March Auction Under Our Belt

and a few observations

Thanks to everyone who attended our March27 auction.  Another good crowd, and overall good prices, so hopefully the 24 different consignors involved all were pleased.  Some did very well, others maybe just “ok”, but of course that is the nature of auctions. It always surprises me how prices can fluctuate from month to month and from one auction to another. Last month we sold a certain piece for $220, and this month another very similar piece for $120.  I couldn’t really see much difference.  On the other hand, we had one piece that was purchased at another auction two months ago, and we got 10 times the purchase price in our auction! Another thing I noticed rather quickly, was the prices on some of our primitive and country items seemed lower than previous auctions.  Primitives have been our strong selling items and I thought this time they seemed a little flat.  The dark formal furniture was stronger in price, and Royal Doulton figurines, which have been very low lately, were stronger in price than previous auctions. This auction we had a smaller crowd than we had in our January and Feb auctions, but I expected that.  We had some good auctions happening on Saturday, and as we get into the nicer weather, Saturdays become very busy, and a little harder to draw the big crowds.  This was our last Saturday auction until October.  Our next auction in April will be a Monday night, and then when we get back to Cookstown in late May, the sales will be Friday night in May and June. I actually wanted a little smaller crowd than the last couple of auctions, and deliberately had fewer items to sell. Feb was over 700 lots and this sale was cut down to just over 500 lots, so it was a shorter sale with a little more breathing room in the hall!  Previous sales this year were actually too big and too crowded so this past one was a nice break for all involved! Another observation was the number of new faces to the auction.  This is very encouraging, because as much as I value our regular customers, it is still very important to have new buyers.  Also I noticed many younger buyers, and that is important too.  It just proves that not everyone under 40 shops at Ikea! So now it is time to start doing the paperwork, and start lining up merchandise for the April 26^th auction.  It is the time of year when people are moving, downsizing and settling estates, so the phone keeps on ringing, and hopefully there will be some great items coming our way again!