The Auction
Many of you know that over the past year, I’ve been going through the household goods of my departed Great Uncle Jack (and by extension, his wife Ruby, who passed long ago). I absolutely could not have done it without the generous and untiring help of friends, and I’m hoping to ask just one last favor of you all. It’s an easy one, though: come out to the auction on Saturday February 6!
It’s at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds in Saline and officially starts at 10am. The doors will be open from 8am on for previewing, it’s indoors, the building is heated and there will be a lunch cart of some sorts there. The listing is here and the photos are here. Jack’s stuff is not all pictured and starts about 3/4 of the way down the page, with a brown mantel clock.
If you’ve never been to an auction, this is a great low-key opportunity to check one out. The people watching at auctions is superb! These auctioneers keep things moving along and have a mess of goofy jokes along the way. It’s fascinating to watch the crowd and guess who is a dealer, who is bidding for a bargain, and who is bidding out of love for whatever that object is. You can have a lot of fun without ever buying anything.
Won’t go because you’re worried you might sneeze and end up buying something by mistake? That’s just in the movies - the auctioneers are pros and know who is making real bids. If you think you want to buy something, first you sign up to get a bidding number and that’s what you wave when you want to bid. Bidding is quite a rush, really, and there will be lots of gewgaws that go for very little money if you want to try your hand at it without getting in too deep. This will be a great auction for first-timers.
And besides, buying at auctions is one of the greenest things you can do. Why use all these resources to make new goods when we already have so many perfectly usable ones? And in a lot of cases, the old stuff is better made, sturdier and more useful than the plastic throwaway junk that’s made today.
So come check it out. See what we’ve been doing all year. We’ll be there and we’ll point you in the right direction if you want to bid but need help.
