same old, same old..just putting in time until I can retire?

I was picking up some furniture today for our Oct 6 auction, and the consignor asked me if I ever get tired of doing this? I have been doing auctions for 16 years, and put together over 200 of my own auctions.  I also had an antique store for 10 years.  I told her I never get tired of doing this. And it is true.  I have sold over 100,000 items through our auctions, but I am probably more excited about the business now than I was 16 years ago! For me, putting our auctions together, is like putting on a show every month.  I get excited when I have good pieces consigned to the auction.  I get excited thinking about how I am going to photo them, and how they will look on the website.  I plan out where they will go on the stage and how that will look. I research many of the items as I am getting the photos done. I am constantly learning new things even though I have been involved in the antique/auction business for almost thirty years now. I like selling good stuff.  Yes there are times when handling the pieces, removing them from the homes,  and setting them up for auction, can be physically demanding. Doing up the photos and promoting the auctions properly takes a lot of time. Quite often I will spend 12 or 13 hours a day making house calls, packing and moving the pieces to storage, doing the photos and then spending the time to post them to the websites. There are days when I have 15 or 20 phone calls, plus emails, concerning consignments etc.  Then of course there are days when I have only a few and just one or two house calls to do. I have heard this saying a few times. “Do something you love and you will never work a day in your life”  That is true.  When you love it, it doesn’t seem like work.  Regardless of the hours or the physical strain. On Sept 22 I am partnering with David Beasley and we are doing a closing out sale for The Little Furniture Shoppe in Wasaga Beach.  I have never done a sale quite like this before.  Nicely refinished antique and reproduction furniture, plus the shop equipment etc.  When I went to the shop to do the photos I was very excited about what I was seeing.  I couldn’t wait to get back home and get the photos posted!  I knew everything was going to look great and this was going to be a unique auction for us. All this week I have been picking up interesting pieces for the Oct 6 Thanksgiving Auction. Moorcroft pottery, original paint country furniture, old toys, lots of interesting primitives…this has been a good week!  This is what keeps the business interesting for me. So it is true.  I don’t get tired of this business.  Every auction is different, and to paraphrase another show business adage, “you are only as good as your last auction”.  Every month you start over and try to put together as good an auction as you can. So as long as the phone keeps ringing and good, interesting pieces keep coming in, I am going to keep loving this business. I hope when you come to one of our auctions, you are having a good time. Because I am. Rob

some thoughts on our Saturday night summer auctions.

I am a little late in writing this, but it has been a very busy week since the last auction.  So thanks to all who attended our final Saturday night auction of the summer, on Aug 25. We had another good crowd, 162 registered bidders, and prices were fair on most items.  Primitives of course did well, and the pine Canadiana brought fair prices for both the buyers and seller.  Most glass and china still on the down side, but that seems to be typical across the board. I’ve been very pleased with the Saturday night sales this summer.  Last year was the first summer I did this and it went over well then.  This year brought in even larger crowds!  So obviously next year I will be doing it again…you can’t change something that is working so well! Now I realize the large, crowded noisy sales are not for everyone. Two rings going at one time for part of the sale can be a little challenging.  Big, noisy crowds can also be challenging. As my grandmother might have said…”it’s not everyone’s cup of tea”. That brings me to my next point. Our sales are not for everyone.  I wish I could please everyone, but that is not possible. I hear the comments and I do take them to heart. I hear people say there are too many primitives, too much glass and china, too much furniture, too many people, too much good stuff, too much low end stuff…too much of everything!  You can’t create the perfect sale for everyone.  If ever I can do that, I will make a lot of money and for six months of the year you won’t even see me!  However, that is not likely to happen. The average attendance at our auctions has increased about 30% over the last five years.  We are continually reaching new buyers and bringing out new faces to the auctions.  Typically, over 70% of the registered bidders purchase something.  The quality of the auctions has never been better, and I am working to make it even better for the upcoming year. So, even though this may sound a little strange, I actually am up front about admitting, our sales are not for everyone.  We are not Waddingtons or Sothebys, and we are not trying to be.  We are not trying to be an English antique auction, or some stuffy high end objets d’art auction.  We are trying to be a fun, energetic country antique auction. Sometimes a little goofy, but overall getting the job done. I, as always, will listen to and consider any comments, but I am also pretty adamant about what kind of auction I want to be.  I will always continue to make improvements, but despite our flaws, I am still pretty happy with the direction we are going in. So here’s hoping you do enjoy what we are doing and I look forward to seeing you at the Oct 6 Saturday daytime auction.  I could not get a booking in Pottageville in September, so I have lots of time to put together another good auction for you! Rob

and another record sale!

Thanks to everyone who attended our Saturday evening July 28 auction…and what a sale it was! We sold 932 lots in two auction rings during a 7 hour sale! We had almost a record crowd, sold a record number of lots, and indeed it was a busy, noisy and hectic sale! And to think a year ago I had people questioning me about the wisdom of doing a Saturday night sale.  The question was, “who will come to a Saturday night auction?” The answer is…”a lot of people!”.  We had people literally from all parts of Ontario.  Some driving ten or fifteen minutes to the sale, while others drove for up to two hours to get there. Now I realize some of you may have found it a little challenging with the size of the crowd and the noise…heck as an auctioneer I found it challenging! However, rest assured, if this was your first time to one of  our auctions, they are not always like that.  This was a combination sale between myself and Dave Beasley, and between the two of us, we had a lot of merchandise to move.  It worked well, but it is not something we do on a regular basis. My Aug. 25 sale will be one auction ring only, so I am working to keep it a little smaller.  I have a backlog of glass and china to get through, but I am trying to keep the sale a little smaller.  Ok, I have said that many time before, but I am trying! I have some great Canadiana pine pieces coming in, and I will be building the sale around that.  I spent two days bringing the pieces up from Erin, Ont. and it is one of the best offerings of pine I have had to date. Everything came out of one home, and I was in my glory for two days!  Even Charlie was impressed with what we picked up! I am going to make this entry short, as I am preparing for the upcoming long weekend.  I am working at Kempenfest Festival in Barrie, helping a friend of mine with his art exhibit.  It is nice to spend a few days working at a different type of selling.  I don’t get to yell at people for 7 hours straight…and that is kinda nice! Have a great holiday weekend, and have fun on the auction trail! Rob

…looking for love…or just looking for great deals?

Thanks to everyone who attended our Saturday Evening June 23 auction!  This was our first Saturday night sale of the season, and the hall was packed!  Packed with merchandise and packed with people! The crowd started coming in just after 4 and by 5:30  it was wall to wall people. This is very satisfying for me, because when I first thought of doing Saturday night sales last summer, the idea was met with some scepticism. Last year I wasn’t entirely sure it would work, but it worked very well, so I was pretty confident in a good turn out for this sale. I believe many of my customers consider auctions as entertainment.  So why would they not want to come out on a Saturday night for a fun evening out? I try and make it fun, and the “singles night in Pottageville” angle has been a running joke. Obviously Saturday night proved my point.  Over 160 registered bidders! We sold 650 lots and were selling in two auction rings for much of the evening. The sale concluded at 11:30, so with the two rings going, we averaged approx. 110 lots per hour.  This makes for a fast paced, at times hectic, and certainly noisy auction! I will be honest when I say, these types of auctions are not for everyone.  I realize it may be a little challenging and perhaps even intimidating when there are two rings running.  Some people are able to stand at one ring and be able to watch and bid in two rings…these are the seasoned auction goers!  Others prefer to sit and just focus on the auction ring they are interested in.  I set up the auction so items of specific interest…primitives, jewellery for example, are selling in one ring, while the more general interest items are selling in the other. There are times when the rings overlap, and we are selling primitives in both rings at the same time, and that’s when it can be a little challenging! Saturday nights sale was like that.  A lot of primitive and country decorating items selling throughout the night.  We took a break and just went to one ring when we sold the stage and the major furniture pieces, but aside from that, it was two rings for almost all evening. If you find it a little too “energetic”, well not to worry.  All of our auctions are not like that.  The rest of the summer auctions are likely to be a little smaller. Although I have said that before! This past auction was interesting to me, because in some ways it went opposite of what the trends in antiques have been lately.  This time out, the big furniture pieces were selling well, and the small furniture pieces were generally soft.  It is usually the other way around. Pressed glass, carnival glass, depression and crystal, all seemed down in price last night, and that is a trend I have seen for quite a while now. There is a lot of glass and china coming onto the market, and unfortunately we are seeing quite a dramatic slide in price.  Will it turn around?  I am not too sure on that. However, if you are a collector, you’ve probably never seen a better time to buy! So now I start two days of paperwork (I admit, that is the part of the business I don’t really like, but of course it has to be done!). July is going to be a very busy month for me, due to other commitments I have, so I am glad David Beasley and I will be working together and sharing the  July 28 auction.  We each have our own consignors, and merge together for one auction.  We have done it twice now in the last year and it works out very well. Gives both of us a little time off, but the end result is a good auction once again for you! So enjoy your summer…have fun on the auction trail…and if you would like to see a video slide presentation of last nights auction, you can click on this link. SATURDAY JUNE 23 AUCTION VIDEO

but lots of fun!

Thanks to all who attended our Saturday June 16 auction. This auction was unusual for us.  It was an estate from Scarborough, and was mainly household items and used furniture with some antique pieces as well. Our sales are usually mostly antiques, and usually 25-30 different consignors, rather than one full estate. This sale drew about 1/2 the number of people we usually get, and the total dollar sales about 1/4 of our average antique consignment…and it was a success! Now you might be saying, with half the bidders and 1/4 the dollar value, how could you say the sale was a success? The truth is, the objective of this sale was to sell everything regardless of price, cover the expenses of the auction, and not have anything left over to dispose of after the sale. The family pays the expenses on a sale like this, and I work on a commission. Obviously they want the sales to cover the expenses, empty the contents of the house and then move on. I had a sales total in mind I thought would make the family happy, and compensate me adequately…and the sale went 30% above that figure.  Everyone was happy! The family had spent months cleaning out the house, organizing the remaining contents, and it just gets to the point where everything has to go.  That becomes the only objective. We were selling things for $1…which I usually do not do, and big lots for a couple of dollars…and even a sofa for one dollar! I just wanted to help the family dispose of the contents, and have fun doing it. We certainly succeeded in doing that! The crowd started out small, as I predicted, and then built up by 11:00, and much of the crowd stayed with us throughout the afternoon. Lots of good deals on practical household items, and even though the prices on the antique items seemed low compared to our usual antique auctions, overall it all averaged out. I have no intentions of building my business doing general household auctions. We do very well with our monthly antique auctions, and that is my livelihood. However, this past sale was something different for us, and myself, staff and those attending, all had a pretty good time! But now we move on to our large antique auction on Saturday June 23, and the only dollar bills will be the ones spent at the food booth!

I kinda wished it had rained!

I admit I have been a little slow in updating my News and Views, but it has been very busy! Thanks to all who attended our May 19 Victoria Day Weekend auction. I admit it is tough to get people to attend an indoor auction when you have record breakin,g beautiful sunny weather on a long weekend…but we did manage to do it! Not a huge crowd…a little larger than last year’s Victoria Day weekend auction…119 registered bidders.  As  most of you know, we have been packing the hall on a regular basis since last October with record crowds, so for those of you attending this past auction, it probably was a little more comfortable with a smaller crowd! Prices as always were up and down.  Highlights included the wonderful bird box automaton for $1700….a great pine secretary also sold for $1700…and one of the best pieces of Coke advertising I have had in a long time sold for $625. Of course there were lots of good buys on the other end of the scale, and every auction has its highs and lows.  That is something we learn to live with. As an auctioneer you want those attending the auction to go home with some good deals, and you hope they are happy with the purchases. Of course, as an auctioneer I also think of my consignors and hope they end up with a reasonable price for the items they consign. So how do you balance the both?  Have happy buyers and sellers? It would seem at odds with each other, but it can be done. Usually when I look at the items people wish to consign, I give them an approximate selling price.  I am conservative with the average selling price I quote, because I want the consignor to be realistic about the value of their items.   I stress that the selling price could be higher, but I also stress that it could be lower.  I point out we do not place a minimum selling price on the items and the consignor has to be prepared to take a risk.  If people do not like my assessment, then I suggest other ways they could possibly sell their items. If they cannot sell them on their own, then the auction is still a possibility. However, most people simply want to sell, or they have to settle an estate, and they usually go through our auctions. The key to selling at an auction, is to average out the selling prices.  There is an old saying “what you lose on the apples, you make up for on the oranges”. Case in point.  One recent consignor in the last auction had three pieces of furniture. I told her I thought two pieces would sell for $150 each and the third piece I wasn’t even sure if we would get much money at all for. So we agreed $300 and change would be a decent selling price.  The first piece sold for $100 and that was very disappointing. However, the second piece sold much to my surprise for $300 and the third piece I wasn’t even sure about, sold for $70! So the consignor ended up with $470, when we were only expecting about $300. The buyers I hope were happy with their purchases, so everyone ending up winning. As an auctioneer sometimes I remember the items that seemed to sell for very little money and don’t realize how well some of the other items did, until I tally up the consignors sales. Another consignor, recently seemed disappointed at the auction with some of the selling prices, but when I ran into him a week later, he told me he was shocked at his total sales….double what he thought he did! Of course there are some consignors who get lucky and every piece does very well, and unfortunately other consignors who get low prices on every item, but usually for most people it averages out to their satisfaction. So obviously, if you are buying or selling, auctions can be fun and exciting! TO VIEW A VIDEO SLIDE PRESENTATION OF THIS AUCTION PLEASE CLICK HERE Rob

the big sales keep on coming!

Thanks to everyone who attended our April 21 auction…another big sale! 195 registered bidders, and of those, 149 bought, so we had a buyer rate of 76%. 8 full hours of selling, and for part of the sale selling in two rings.  By days end we sold 834 lots! Now I have been saying I am trying to make the sales smaller, and technically I have.  In March we sold 849 lots…so this sale was smaller by 15 lots.  I am heading in the right direction! It is true the sales have been large these past 4 months.  We have been averaging over 800 lots per sale, and in each sale we sell in two rings for part of the auction. This does make it a little noisy at times, but that is the way our sales have always been.  High energy…noisy…lots of stuff.  I realize that may not be the way everyone likes them, but it is what we are. The backlog of items in storage is gradually getting smaller…just give me a couple of more sales!  I keep telling that to my wonderful, but long suffering staff. There were no big surprises in this auction.  Primitives and country items selling well, furniture prices continue to be on the soft side, and when it comes to glass and china, prices are all over the board.  That seems to be the way the market is now.  I was talking to a dealer the other day who attended an auction on the weekend in the Hamilton area.  He admits he has not been to an auction in many years, and was quite surprised at the change in prices.  What used to be strong in price may now be selling for a fraction of what it did 10 or 15 years ago, while other items that used to be giveaways are now commanding good money.  The market is always changing…that’s what makes it interesting! It takes me a couple of days to do the paperwork and banking for each auction. This sale required me to process 36 consignor payment statements, and I make a point of making sure all paperwork is done within a couple of days of the auction.  When the paperwork is done…I can move on to the next sale! Speaking of which, I had a nice day on Monday.  For an auctioneer I think this is a good day.  Picked up Mom and we drove to Lucknow to pick up a consignment.  Lucknow is about 175 kms west of Barrie.  Beautiful farm country and a nice relaxing drive. When I arrived at the farm the furniture was even better than it looked it the photos they sent. Nice two piece pine corner cupboard, two piece pine secretary desk, pine dry sink, pine blanket box, 6 chairs and a few other items.  This is the kind of house call I live for! On the way back we drove through some nice towns I have never been to before, and checked out a very interesting antique shop, filled with Canadiana pine furniture, lamps, glass and stuff that reminded me of the kind of antique stores I used to see years ago before the antique malls started.  It was nice, very pricey by my standards, but nice none the less. An early dinner at Swiss Chalet and then back home.  For me, that was a good day. When I got home there was a message from my accountant telling me how much income tax I would be paying, and the windows in the sunroom were leaking. I am glad I had a good day…because it soon turned into a lousy evening! Time to get back to work…there is a lot to be done for the May 19 auction. Have fun on the auction trail! Rob TO VIEW A VIDEO SLIDE PRESENTATION OF THIS AUCTION PLEASE CLICK HERE

I think the luck of the Irish was with us!

A very interesting sale again! No doubt this has been a good winter for us.  Great items coming through…big crowds…fair prices…can’t ask for much more! We had 218 bidders register, and some from as far away as Sudbury, Hamilton, Niagara Falls, and some places in Ontario I have never heard of.  Scotland Ontario? We were running in two rings for a fair part of the day, sold 840 lots, and yes I know it gets pretty noisy and for some a little confusing, but that is the only way to handle a sale this size. However, I am attempting to scale down the sales a bit.  Ok, you have heard that before.  I wanted to do large, good sales in the winter months, and now I will try and make them good, slightly smaller sales, for the spring and summer months. I have a large backlog of smaller items to take care of, and I will work them through the sales along with the quality pieces coming in.  I am very fortunate that the phone keeps ringing, the good stuff keeps coming in, and I am trying very hard to accommodate everyone.  This last sale we had 35 different consignors, so at times it is a bit of a juggling act! This past sale we had some highs and lows (as always).  I was very pleased to sell the rare Mickey Mouse book for $1500.  Primitives were mostly strong in price, and the glass and china was doing much better this sale.  Nice Aladdin lamp sold for $575.00  Some of the large furniture pieces did fine, but then a few went flat.  Did we really sell a nicely carved oak sideboard with high back mirror for $150?  Yes, unfortunately we did, but that is what auctions are all about. This being a St.Patrick’s Day auction we adorned ourselves accordingly, and Donnie and Charlie went all out! (photo above for Donnie). Also it was two days before Mom’s birthday, so we sang happy birthday and presented Mom with a nice pot of flowers.  Thanks Dave and Carol Beasley for the flowers!  Hard for most people to believe, but Mom is now 82 and still working as hard as ever with us.  She works a ten hour day doing the setup and another ten or twelve hour day on auction day.  She has clerked every sale for the past 16 years!  I keep telling her she should slow down a little, and she keeps telling me she will let me know when she thinks it is too much, and that ends that discussion! So here is the info on the Mickey Mouse book. A book that created controversy when it was first published, and is controversial to this day! The book was the 1932 Mickey Mouse Annual #3, printed in Canada in 1933. When it was released in England in 1932 it was banned due to racist language. That’s right, Walt Disney banned!  There were only a few copies that made it into circulation, and it is reported that one sold recently for 54,000 pounds. Ours was the Canadian version, and I could find very little info on it.  It’s as though the Canadian version did not exist… but we had it! The opening chapter had Mickey and Minnie in Africa, in confrontation with the natives.  The first chapter is laced with racist comments, names and descriptions of the native Africans.  That’s about as much as I am going to say about that. So the question is…was Walt Disney racist?  You have to look at the book in the context of the times, but even by 1932 standards,  I am sure the language would have been offensive to most people.  It was offensive enough to have it banned in England.  It clearly states that the book was “authorized by Walter E. Disney”.  So I would leave it to you to draw your own conclusions. The book was complete, in good condition and sold for $1500.00 That’s what keeps this business interesting! To View A Video Presentation Of This Auction Click On This Link Rob