Dig This Treasure!

On Sunday morning, I woke up to the sound of Erin texting me about an auction in Tecumseh that afternoon. Tecumseh is about 25 miles west of where I live, so I was thrilled at the prospect of Erin coming to my side of town. Also, the pictures of looked pretty awesome.

When we arrived, the woman who owned the “gallery” where the auction was taking place mentioned that some of the items pictured online might no longer be available. I thought Erin was going to throttle her. After we got our numbers, we walked away and Erin growled, “Is it wrong that I’m really annoyed right now?!?!” I don’t know what she saw online that she thought might be unavailable, but damn girl, calm yourself. 

We walked around and checked everything out. The nice thing about this auction was that they gave everyone a list of items and then went through it in order. This was cool because there were no surprises. You knew when you could go get a snack or go to the bathroom. I didn’t do either of these things but I liked that it was an option. 

We took our seats and got ready for the auction to start. Here was our view:

As you can see, it was not a packed house, which made it even better.

Now, I’ll be honest. When we did our rounds, neither of us saw a whole lot of anything that we HAD to have. But once the bidding began, we quickly realized that the crowd was not willing to pay much for anything there, and there were quite a few valuable items.

One of the first things on the list that I hadn’t noticed displayed was a box of pieces of Bybee Pottery. I know about this pottery because my parents used to collect it. I’ve actually been inside the Bybee store, possibly on more than one occasion. I’ve probably blocked it out of my memory because, as a child, it wasn’t very entertaining to spend hours at a pottery store in Kentucky on a family vacation. Anyway, as an adult I’m thankful for these experiences, because they give me the knowledge I need to make dolla dolla bills, y'all. So yes, Bybee pottery can be valuable, and the people running this auction sort of knew that, but sort of didn’t really. The had the big lot listed as “BB Pottery,” I think because the bottom of Bybee stuff is marked “BB” and they probably found some of those listings on eBay. Anyway, bottom line is–I won a whole moving box of the stuff for $5. I haven’t decided if I’m keeping it or selling it.

The entire auction was very entertaining for a number of reasons. First, Erin and I both had a secret crush (came out on the ride home) on the auctioneer. Second, there were these two women in the front who were serious know-it-alls. They kept chiming in, telling the auctioneer how old things were or what they were used for. It was unreal. But it was also super hilarious.  Everyone would be silent waiting for the auctioneer’s description of an item and then you would just hear this brute woman yell, “THAT’S OVER A HUNDRED YEARS OLD. YES THAT’S VERY NICE.  VERY RARE.” and on and on. Third, it was entertaining because clearly people were SHOCKED that we were willing to pay more than $5 for things that we either wanted or wanted to sell. And finally, the printed list of items gave Erin an opportunity to entertain me with drawings. At one point they were auctioning off a lamp and the auctioneer noticed there was a dead spider on it. The worst know-it-all woman proceeded to jump up and yell, “Don’t touch that, it’s a black widow!” Erin and I could not stop laughing. Here is her illustrated response:

In the end, we came out with so much stuff that Erin’s little Jetta was packed to the gills. I have no idea why or how neither of us captured this photographically, but I assure you that the quantity was insane. I even sent this text to Adam after I got home:

I took some risks on the stuff that I got, but the coolest thing by far was this old Monroe adding machine that still has its original cord and works!

I spent five dollars on it and it varies but they do seem to sell for quite a bit of cash on eBay. We’ll see! 

While we were checking out, Erin said that three different women came up to her and said something along the lines of, “SOOOO…eBay, huh?” in a disapproving manner. Clearly these people were 1) used to being able to come to this place and not pay very much for things they wanted and 2) not happy with some youngins comin’ in and sweepin’ up. So the regulars there were not happy about our presence… but you know what? Too bad, y'all!

-Sarah

Update from Erin: OK, yes I was annoyed when we got there.  You can’t be all like HEY PPL WE ARE HAVING AN AUCTION HERE ARE PICS OF ALL THE STUFF WE ARE GOING TO SELL, and then when people drive over an hour to get there, tell them that you already presold a bunch of stuff.  That is like Auction Etiquette 101.  So rude.

But then I started looking around and things looked pretty cool.  I wanted nearly all of the furniture in the place.

I did buy one piece of furniture actually.  This old, primitive trunk was the perfect size for the end of our bed.  We had another trunk there, but it was too big, so sometimes I crashed into it when walking around in the dark.  Plus, this trunk is just so darn cool looking.

I also bid on some junk I didn’t really need, like some vintage frosted glass sundae cups and a bunch of Barry Goldwater campaign memorabilia.  (George was wearing the hat from this lot on Tuesday.)  Everything was so cheap though, I just figured what the heck.

At one point, I tried to buy a Wendy’s frostie off the guy in front of me.  His friend brought him one, and when I saw, I offered him $10 for it.  He was more than willing to take the deal, but I felt kind of bad about it, so I revoked the offer.

The money I saved on the Frostie bought me some pink Depression plates (on ebay now!) and a silver tea set by Sheffield.  Some Sheffield sets sell for hundreds of dollars!  I was excited when I bought this, but it only ended up selling for $32 (I paid $20 for it).

What I did love about this tea set was that it was BLACK when I bought it.  Just totally covered with tarnish.  I planted myself in front of the tv and used silver polish to clean the hell out of it.  It took a few hours, but I was amazed at how shiny the set really was. I found the process of polishing silver really gratifying, so I hope I get to do it again soon.

Alright, so the last thing to mention was the check out process.  Sarah mentioned this, but I’ll reiterate that at least 4 or 5 people walked up to me and said things like, “eBay, huh?”  or “Sooo…eBay?”  or “Must be an eBayer!”  I don’t know when eBay became such a dirty word, but I felt like I had to respond to these people in a hushed tone.  I told a few of them that we keep most of the things we buy (kind of true), but you could tell they were skeptical and disapproving.  

Next time we go to this auction, we will both be wearing scarlet letters.  Sarah in general already wears like 6 scarlet letters, so her letter for being an eBayer might have to be mini sized.  I’ll be wearing mine like Alvin & the Chipmunks.