Saturday I went to an estate auction. Technically it was a living estate auction because the woman whose stuff it was had moved to a nursing home.

The weather was not cooperative - windy, cold, and finally some sun but still windy. People showed up in shorts and no jackets because the day before was in the 70s, and some of them didn't realize that auctions involve hours of standing around in whatever weather there is.



I am sure you are wondering what the orange living room furniture sold for, it went for $5. In the distance you can see a 4 foot tall box containing the fiber optic Christmas tree I bought for $2.50 and my two lounge chairs with yellow cushions that sold for $5 each.

It was so cold that one young couple bought a box of socks and things for $2.50 so they would have something to put on their feet. He said the slippers were very comfy.



I know it sounds hokey, but I was thinking of putting one of those electric fireplaces in our cabin with the fireplace that doesn't work very well. A lightbulb makes the embers 'glow' and a fan pushes heat out from an electric coil. I missed getting one at an auction last summer, and had promised myself if I ever saw another one I would try to get it. Nobody else wanted it, so I got it for $5.



The heat comes out pretty good, but the motor that makes the embers flicker makes a lot of noise, so we may try to figure out how to just have light and no flickering. My thought is that cabin guests can use this to take the chill off the room on gloomy days, and if they think it's cheesy, at least it will give them something to laugh at. It's better than a smoking fire place.

The other stuff I bought was big boxes of cleaning supplies and bathroom stuff like bandaids and unopened shampoo and jewelry cleaning and more to be discovered.

The highlight of the auction was this quilt that the woman's son ended up buying because they weren't getting the price he'd been told it was worth.





It was indeed a very fine quilt, excellent condition, and good design, but nobody was in the mood to pay a lot for anything. I have been to auctions where family members have to buy anything they want to remember their loved one by - they didn't get to pick things they wanted from the house, and once we figured this out, we let them have what they wanted without bidding them up.

I have been to other auctions where people were grabbing up everything to sell on eBay, so I would sometimes bid them up just so they wouldn't have such a huge profit margin to gloat about. Once in awhile this backfires and I end up with the item, but I have learned not to bid on anything I don't want at some level.

It was one of the better auctions I have been to lately because the bad weather forced them to move quickly and it ended about 1:30 pm. Usually they drag on to 4 pm or so, with a 10 am start time, which makes for a long day.