Saturday, September 13, 2008

Greatest Auction Ever



Today Lee Ann and I spent most of the day at an auction close to Xenia, Ohio. A doctor had sold his 1827 farm house and was auctioning things that he could not take as he retires to North Carolina. It was the perfect auction in terms of contents since he had collected a lot of interesting old stuff - and because there was a small crowd and things were going cheap! Here is a list of what we bought:
  • An antique wall phone (see picture) stealthily converted with modern internals (there is a number keypad under the little note shelf) - $50
  • A box of six porcelain door knob and shaft sets, complete - $15
  • A copper and brass riveted-shell fire extinguisher (the big size) - $15
  • A box of brownware, including a classic brownware pitcher - $3
  • A room-sized oriental carpet - $17.50
  • Two old porch posts, five antique cabinet doors, a cabinet frame and some pieces of house gingerbread - $26

The best deal came at the end. When the auctioneer finished, I asked about a giant stash of oak lumber and trim molding stashed in the barn loft. (The material is left over from the owner's hobby of building cabinets, plus material he used in restoring his old house.) For $10 he is letting me take all I want. I don't know how much I will get - there must be 10 pickup truckloads of material - but with trim molding going for $1 a foot or more at Home Despot and a single oak 1" x 4" x 8' board worth probably $10 retail I will get my money's worth in the first 30 seconds when I start loading it up tomorrow. My mind is reeling - I keep pinching myself and hoping it was not all a dream.

1 comment:

Dave said...

17.50 for a room size rug does sound like a bargain, sounds like it was the greatest auction ever. Thanks for the entry!