Finally, our first auction in Pottageville….

a rough start, but it all worked out!

A big thank you to everyone who showed up for our first sale at the Pottageville Community Centre!  I must admit, I think by most standards the sale was a big success…it certainly was everything I hoped it would be! This will be one of the most memorable sales I have every conducted…mostly due to the fact that it was cancelled last minute on Sept 24th, and so this was the date we re-scheduled. When you consider the fact that we completely set up a 500 lot auction, and then had to repack and restore everything because of the cancellation, and then had to move it all down to the hall again and set it all up two weeks later…it was an incredible amount of work to make this sale happen!  (hopefully I will never be forced to cancel a sale again…we got a lot of publicity because of what happened…but still never want it to happen again!). I do not choose to do holiday weekend sales, but this was the soonest date I could reschedule.  I admit we had a lot of competition with other good auctions to the north, east and west of us, and of course it is a busy weekend with Thanksgiving, but we had a good turn out and overall strong prices throughout the auction. I had some very good quality, large  furniture pieces and I was concerned about what prices they would bring.  Much to my relief, on most pieces, the selling price reflected the appreciation for the quality of the pieces.  That’s all I can ask for, and overall I was pleased with the results. Primitives were in abundance in this auction, and once again, overall I felt the prices were strong. Glass and china as always is up and down in price, and we all have to live with a new reality when it comes to the value of some glass and china. Most other items fell into the expected price range with some nice surprises and of course some disappointments, but we all know that is the nature of auctions.  There are winners and losers, but we just hope it all averages out. After 14 years doing sales in our Bond Head location, this was a bit of a gamble for me to change venues, but I was pretty confident it would work out well.  The response I have received so far, has all been positive concerning the facilities, parking etc in Pottageville.  Customers liked the seating arrangements, and overall spaciousness of the hall.  I am confident this will be our venue for many more years to come!  (at least I hope so). The demographics of the crowd changed as I expected it would.  Many more people from the south and east of us, just about the same percentage from west of us, but a significant drop from the north of us.  Of course it is a longer drive (about 10 minutes), for those from the north, and combined with the fact that there were two other good auctions to the north of us, I am sure made a  difference.  However, over the next few months I think the northern crowd will join us in significantly higher numbers.  The inescapable fact is, when you change venues you obviously will be closer to some of your regular customers, and further from others.  However, the serious buyers will be there regardless. So despite a rocky and memorable debut, I am very pleased with our new venue and very excited about the future there.  I truly believe this new location will continue to bring out good consignments and that of course will bring out good buyers. I am keeping my fingers crossed, but so far the future looks good! IF YOU HAVE ANY COMMENTS ABOUT THIS BLOG OR ANY PAST BLOG PLEASE EMAIL ME AT rob@robsageauctions.com.  I AM ALWAYS GLAD TO HEAR FROM YOU!