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

…bad weather…good watch!

Lots to write about concerning the Feb 18 2012 auction! Woke up early Saturday morning and all I heard about on the radio was the bad weather!   Snow all around us, and in particular it seemed like Toronto was getting it fairly bad.  It was a slower than usual drive for me from Barrie,  and it seemed like the snow was all around us. Highway 400 was blocked with an accident just south of us.  It looked like anyone coming from Toronto was going to have a tough time even getting to the sale. However, by 9:00 o’clock people started pouring in, and by day’s end we had 200 registered bidders! Many people commented jokingly that they thought they would be the only ones there, but I know what auction goers are like.  It was going to take more than some snow to keep the hard core buyers away! The sale started early, at 9:30 so we could do the coins, and finally wrapped it up at 6:15.  We sold 676 lots, plus over 100 lots of coins! Prices were strong all day long, and even though furniture prices in general seemed a little soft, we made up for it on the offering of quality smalls. So, now the big story of the day, and one that will be creating a little buzz in the local auction circles. I had advertised an 18k gold pocket watch.  It had the name of the store in Detroit that sold it on the dial, and an 1899 memorial inscription on the case. Being 18k gold I knew it was a good quality watch, and during the setup on Friday, I asked Carol Beasley if she could check it over again to make sure of the gold content.  Carol even went as far as to remove the casing on the back and she let out a gasp!  She told me the works are signed Patek Philippe.  Now that is about as high end a watch as you can get…most people would consider it better even than Rolex! The dilemma now was what to do with such an unadvertised, high end piece.  I couldn’t pull it from the auction and advertise it for the March auction.  That would not be fair to anyone travelling for this particular watch. So Friday night Carol sent out an email flier to the people on their email list, and I did the same with my email list.  We also changed the website photo, and I made a few other phone calls and emails. I was pretty confident we would have some serious buyers show up, and with the buzz about the watch during the preview, I felt pretty confident it would bring fair market value, taking into consideration that the watch was not working. The watch went up at noon, and right from the opening bid I knew there was serious interest. Final selling price….$3900 plus 5% premium. Now there is even another twist to this story.  The consignor placed the watch in the auction on behalf of a friend of hers.  Because the watch was not working, the friend was going to throw it out!  Fortunately the consignor realized it was gold and convinced her to put it in the auction. So we had a watch that was almost thrown out, and almost went through the auction without anyone realizing it was a Patek Phillipe. I was thrown off by the fact that the face was not signed Patek Phillipe, so I never took a closer look at the actual inside works of the piece.  There is another lesson learned!  Thank you again Carol! Also we ended up having one of our best dollar value sales ever, so all in all, it was a pretty good day. There are a few auctions I will always remember.  The May sale in Cookstown where the grounds around the hall where a sea of mud, and I thought we would not be able to get anyone in or out of the hall.  The nightmare first sale in Pottageville when we set up the entire auction and then were informed there was a booking mixup with the hall, and in fact we did not have the hall booked for actual sale day and would have to cancel the auction and remove everything that night.  And now on a brighter note, the auction with the Patek Philippe watch that was almost thrown away! IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS ABOUT THIS OR ANY OTHER ARTICLE, FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME AT rob@robsageauctions.com  ALWAYS NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

there is a side to them that you may not think much about.

An auction sale can be, and in my opinion, should be a fun, exciting event.  I try to make it fun and interesting, and I really enjoy what I do. However, there is another aspect to auctions, and being an auctioneer, that most people really don’t give much thought to. Acquiring the goods for auction.  Where does it all come from?  Who did it belong to?  Is there a story behind it? As auctioneers, we often have to deal with people at a difficult time in their lives.  Death. Divorce. Downsizing. Moving to a retirement or nursing home. Sometimes people are forced to sell for financial reasons as well.  I have dealt with all of it. I dealt with one woman who flew here from British Columbia for her mother`s funeral.  We were in the apartment packing up items the day after the funeral. She had no choice because she had to settle the affairs and go back home.  I can imagine how difficult it must have been for her to have to do that so quickly after her mother`s  passing. I have dealt with many elderly people who are giving up a lifetime of possessions in order to move into a  retirement home.  I vividly remember one elderly lady watching us through the living room window as we loaded the truck.  Tears were streaming down her face. I have heard many bitter stories about ex-wifes and ex-husbands. I have taken items out of homes that were not fit to live in.  I witnessed first hand one particularly sad story, that would rival any `hoarding`story you see on reality TV. I used to get phone calls from one couple who claimed they were always `redecorating“ and didn`t need the items any more, or just wanted a change.  I watched them move from a 5000 square foot home, to a small rented house, and then finally divorce.  I suspected all the way along that it was financial problems that were forcing them to sell and then ultimately divorce. A good friend of mine told me this story.  He was working at an auction holding up items and some old aprons came up for sale.  He jokingly tied the aprons on, and got a good laugh from the crowd.  A young woman in the front row looked directly at him,, and told him those were her grandmothers aprons.  He felt terrible. I am not meaning to put a down side on the auction business for you.  I am just pointing out that as auctioneers we have to be sensitive to the people we are dealing with.   It can be a very tough time for some people. However, on the up side, many people are selling under good circumstances.  They are happily turning items they no longer want or use into cash.  I have many good consignors who pick items specifically for the auctions, and in most cases it can be very profitable for them.  Or dealers who just want to reduce inventory.  I have even had consignors happily tell me they can`t believe what that old piece of junk sold for! So yes there is a story behind almost everything we sell.   It all belonged to someone at sometime. I hope that the majority of times, the circumstances under which someone is selling, is as happy as the circumstances under which someone else is buying! Rob

what a day!

What a great way to start off the new year! We had one of our largest auctions ever in Pottageville!  220 registered bidders and we sold 761 lots! Selling in two rings for part of the day, but even with that, the sale lasted 8 hours. We had another very good offering and I was anticipating a big crowd .Very high traffic to this website, in fact we had the most visits in one day ever, on the day before this auction.  I watch the website traffic and hopefully this gives me an indication of what size crowd to expect. I told my sister to prepare for a very busy food booth, and sure enough, they had their best day ever as well! Prices overall were strong from beginning to almost the end.  Primitives selling well, overall fair to strong prices on the furniture, and the unusual items still continue to sell well. There were a lot of new faces at the auction, and this is always very encouraging.  Although I sometimes wonder what it must be like for someone coming to one of these auctions for the first time.  Wall to wall people, two rings selling at once for part of the sale, hectic and at times noisy….I hope it is not too overwhelming for the first timers!  If you were there for the first time and did find it a little overwhelming…don’t worry, they are not always like that! It takes a lot of work to set up and carry out an auction this size.  Most of my staff put in a ten or eleven hour setup day, and about the same auction day.  By the time we clean up the hall and leave, its almost 8:00 o’clock, and that can make for a long day. That’s why I like to take the time to thank everyone involved.  They do their jobs very well in order to make it all run smoothly.  What may seem chaotic at times, is actually a pretty well run effort.  We sell  non-stop for 8 hours straight without any down time or delays.  My wonderful staff keep it all on track for me, and for that I am grateful! So I am going to keep this entry on the short side.  Even though it is just the day after the auction as I write this, I have to start doing the paperwork for this auction, and then start getting the Feb 18 auction ready. Although I may just spend  a fair bit of tonight watching TV and relaxing…and then start the paperwork Monday! For A Video Presentation Of This Auction Click Here Rob

a few “tweaks” here and there.

I just wanted to share an email I received today.  I will give you some background first. It was brought to my attention that anyone using an iphone or tablet could not scroll down the photo gallery on my website.  All they could see were the first four photos. I would like to redesign my photo gallery, but in the meantime I posted a link to my photo gallery hosted on another website.  All the photos are on one page, so they can be viewed with an iphone or tablet.  This is a temporary measure, but still effective. For those using a table top or lap tap computer the old photo gallery still offers the largest photos. So here was the very nice email.   “Many thanks for the Tablet compatible picture set. Very clear and user friendly. Your prompt response to new technological changes continues to reinforce that you sincerely are appreciative of the needs of your customers. It is no wonder that your auctions have the reputation within the province as some of the most honest on the market today.”   I do try to make this website as informative and useful as possible, and it is certainly nice to hear the efforts are appreciated! I will keep striving to make this website, and of course the actual auctions, as good as I possibly can. What fun would it be if I didn’t? Rob

it seems like I was saying that just 6 months ago!

So another year passes and of course a time to reflect. Firstly, I would like to thank you all for  another record year!  Not a huge increase in sales over 2010, but an increase never the less.  Also a record year for the numbers attending our sales, and of course a record year for the traffic to this website. We sold 8169 lots this year, and that gives me a pretty good idea of what is “hot” and what is “not”.  Keep in mind that most antique items fit into the “decorative” category. Trends in decorating change, and the antique market is not immune to that.  Naturally prices fluctuate depending on demand.  Many older collectors are now downsizing, and there is an abundance of some items coming onto the market.  That of course will affect the selling price if suddenly there is an over abundance of a certain type of item. Many younger buyers are renting or living in smaller homes than their parents did, and they may not have the need for larger pieces of furniture.  Compact, practical items may be what they are looking for.  Back in the 1980’s and 90’s many people were trying to fill very large homes.  The demand for big pieces was strong…think of the people trying to fill large foyers in their homes.  Now many of those people are downsizing, so that again will affect value and demand. Unusual, quality items, still will sell well.  If it is an “upgrade” item, there is still strong demand. This year I noticed an increase in the attendance at our auctions, and also an increase in the number of new faces.  That is very important in this business, and I work very hard to make sure  I am constantly reaching new people. I want people to enjoy their time at our auctions.  We try and keep them fast paced and entertaining.  An auction should be an interesting event, and something people look forward to attending.  If you can spend a day or night at an auction, have fun and get some great deals, than I consider that a win-win situation! Looking ahead to the new year, I am working on a few changes.  Of course I am trying to eliminate the low demand items and work on upgrading the quality of the auctions.  When I look at the average price per lot, we have seen a 40% increase over the last 5 years.  Of course that doesn’t mean a  $100 item now sells for $140.  What it indicates is, the quality of the items and therefore the average selling price is increasing.  That is the direction I want to go in, and I am doing whatever I can to make that happen. Every year I say I want to make the sales smaller, so for the record I will say that again.  However, don’t hold me to it!  My staff just roll their eyes and mutter when I say I am going to try and do that.  Maybe this year I will surprise them! One of the positive comments I often get is regarding the photos I post on-line.  I spend a lot of time on the photos, and probably much more time than most auctioneers would.  However,  they have become one of the trademarks of my business, and I am not planning to change that.  I present our auctions in a very visual way, rather than a very detailed text oriented way.  That’s why I have photos of past auctions results, video presentations etc.  I want people to be able to watch the sale develop on-line through the photos.  You can keep checking this website right up to a few days before the sale, and will almost always see additional photos. So in summary, I am anticipating an interesting year in 2012.  I have a gut feeling there is going to be some big changes in the local auction business.  I can’t totally express why I think there are going to be some big changes, but it is just a feeling I have.  Let’s wait and see. However, on our part I will continue to work hard to bring you the best auctions I can.  I will try and make them entertaining and interesting, and something you look forward to attending! Have a great new year! Rob IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS ABOUT THIS OR ANY OTHER ARTICLE, FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME AT rob@robsageauctions.com  ALWAYS NICE TO HEAR FROM YOU!

what can I say?

Donnie wearing the “Dame Edna” glasses.  He couldn’t find his, so one of our customers provided him with this pair.  Donnie, Donnie, Donnie…what would we do without him?