An Auctioneer who "Get's it!"

Last Saturday was a gorgeous day--so Husbola and I headed west in Old Green to an auction  that was new to us and advertised in the Auction Action Antique News publication.  If you are not familiar with this weekly paper--it is published in Wisconsin and is chock full of auction ads, stories about midwest shows and general info that is of interest to the trade.

So we found an auction that had been moved off site and was being held in the auctioneer's building in the middle of cornfields in northern Illinois.  It promised to be a good one--and estate of hoarders. 

Now--don't think me heartless please when I salivate over an auction of goods belonging to hoarders.  I hold Antique Hoarders in the highest regard.  After all--where are we sellers supposed to get the goods that are fresh to market if there were no haorders?   The unfortuante thing is if the items were not stored properly or were out in the elements or were subject to further deterioration and then they are no good to anyone but he dumpster company.  This auction had good itmes--mostly quite clean.  The inventory was not an insult to the attendees.

This auctioneer and his company "gets it."  By this I mean--with the exception of a few little niggly things--the day was most pleasant and we left feeling good.  To start--when we pulled up--there was a parking lot attendant who directed us where to park. They even had a kid in golf cart to shuttle you to the front door if you needed a lift.  When we walked in--the auctioneer shook Husbola's hand and welcomed us.  The large well lit and ventilated building was very  bright and clean.  Please read that again--bright and CLEAN.  Items were well spaced for easy viewing--and there were plenty of people to answer questions.

There was a large very clean and extensive lunch and snack area.  No grubby fingers taking your money and then loading a hot dog in a bun. (since I am fresh off a health department certified food handler course--I am paying attention.  Don't eat the chopped onions! But that is a story for another day)

The auctioneer was clear in the order of the sale.  If you wanted an item put up for auction out of the random order set by the ring men--you just asked them.  REALLY?  You mean I don't have to wait all day for my widget to be auctioned?  Of course--that does draw the crowd's attention to that widget--which may NOT be a good thing--

The auctioneer just flew.  No dinking dunking through each item--they sped through the auction and kept moving at  a lightening pace--you snooze you loose. For much of the auction they had a camera on each item and the image projected on a large screen. It was a big crowd--and now you could see what was bing auctioned very clearly.

We were out of there by 2pm-and checkout was breeze.  They quickly processed the sale tickets--and we were on our way.

Ok--there were two points that could be improved on--they need TWO porta loo's and one for each gender.  All my women readers know exactly what I mean.  They are going to have chairs at future auctions--but they are relatively knew to this facility--and are still in the set up phase.  Now--what treasures did we uncover?  You will just have to visit our booth at On The Square Antique Mall in Walworth Wisconsin and see for yourself.