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The Big Auction 

Well…this week was it.  We tried going to our very first auction – and what an experience.  Since we’d never gone before it was an eye-opener.  There are a lot of rules you have to follow (I’ll get to those in one of my future posts).

But in this update, I just want to share some of the amazing treasures we found at this auction.

The auction was held at the Dover Elks in Dover New Hampshire (http://www.elks.org/lodges/home.cfm?LodgeNumber=184)

I was told by a friend beforehand that this particular auctioneer had some great items and usually the auction prices don’t go too high.  We walked in and got our bidding number.  As Jen sat down, I took a look around and got a good shot of how many items were just packed into this one auction – a great mix of old stuff.  You just don’t find these kinds of antiques at yard sales…

So we sat down and the bidding eventually began.  We almost gave up right way – a lot of nice Waterford crystal went for almost $350.  Here we were looking for items for $40 or under.

But we stayed patient, and ordered some food from the vendor in the back of the place.  Cindy had some salad and I had a pretty good chicken sandwich.  We even each had some time to have dessert and some coffee.  And finally, after waiting about two hours, we noticed some of the older folks started leaving, and the place started emptying out.

At the same time people started leaving – the prices started dropping.

Then the item that we had our eyes on the whole night came up – a great antique White Mountains ice cream maker.  The wood had a beautiful patina – and we knew that there would be collectors out there, especially those into country antiques, who would pay a fortune for this stuff.

Here was the ice-cream maker:

Cindy bid $10, and someone bid $15 against her.  Back and forth they went as the auctioneer sang his song…$20….$25…$40…

Then the bidding stopped.  The auctioneer continued:

“Going once…”

My heart was stuck in my throat because from researching online I saw several of these sell for almost $200.

“Going twice…”

Cindy grabbed my hand and squeezed it.

“SOLD…to the pretty lady in the yellow jacket.”

I almost stood up and cheered, then caught myself and realized that it probably wouldn’t look too good.  So we were handed our prize, which we set in the empty chairs next to us, and waited for the next item to come up.

Throughout the evening, as prices slowly dropped toward the end, we won the following items:

A Western Electric antique telephone ringer for $25:

A vintage (and highly collectible) Longerberger basket for $30:

An antique pressed-steel toy car for $10:

And an old antique English child’s record player for $5!

By the end of the auction, we’d accumulated quite a little pile next to us.  We cashed out and paid for the items by the skin of our teeth.  It all totaled $90 with the auctioneer fees and taxes, and we’d only brought $100 in cash!

On the drive home, Cindy and I couldn’t stop talking about how excited we felt at the great antiques we bought.  But there was still that nagging fear that we wouldn’t be able to sell the items – and not only would we be stuck with the, but we would have spent money that we could have used to buy groceries or to pay the bills.

But that’s the chance we’re trying to take.  They say that you can’t make money unless you spend money – so we’re going to give it a try and see how it goes.

EBay…here we come!

The saga of Jack’s family ( to be continued)