…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
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