AN AUCTION!

Les and I went to an Estate sale and an Auction over the weekend. We bought tons of amazing treasures that I will be sharing in upcoming posts. Here's one treasure, an old butter crock, which I'll tell you about later on in this post.

We haven't gone to many auctions in the past because you might have to end up staying all day to get an item that you want. But we knew so many people that go to these all day events that we thought why not make it an all day party with friends and not just focus on what we want to buy. We are also friends with the auctioneer who makes it entertaining. So we went, taking our canvas lawn chairs as others do and decided to enjoy the whole day affair! ( I should have taken pictures! UGH! )

The auction was located in an old brick building on the county fairgrounds. It was heated so it was comfortable on this cold Fall morning. The auctioneer, John, sits on a raised platform facing bleachers in the middle of the huge building. In front of the bleachers people can set up lawn chairs to sit in. The items to be auctioned off are around the edges of the building and are brought up front when they are auctioned off.

We put our chairs down and with coffee mugs from home sat down to enjoy the affair. John, being a very patriotic sort, has a flag draped in front of him and begins every auction with the Pledge of Allegiance. But after that, the whole affair is very informal. John even brings his dog, who just wanders around begging food from everyone. The food is sold in a trailer outside offering donuts, coffee, hot chocolate, and later chili, pizza, and bar-b-ques.

If you haven't been to an auction before you need to know "the tricks of the trade". We're still just learning so we make a few missteps now and then. For example, the butter crock, above. One of the rules is to pay attention to YOUR actions AND the auctioneer while bidding is going on. I started bidding on this crock but stopped bidding after it hit a higher amount than I wanted to pay. I stopped paying attention to the auctioneer and just started talking to someone next to me apparently gesturing with my hands while talking! Suddenly the auctioneer yelled SOLD and pointed to me! WHAT?! They brought the crock over to me and I asked the man handing me the crock, "Um, what did I bid on this?" LOL Thankfully it wasn't much more than I was first willing to pay. Whew! This is going to have to be a keeper so thankfully it fits in with my decor and I like it! Now SOME people ( when this happens to them) just tell the auctioneer that they weren't bidding and he gets the bidding going again. But it kind of caught me by surprise and before I could even think about that they were moving on to the next item! Oh well, another lesson learned in auction bidding!

More about the treasures I purchased in later posts. I'll also be posting some gorgeous furniture pieces for sale on Craigslist and will add them to my Sales Page here. But I'll let y'all know when I do that.