Today I did something I haven’t done for a very long
time. I went to an auction.
Now, in a previous life, very many years ago, I used to
do a little bit of buying and selling with a boyfriend. We did Antique Fairs to
start with and then later had stands in a couple of Antique Centres. It was
only a hobby and when we split up I carried on for a while, but it was too
difficult trying to work full time and get out to auctions and fairs,
especially when I took a day off and came back with nothing.
Recently I got the urge to start poking around in charity shops and antique places
again and then my husband asked me to look out for a couple of things in the
furniture line so I decided to go and have a look at our local weekly
auction. A couple of weeks ago I went to
the Saturday viewing and left some bids but didn’t get anything. This week
there was a little chest of drawers that was just the thing, plus a few boxes
of bits and pieces that I had taken a fancy to so I went along this morning to
try my luck.
I was impressed by my self-discipline. I didn’t bid for anything that I hadn’t looked
at first and I made myself a note of what certain figures turned into by the
time the commission and VAT had been added.
There’s no fear of sneezing and finding you have just
bought an oil painting – you have to register your name and address and prove
your identity, and then they give you a big number on a laminated card which is
how the auctioneer knows who to put the bid down to. If he’s not sure (I’m saying he, because it
was a he where I was, but there are, of course, lady auctioneers about too)
then he will ask if you are bidding.
In my professional life I did bid for houses on behalf of
clients a few times, because they were too nervous to do it themselves, so I was
quite confident about that.
Anyway, I didn’t go mad, I didn’t go over my limits, so I
didn’t get all the things I had hoped for, and, unfortunately, I didn’t get the
piece of furniture which was what started this all off in the first place. I had a nice gap in the catalogue which meant
I could go to the tea room for a bacon roll and a comfort break and a wander
round the market stalls that they have in the grounds there.
Now I’ve got it home I’m wondering whether maybe I have
made a bit of a mistake with some things, but it hasn’t cost me that much and
it has been an interesting experience but I don’t think I will be doing it
again for quite a while!
