For the Win
After visiting the Southfield Antique Expo last weekend, I went home and took a brief nap, then met up with my parents to go to my favorite Plymouth auction. My parents had never been to this auction, but they were used to my endless chatter about it being quite the honeyhole. Sarah was planning to join us this evening, but when I arrived and saw the items for sale, I texted her and told her not to come. Everything was REALLY lame.
I was bummed out because I knew how excited my parents were to score some treasures, and it really didn’t look like that was going to happen.
But then Timmy started unrolling some old posters, and realized they were some pretty rare hockey and baseball ones. One poster in particular, of Gordie Howe, was something my dad had only seen one other time. That one, had been all ripped up, and still sold for about $50. The one here at the auction was in mint condition. I knew that we were all in for a long night, and that Timmy was NOT leaving without those posters.
In the meantime, I bid on and won some old glass pharmacy bottles. I paid $5 for all of them, and ended up selling them on ebay a few days later for $20.
Usually at this auction, an item goes up for bidding, and no one wants it. The auctioneers then throw in another item, and so on and so forth, until someone finally bids. At one point, someone ended up buying about 6 huge boxes of glassware for $5. They picked what they wanted out of it, and then announced that anyone who wanted to could come take stuff for free.
I grabbed a nice marble cheese plate, two Pyrex casserole dishes with lids, and this old cookie jar that looks like an orange.
I sold this thing for $14 on ebay already, which isn’t bad for something I got free.
I should also mention that Zach’s parents were at the auction, and his aunt and uncle. Aunt Sue scored some nice dishes out of the free stuff pile, and Zach’s mom bought some nice antique silverplate pieces. Zach’s dad was the winner by far, buying a cool old sword for a mere $40.
But then Timmy’s items came up for bidding, and it was clear he was going to be the night’s champion. He bought a huge lot of the baseball posters for $13 first. Then, the auctioneer tried selling 3 boxes of old hockey video games, VHS tapes, and ephemera. Nobody bid on it, so the auctioneer threw in the Gordie Howe poster. My dad started bidding against another guy, and I thought that the price was going to skyrocket. The other guy bowed out at $16 and it was true happiness for Tim. Here is a sample of the goods, including the desirable poster (far right):
He also got a huge folder with old war papers and documents. Super cool. And in the VHS tapes, he found a film about old Olympia Stadium and its official closing in 1979. He is having it transferred to DVD and keeping it for his collection.
Here’s Tim later that evening, celebrating:
Fun fact is that my dad ONLY drinks Molson Ice beer, which no restaurant has because ANY ice beer is disgusting and embarrassing to order in public. So in this photo, my dad is sampling a craft beer, which he ended up hating, and not ordering. Another fact is that my dad once said, “Who drinks craft beer?” while we were AT a craft brewery, where he then proceeded to try and order a Molson Ice.
-Erin