The throng of people before the auction began.
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I took 20 pictures and figured you all wouldn't appreciate all twenty being in this post, so I created a Flickr slide show for you.
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I took 20 pictures and figured you all wouldn't appreciate all twenty being in this post, so I created a Flickr slide show for you.
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Groan. I should have trusted my instinct. How right I was about deep pockets coming from Atlanta. The corner cupboard Erin and I fell in love with sold for $975.00. There is no way I could resell that around here. Let me just tell you about the day.
We arrived about 7:30 that morning. The auction didn't start until 9:00, so I had plenty of time to look at each item or box lot -- all 8000 lots!!! That's not 8000 items, but 8000 lots! Boxes of things counted as a lot.
I had quite a few things marked that I thought I'd have a chance of winning.
The auction started promptly at 9 a.m. just like they said. The property was auctioned off first, then the guns. Ever notice how they always do "guy things" first? They tell us there will be three auctions going at once. One auctioneer will be in the pottery building, one in the front and one in the back. I never even poked my head in the pottery building, but heard one jug sold for $1800.00.
Naturally, I wanted things in the front and in the back. Just as naturally, Ricky was standing in line to pay for the gun he'd bought, so there was no help coming from him. I was running from back to front constantly for the first hour. Twice, when I got back around to the back a box I had marked as something I wanted was being sold for $5.00 and I was three seconds too late. Everything in front was going much to high and I wasted a lot of time waiting on some of that stuff. I did manage to get a few things from the back. But some things I wanted went for astronomical prices.
Remembering Deb at Curious Sofa's creations of bejeweled bottles, I picked out a box of bottles totally at random. I thought this particular box had several bottles that would look nice decorated. Ha! What great taste I have. That box sold for well over $100! There was a table full of old fabric. Someone did say there was an old flag in the lot and there was a Lucky Strike pillow, but mostly it was just fabric and crocheted lace like we see at estate sales all the time. I was willing to pay $40 for the bunch. Apparently the lady next to me was willing to pay $50 because when it was bid up that high, she threw up her hands and stomped off. But the bidding didn't stop there. I ended at $150.00!!! I saw the buyer going through it later and she was oohing and ah-ing over the fabric. Not the flag or anything. I was thinking I had some fabric to sell to her!
About the middle of the day, Ricky said he was going to go see a guy about some guns. A stranger. He left with my purse and my cell phone and didn't return for what seemed like hours. I was beginning to get sick at my stomach. He didn't know this man and....guns?! Ack!! But return he did. He was to call the fellow and go to his house, but Ricky could never get hold of him. I think he was fine, but it sure made me nervous when I thought about it.
There was a couple of hours lull where there was nothing I was interested in being auctioned. Finally, after 8 hours, the pottery auctioneer moved to the paper/chalkware/baskets tent. I happen to love ephemera. I love old books, old paper items, old magazines....anything paper and old. Love it, love it, love it. I love to look at it then sell it. And now I have scrapbooking friends to think of. There were several lots I was interested in in this tent. There were Baggies I was willing to pay $30 for! It was getting dark, the auctioneer was tired and had just come from high selling pottery and didn't have patience for the low bidders of cheap calkware and stuffed animals. Someone offered to buy the whole tent and the auctioneer threatened to sell it that way. Nooooo!!!! But he gave us another chance to up our bids. Then finally he got close to the items I was interested in. My heart rate increased and even started skipping beats. And he said he would auction from this point to that point - which included lots of old Playboys. I wasn't interested in those, although I wouldn't have minded getting them. No, there were only two lots in that batch I wanted. When I walked off, the bidding was at $300. I was so disappointed, frustrated, tired and hungry. We decided it was time to call it a day.
Checkout was not an easy process. Well, paying wasn't so bad, but we had to go through a checkpoint. They checked our list and compared it to the items we were walking out with. It turned out I'd not paid for four pictures and I didn't want to go back through the paying process, so I let them keep them. That was $20 they'd have been short. We're talking about $20 out of over a million taken in. Hrmph. Oh, well. I'm sure somebody got to take them home with them. Loading up the truck, Ricky dropped a box of pictures that had a hand painted glass lamp globe on it, breaking the globe and I didn't even get mad. I was too numb at that point. Really, I'd already expressed my anger with the way the auction was handled. I realize having three going at once is not uncommon, but it is for this area and these auctioneers were not experienced at it.
Our day at the auction lasted 12 hours. Fourteen if you count traveling time. We stopped at Ruby Tuesday's at 8:00. The parking lot was far from full and there were several empty booths, yet the hostess said it would be 15 to 20 minutes. Nope. Not gonna wait. We went down the road bit and had bar-b-que. When I got home and looked in the mirror, I saw my upper lip needed bleaching. Perfect. I'd spent the whole, frustrating day, just for a paltry pile of stuff, sporting a mustache I didn't realize was showing.
Pictures of my loot will come at the next opportunity.
We arrived about 7:30 that morning. The auction didn't start until 9:00, so I had plenty of time to look at each item or box lot -- all 8000 lots!!! That's not 8000 items, but 8000 lots! Boxes of things counted as a lot.
I had quite a few things marked that I thought I'd have a chance of winning.
The auction started promptly at 9 a.m. just like they said. The property was auctioned off first, then the guns. Ever notice how they always do "guy things" first? They tell us there will be three auctions going at once. One auctioneer will be in the pottery building, one in the front and one in the back. I never even poked my head in the pottery building, but heard one jug sold for $1800.00.
Naturally, I wanted things in the front and in the back. Just as naturally, Ricky was standing in line to pay for the gun he'd bought, so there was no help coming from him. I was running from back to front constantly for the first hour. Twice, when I got back around to the back a box I had marked as something I wanted was being sold for $5.00 and I was three seconds too late. Everything in front was going much to high and I wasted a lot of time waiting on some of that stuff. I did manage to get a few things from the back. But some things I wanted went for astronomical prices.
Remembering Deb at Curious Sofa's creations of bejeweled bottles, I picked out a box of bottles totally at random. I thought this particular box had several bottles that would look nice decorated. Ha! What great taste I have. That box sold for well over $100! There was a table full of old fabric. Someone did say there was an old flag in the lot and there was a Lucky Strike pillow, but mostly it was just fabric and crocheted lace like we see at estate sales all the time. I was willing to pay $40 for the bunch. Apparently the lady next to me was willing to pay $50 because when it was bid up that high, she threw up her hands and stomped off. But the bidding didn't stop there. I ended at $150.00!!! I saw the buyer going through it later and she was oohing and ah-ing over the fabric. Not the flag or anything. I was thinking I had some fabric to sell to her!
About the middle of the day, Ricky said he was going to go see a guy about some guns. A stranger. He left with my purse and my cell phone and didn't return for what seemed like hours. I was beginning to get sick at my stomach. He didn't know this man and....guns?! Ack!! But return he did. He was to call the fellow and go to his house, but Ricky could never get hold of him. I think he was fine, but it sure made me nervous when I thought about it.
There was a couple of hours lull where there was nothing I was interested in being auctioned. Finally, after 8 hours, the pottery auctioneer moved to the paper/chalkware/baskets tent. I happen to love ephemera. I love old books, old paper items, old magazines....anything paper and old. Love it, love it, love it. I love to look at it then sell it. And now I have scrapbooking friends to think of. There were several lots I was interested in in this tent. There were Baggies I was willing to pay $30 for! It was getting dark, the auctioneer was tired and had just come from high selling pottery and didn't have patience for the low bidders of cheap calkware and stuffed animals. Someone offered to buy the whole tent and the auctioneer threatened to sell it that way. Nooooo!!!! But he gave us another chance to up our bids. Then finally he got close to the items I was interested in. My heart rate increased and even started skipping beats. And he said he would auction from this point to that point - which included lots of old Playboys. I wasn't interested in those, although I wouldn't have minded getting them. No, there were only two lots in that batch I wanted. When I walked off, the bidding was at $300. I was so disappointed, frustrated, tired and hungry. We decided it was time to call it a day.
Checkout was not an easy process. Well, paying wasn't so bad, but we had to go through a checkpoint. They checked our list and compared it to the items we were walking out with. It turned out I'd not paid for four pictures and I didn't want to go back through the paying process, so I let them keep them. That was $20 they'd have been short. We're talking about $20 out of over a million taken in. Hrmph. Oh, well. I'm sure somebody got to take them home with them. Loading up the truck, Ricky dropped a box of pictures that had a hand painted glass lamp globe on it, breaking the globe and I didn't even get mad. I was too numb at that point. Really, I'd already expressed my anger with the way the auction was handled. I realize having three going at once is not uncommon, but it is for this area and these auctioneers were not experienced at it.
Our day at the auction lasted 12 hours. Fourteen if you count traveling time. We stopped at Ruby Tuesday's at 8:00. The parking lot was far from full and there were several empty booths, yet the hostess said it would be 15 to 20 minutes. Nope. Not gonna wait. We went down the road bit and had bar-b-que. When I got home and looked in the mirror, I saw my upper lip needed bleaching. Perfect. I'd spent the whole, frustrating day, just for a paltry pile of stuff, sporting a mustache I didn't realize was showing.
Pictures of my loot will come at the next opportunity.
