bethzaring
Master Chef
Yesterday evening I attended an auction in my county seat, in the middle of town, population about 6,000. It was a well attended event. I used to frequent local auctions about 15 to 20 years ago, when I was looking to purchase items for me to use. This auction had a large number of people, who like me, were looking for bargains to maybe make a little profit by reselling on eBay. Fat chance. My main interest was a Singer Featherweight sewing machine, a highly coveted, sturdy, mechanically superb, quilters’ dream, machine. They currently are selling from $200. to $600. on eBay, depending on condition of machine and case, year, and number of attachments. This machine was perfect, showing little use, but had no manual nor any attachments, hmmmm. I still was prepared to bid on it. I was standing next to Hope Ketchem, an acquaintance of mine, who I don’t like. She is not a nice person, an elderly (about 85 yo), retired teacher who never married nor had any children. I was at her house once and I was shocked at the condition of the place. It was one of those houses that was impossible to walk through for the clutter. And to add to my dislike of her, she starts bidding on the Featherweight. I bow out at $125.00 but Hope keeps going. It gets down to Hope and one other person, the auctioneer looks at Hope, who simultaneously sighs, whines, shrugs, and shakes her head no, saying she already has two Featherweights.
So I’m thinking, watch the paper for Hopes’ estate auction.
There were 9 cast iron skillets to be sold. I looked them all over carefully before the auction; 3 Wagner’s, 4 make in Taiwan and 2 unmarked. The auctioneer says up for bid next are the cast iron skillets which include some Griswold’s and Wagner’s. He handled this bidding by saying the highest bidder would chose which one piece they wanted. He did this 6 times and sold the last three skillets together. These included one DO without a lid, one 4 inch deep skillet and the rest were 8 and 10 inch skillets. The first 6 bids all went to $25.00. Yikes!
This estate auction belonged to a pack rat, as expressed by the auctioneer in his opening remarks. In 2002 when I cleaned out my Mom’s house before moving her into an assisted living, I learned a huge lesson. Get rid of the stuff you no longer use. Over the next two years I concentrated on clearing out and selling on eBay the nice stuff I had but didn’t use. I will not declutter my house again. So I was not tempted by the Weller, McCoy, Hull and Hall pottery she had. Well, actually, I didn’t like any of it. I am always on the lookout for a few items, like, flower vases, wooden picture frames or other pottery that I really love upon first sight. I was interested in several very old carved wooden picture frames, but they were not the size I am interested in.
And the stone crocks……well, one was a stone one gallon jug and the other was a stone chicken waterer. Somehow, the auction listings in the paper always looks better than reality.
Going to an auction is very tiring work for me. I need to go through all the boxes and tables several times before I see almost everything. On the third time through, I noticed a motor base I had not picked up yet. When I did, it said Vita Mix 3600 on the side. Then I remembered seeing a container 4 boxes down that went to nothing. So first I pick up the motor base and look for an electrical outlet. The motor works. On the way out of the house I show it to the helper, a friend of long and a former antique dealer and fellow natural foods enthusiast, if he was aware of the Vita Mix base? He said no, was I going to bid on it?! I told him no but I thought the rest of the unit was in another box and he asked me to assemble it if I could. I have been coveting a Vita Mix for decades, but have never seen one like this one….it was vintage.
Well, with my disappoint with the Featherweight going for $250, and nothing else there that I had to bid on, I left early. I have real trouble at auctions waiting for the small stuff to sell before they get to the good stuff. Auctions take your complete attention and you can not chat with your neighbor. At least once each auction the auctioneer has to ask the audience to be quiet, they are strict about noise. They don’t want any potential buyer to miss the opportunity to buy.
So I came home empty handed. Actually, that is good for me because dh understands I do not buy indiscriminately and will not have a problem when I want to go to the auction next week!
So I’m thinking, watch the paper for Hopes’ estate auction.There were 9 cast iron skillets to be sold. I looked them all over carefully before the auction; 3 Wagner’s, 4 make in Taiwan and 2 unmarked. The auctioneer says up for bid next are the cast iron skillets which include some Griswold’s and Wagner’s. He handled this bidding by saying the highest bidder would chose which one piece they wanted. He did this 6 times and sold the last three skillets together. These included one DO without a lid, one 4 inch deep skillet and the rest were 8 and 10 inch skillets. The first 6 bids all went to $25.00. Yikes!
This estate auction belonged to a pack rat, as expressed by the auctioneer in his opening remarks. In 2002 when I cleaned out my Mom’s house before moving her into an assisted living, I learned a huge lesson. Get rid of the stuff you no longer use. Over the next two years I concentrated on clearing out and selling on eBay the nice stuff I had but didn’t use. I will not declutter my house again. So I was not tempted by the Weller, McCoy, Hull and Hall pottery she had. Well, actually, I didn’t like any of it. I am always on the lookout for a few items, like, flower vases, wooden picture frames or other pottery that I really love upon first sight. I was interested in several very old carved wooden picture frames, but they were not the size I am interested in.
And the stone crocks……well, one was a stone one gallon jug and the other was a stone chicken waterer. Somehow, the auction listings in the paper always looks better than reality.
Going to an auction is very tiring work for me. I need to go through all the boxes and tables several times before I see almost everything. On the third time through, I noticed a motor base I had not picked up yet. When I did, it said Vita Mix 3600 on the side. Then I remembered seeing a container 4 boxes down that went to nothing. So first I pick up the motor base and look for an electrical outlet. The motor works. On the way out of the house I show it to the helper, a friend of long and a former antique dealer and fellow natural foods enthusiast, if he was aware of the Vita Mix base? He said no, was I going to bid on it?! I told him no but I thought the rest of the unit was in another box and he asked me to assemble it if I could. I have been coveting a Vita Mix for decades, but have never seen one like this one….it was vintage.
Well, with my disappoint with the Featherweight going for $250, and nothing else there that I had to bid on, I left early. I have real trouble at auctions waiting for the small stuff to sell before they get to the good stuff. Auctions take your complete attention and you can not chat with your neighbor. At least once each auction the auctioneer has to ask the audience to be quiet, they are strict about noise. They don’t want any potential buyer to miss the opportunity to buy.
So I came home empty handed. Actually, that is good for me because dh understands I do not buy indiscriminately and will not have a problem when I want to go to the auction next week!
