Little Bull Auction & Sales Co. began as a small, family-run auction house in the Wichita metro in 1997 and over nearly three decades has quietly grown into a Midwest regional auction partner for estates, farms, businesses, real estate and specialty collections. Founded and still led by Troy Watts (auctioneer / REALTOR®) with managing broker Martha Watts supporting the brokerage side, Little Bull built its reputation on hands-on service, boots-on-the-ground auctioneering and a willingness to run everything from one-day estate cleanouts to multi-day real estate and farm dispersals. The company’s own site and listings emphasize a full-service offering — onsite and online auctions, estate liquidation, farm & ranch, business liquidations, collectibles and real estate auctions — and position Little Bull as a go-to resource for sellers across Kansas and neighboring states. Little Bull Auction & Sales Co.

Roots and longevity
Little Bull opened in Wichita (the business traces back to 1997) when online auctions were in their infancy and local, in-person events still dominated the market. From those early years the company added online timed bidding and partnered with regional auction platforms to expand reach. That combination of local reputation plus online reach allowed Little Bull to scale steadily: still family-run in approach, but technologically modern enough to list on national platforms and cooperate with regional networks. The firm’s steady presence on regional auction networks and listing sites highlights a continuous run of sales from the late 1990s through the 2020s.

Types of auctions they run
Over the years Little Bull’s catalog of auction formats has been broad, reflecting both the agricultural and urban character of the Midwest:

Real estate auctions — residential, vacant land, farm tracts and city parcels (including timed online real estate sales).

Estate liquidations & household auctions — multi-estate and single-estate dispersals, from everyday household goods to high-value antiques. LiveAuctioneersfarmauctionguide.com

Farm & ranch equipment sales — machinery dispersals and complete farm liquidations serving rural sellers across Kansas and neighboring states. Kansas Land Auctions

Business and commercial liquidations — inventory, fixtures and business assets sold by timed or live auction. Little Bull Auction & Sales Co.

Specialty & collectible auctions — coins, currency, sports memorabilia, toys, comics and themed collections (Little Bull has listed collectible lots and worked with national auction marketplaces). midwest.auctionInvaluable

This mix allowed Little Bull to stay resilient through market cycles — real estate booms and busts, changes in farming economics, and the fast-growing appetite for online bidding.

Growth across the Midwest
Starting in Kansas and the immediate Wichita metro, Little Bull steadily expanded its service area by forging partnerships, building an online presence and affiliating with regional platforms (The Midwest Auction Collective and others). Today the company lists itself as serving Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, and through “boots on the ground” affiliates and partnerships routinely handles auctions across states in the Midwest — including Nebraska and Iowa — for sellers who need local auction expertise with national reach. This geographical expansion mirrors a strategic approach: keep the local auctioneer relationship, but use national and regional online tools to attract more bidders and higher net prices for sellers. Little Bull Auction & Sales Co.Kansas Land Auctions

Notable channels & platforms
Little Bull has both its own website and a visible presence on larger auction portals and industry sites — Midwest.auction, Invaluable, LiveAuctioneers and marketplace lists — which extend buyer pools well beyond the Wichita area. They also maintain a YouTube channel and social presence to promote major sales and build bidder awareness. These multiple channels helped Little Bull transition smoothly from predominantly live, local events in the 1990s to the blended onsite + online auction model common today.

Summary of historical activity and highlights (1997 → present)
Below are representative highlights — a curated summary of the kinds of sales Little Bull has run, drawn from public auction listings and platform archives. These items illustrate the company’s longevity, variety, and regional reach rather than an exhaustive list of every sale.

Early years (late 1990s – 2005)
Multiple collector-and-toy auctions and estate dispersals were listed on regional auction pages in the late 1990s and early 2000s, demonstrating Little Bull’s early role in local collectibles markets. (Example historic lots and collectibles listings appear in archived platform pages.

Mid period (2006 – 2016)
A string of estate and multi-estate auctions (including collectible groups, household estates, antiques) became more visible on national auction aggregators such as LiveAuctioneers, illustrating Little Bull’s shift toward listing high-interest items for broader bidder pools. Notable estate sales from this era (cataloged on LiveAuctioneers) show the firm’s ability to handle complex multi-vendor dispersals. LiveAuctioneers

Recent years (2017 – 2025)
Real estate auctions and online-timed residential property sales (for example, a Wichita residential timed real estate auction listed in late-2021) demonstrate Little Bull’s push into property auctions using digital bidding windows. Estate Sale

Little Bull has continued running farm, ranch, backyard and barn auctions across Kansas in 2024–2025 (e.g., Neosho County and other local listings), showing sustained local activity and regional reach. farmauctionguide.com

The firm’s integration with the Midwest Auction Collective and persistent listing activity across its own site and third-party platforms point to an established workflow for handling everything from consignment specialty auctions to large real estate and equipment dispersals. midwest.auctionKansas Land Auctions

Standout sale types & “best” auction moments (what the records show)

While “best” can mean top price, audience reach, or complexity of the sale, the company’s historical footprint highlights several categories of standout events:

Large estate dispersals — Multi-estate sales with hundreds of lots that required detailed cataloging and shipping/fulfillment. These type of sales are documented on major auction portals where Little Bull served as cataloging seller. LiveAuctioneersInvaluable

Timed real estate auctions — Residential and vacant land auctions sold with online bidding windows; these sales are notable because they signaled Little Bull’s move into higher-value property auctions and opened the firm to buyers outside the immediate Wichita metro. (Example: the 541 N. Kessler Wichita online real estate sale.) Estate Sale

Farm & equipment dispersals — Full farm liquidations and farm equipment auctions serving rural counties; such sales built a reputation in agricultural communities and drew local, in-person bidders. Kansas Land Auctions

Specialty collector auctions — Sports memorabilia, vintage toys, coins/currency and comics that attracted niche collectors via online marketplaces and platforms, increasing competition and realized prices.

Approach & Reputation
Little Bull’s long-term value proposition has been straightforward: local, experienced auctioneers (family-run), transparent seller service, and a hybrid model that combines live, onsite energy with online bidding reach. The company is repeatedly listed with positive local directory entries and industry listings, and presents itself as a full-service auction partner that can scale from a single household cleanout to multi-state farm dispersals. This longevity (operating since 1997) gives many sellers confidence that Little Bull can manage complex logistics, title issues for property, or high-value consignments.