I haven’t attended a ton of auctions in my time. Most of them have been for family members that passed away, so the kids were trying to get rid of all the stuff they had around the house. Old toys. Old magazines. Especially old farm tools and implements, many of which were rusted beyond any usefulness.
This past weekend, Brooke’s Dad and I went by an auction hosted by a guy getting rid of some collectibles, among other things. So, in some ways, this was my first auction for things I could actually have some interest in owning. He had an assortment of different items available, ranging from movie posters and artwork, to yard equipment, to two boats and a van, and so on.
It was very interesting seeing what people pay for things, especially prints. One guy spent $20 on a framed picture of Marilyn Monroe. Not signed. Not a particularly nice frame. Just a picture. Signed posters of sports “stars” (as in, I’d never heard of these people) from a car dealership in Independence, MO ranged from $10 – $30 or so. An oil-on-canvass portrait of some random guy sold for $300 to a man who looked slightly older than me. Surely he had some idea of what that thing was really worth, as the tears and condition of the painting made “$300” look like “too much.”
We arrived after most of the cooler things had already sold. The Corvette shown above had a photocopy of a magazine listing values for such things, placing the car in the $15,000 to $24,000 range. No clue if it actually sold for anywhere near that. It was a Pace Car in the 70th Indianapolis 500 and looked like it was in pretty good condition. There were a few small children’s cars that had already sold, as well. I didn’t take pictures, as they were being loaded up by the time we got there. They were your “Flintstones“-type vehicle, where your feet would propel you forward as you sat in this metal and wood contraption. Looked cool and was surely antique.
I think Mark was interested in the Betty Boop waitress statue. It was maybe 5 feet tall and looked to be in great shape. We couldn’t tell how much it eventually sold for, but we were told that someone called in a bid of $2000 for it. Not the kind of money I would pay, but still…good to know how much I need to save up if I eventually want something like it.
All in all, it was a worthwhile experience. We were only there for maybe 30 min, and that was all we needed to tell that most of the interesting stuff had already sold, and most of what was left wasn’t worth much to us.
It’s just interesting to know that what isn’t worth anything to us is worth something to someone else.