is a major investor in AcreTrader, which buys distressed and bankrupt farms for pennies on a dollar and flips them to third party corporate purchasers for huge profits.  Vance is personally profiting from the surge in ranch and farm foreclosurers.

Last week, Vance’s boss, President Trump found and rushed $20 billion in cash and another $20 billion in credit swaps to Argentinian beef ranchers within 48 hours to ease their financial suffering.  

Trump’s own family is making billions of dollars each month from business deals with governments, sovereign wealth funds, and private partnerships in countries where Trump visits at taxpayers’ expense.

Trump is also rushing a $230 million taxpayer-sponsored payment to himself for "damages" he allegedly incurred during the 2023 FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago. His Department of Justice is expediting the approval of this cash payment.

Yet, no economic relief whatsoever has been afforded to financially destitute American cattle ranchers and soybean farmers, even though they voted for Trump in 2024 in record numbers. They have been hoodwinked.

Nobody in the White House or Congress cares about the plight of these ranchers and farmers. These hard working Americans are not members of the multibillionaire class. They are in no financial position to make a deal with Trump family members, who prefer fast cash deals in foreign countries with little monitoring and no transparency. As such, these destitute ranchers and farmers must save themselves.

The cascade of American ranch and farm bankruptcies is expected to surge in December. Ironically, the presidential candidate for whom theses ranchers and farmers voted in 2024 -- Donald Trump -- bankrupted six major businesses and led another 21 companies into complete commercial failure. Maybe all of this is karma.