My First Estate Auction

I tried a new thing on Saturday night and it was so much fun! We have a local Auction house here in Jacksonville and they were having an auction on Saturday afternoon and night. I had gone in earlier in the week to see if they still had a quilt that I wanted to get and of course it was gone, but I did find out about the auction so it was all good.

I headed down the street at 3:15 to go get my number and see what else they had. See you have to go early and check out what you want. Look at it, tell yourself how much you want to pay, and just look at all the stuff they are going to be selling that night. I guess it is kinda like eBay, but only live and in person. I got my auction number "191" and I was set. I found a place to sit and it was cold! and another thing that I learned real quick is that this is a gray-haired thing to do. I have finally discovered what old people do with their time and money! They spend it on way old things that they remember when they were NEW!

The auction finally got started at 4 pm and people were off spending money. It was almost too fun to watch all of these older people spend money. They were bidding on jewelery, glass wear, hutches and more. The people sitting behind me dropped $850 for a hutch!!! Holy Cow. Guess you get to do that when you are older. Then a cute lady in front of me was so proud that she won a 3 stringed pearl bracelet with a pink stone for $10.50!! She even had her husband put it on her right away!

But I was there for the quilts, some preschool chairs, and a sleeper sofa. I had my one blank check but had no idea how much I could spend. It was probably better that way since I was too scarred to spend too much! The quilts finally came up for auction and it was my turn to finally use that card that was gathering dust in my lap. It was nice and very colorful but I didn't want to spend more than $10 on it and it went for $12.50. Oh well the next quilt was a guy type of quilt made with lots of darker colors and very warm. Remember it was very cold in the place so I needed something to keep me warm so I could keep bidding! Well turns out that it is fun to win something and I got my quilt for $22.50. The tag on it the person wanted $39.99, so I feel like I got a deal!

I kept warm until the dish set that would be so nice in the kitchen came up. It was 82 pieces of a nice stone set with a pretty cream and yellow, but it went for more than I was willing to pay. Making that check for too much is what I was worried about, so I didn't spend the $65 for the dishes that I really wanted. Hope that the other lady enjoys them.

Then I was able to get the auction guys to put up the little chairs that I wanted for the playroom. They are the super nice hard plastic seats with metal legs. The ones that you usually find in schools. I got a steal for 2 at only $10!!!

By this time of the evening the auction guys are asking for requests. That means that if you want to bid on something tell them and they will get it up for you. Well I wanted the sleeper sofa in the back! and I guess another lady did too. The auctioneer wanted to start it off at $100 and then the price started to drop because no one was bidding. I offered up a price of $30 to start and the lady quickly put it up to $35 and then I went to $40 and it was over! She was mad because she didn't want to pay more than $35 and the couch was mine for $40! A rather large sleeper sofa was mine for $40!

I have found a great place that sells decorator fabric for a very good price, so I am going to get some and try my hand at redoing the sleeper in the next month or so. It just needs a little love to look new again. The bed isn't all that great, but it is way better than sleeping on the floor for visitors!

That was it and I had to take my few purchases home and tell Steve that I spent a whole $86!! Not bad for a fun night at the auction! Steve, I think, felt a little sad that he was the one that got to stay home with the girls, but next time we are getting a sitter and are going to make it a date night. Of course we will have a limit and see what deals we can get. Who knows what treasures we will find for next time. Auctions are so much fun!!!