Saturday, May 15, 2010

Live Auctions: Exhilarating

gavelIf seen auctions in movies and on TV, but I’ve never been to a live auction.  Until today.  Wow!  What an experience.

We were in the market for some new kitchen floor tile and son said that there was a close-out sale at a place he does business with.  Well, it turned out to be an auction, not a sale.  With a fast-talking auctioneer who stood on a ladder as he moved from pallet to pallet of tile.

Luckily, I found a tile I liked and it was in a pile that was going to be auctioned off shortly.  DH & son went and got us registered.  You had to put down $100 cash to register and get a number.  You could only bid if you had registered and had a number.  The registration was refundable in case you didn’t bid on anything or if you wanted to charge your purchase.

Most of the palettes of tile were big lots – 500+ square feet and one I heard was 5,000 square feet and we only needed 131 square feet for our kitchen.  And the tile I liked came 144 square foot in a pile.

When that auctioneer started doing his thing – my, you felt like you just had to buy something.  It was fast & exciting.  Would be easy to get caught up in a frenzy.  The adrenaline was pumping.  And please don’t raise your hand, unless you intend to bid.

DH did the bidding for our small pile of tile – got it for 45¢ a square foot.  That tile originally sold for around  $1.75 a square foot.  I think we got a bargain!  It was such a feeling of euphoria when we “won” our bid!  Just a natural high.

I’ve signed up at the auctioneer’s website to get their newsletter.  I wonder what other auctions will be coming up in the future that might have something I’d be interested in.

I see on their website that they have an auction that will be at a Moving & Storage - 110+ vaults of un-paid storage.  “Vaults opened as they go. Be prepared to make immediate buying decisions.”

gavel2I wonder if any of those vaults hold anything of value?  What are the odds of lucking out on a purchase?  Like having something really good inside the vault.  But, then, they have not paid their bill, so the items might not be that important, or that valuable.  Hmmm, one can only wonder.

4 comments:

Paula, the quilter said...

A friend of mine just bought the contents of a storage unit that went up for auction for non-payment of rent. He paid $150.00 and ended up with thousands of dollars worth of Snap-On tools plus a Harley Davidson motorcycle worth about $8,000. He really lucked out.

Pat said...

My DH is planning on going to the auction of the storage units on Saturday. If he gets lucky, won't that be something to blog about! LOL

Sunnie said...

You really got lucky on that tile! And you'll be glad you have the extra ones, too.
Every time you look at your new kitchen floor, you'll think about the excitement of the auction!

Unknown said...

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