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To make a sorrowful story short, I went to get a cup of coffee since it would be a while before the auctioneer would get to the next item I wanted to bid on. I could hear the stem break on the dish all the way across the building as the children whom I had paid no attention to were running and playing in front of the chair I had set in. I learned a valuable lesson that day, when you win the bid on an item at a auction you are responsible for that item as soon as you get your hands on it. I glued the stem back on that dish and still have it as a reminder of my own inexperience costly as it was.
KEEP A BOX HANDY OR ANOTHER PERSON TO WATCH OVER YOUR ITEMS YOU BUY. Thankfully there are a few auction houses that tend to take care of the people who frequent their auctions. There is one in central Kentucky in a small town called Mt. Sterling and one in Tennessee I have visited and as the bidding is finished on a item it is placed in a secure area of the auction house with your number on it. This makes the day even better, your items are safe and you can enjoy the entire auction without being hassled with keeping up with the items you have bought. At the end of the auction or whenever you want to leave you simply go to the area were you pay and your items are brought out to you.
There is one aspect of estate sales that needs to be addressed and that is what kind of people go to estate sales. There will always be family there, friends of the family and the locals who always go to all the sales to pick up items for themselves. There is also another group that will be at most auctions. The antique collectors and shop owners. It takes a few sales before you can figure out who everyone is but it is important that you learn to make the distinction, especially when bidding.
You are there to get a bargain the same as they are, BUT!! They are experienced buyers and will take a bid to its limit If they see they are not going to get the item I have witnessed these people continue bidding on an item against a novice just to get the price out of reason and stopping just before the novice gives up. There is another type of bidder you cannot outbid on and you have to watch out for this bidder. The person is one who has a lot of expendable money and likes to buy on impulse. You cannot outbid this person and in most cases it is a female in her forties or fifties. This is the person who will give you the most competition at bidding. If you are there to find bargains to resale then you will have to let the impulse bidder take the lead and either wait until they run out of money or bid on items they don’t want.
NOW I will mention the auction that has a group of family members present in large numbers, for the most part use this auction as a education and stay there all day and watch. If the family is one of those who do not get along then you should get along out the front door, fist fights and guns can be the results of this auction. If the family is just there to bid on the family heirlooms and get along stay and watch. For the most part the items will be bid out of sight by the family members, but there will still some bargains you might get especially near the end of the auction. Usually there will be a member of the local police force at the auction thus giving you a clue as to want may happen.
If you are bidding against a person who is a shop owner or is an antique collector then you have to be careful when to stop bidding. For example you are bidding on a McCoy dish and you notice that everyone else has dropped out of the bidding except you and one other person. You have noticed that this person has bid on quite a lot of the glassware and was successful on most bids. You want the dish and keep on raising your bid, The other person suddenly steps out of the picture and you have the dish. More than likely you have bid more than the dish is worth on the open market, so I hope you intend to keep it. The auctioneer will start the auction on a particular item higher than he knows it will start. He does this the get the highest price possible for the item and to save time on getting rid of the piece.
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