Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Auction

I went to a hotel auction on Bow Trail today.  It was a pretty fun way to spend an hour and a pretty crappy way to spend 5 hours.

I guess that the hotel was built sometime in the late 60's- early 70'2, and so a lot of the stuff was crap.  People did get good deals on dishes, and things of that nature.  The best deal I saw was for a pair of commercial dryers that went for $200.00 each.  I paid that much for my second-hand home dryer.  I found myself wishing that I had a lot more stuff to dry.  I get the feeling that they could be re-sold for  a much bigger amount.

Not all of the stuff at the hotel was from the hotel, there was some new furniture as well.  There was a set of brand new leather couches that I actually bid on.  I offered $1200.00 for a couch, love seat and chair.  It would have been a steal of a deal.  Even though I knew I would be outbid, I was  a little nervous putting myself out there for $1200 without talking to Tracie.  The winning bid was $1600, but there was a 15% buyers premium and GST on top of that, so really, the person probably didn't get that good of a deal, at least not if you are willing to shop around the furniture stores and look for a bargain at Sears or The Bay or whatever.

In any case, after standing there for the whole afternoon, I feel like I have been through the ringer.  It was probably about 10 or 15 degrees warmer in the hotel than it was outside.  I can't even imagine how the auctioneers feel.  Even though they were taking turns, the must have been about ready to pass out the entire time.

-Gary Milner,   $2, $2, do I hear $3?

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