Everything is pretty much in “winter mode” in this area of the country and nowhere is that more obvious than in the auction listings of the local papers. The Friday supplement of one paper that has fifteen to twenty pages of auction listings in the summer has two pages of listings today.
That’s not much to pick from, but within those two pages are, what look like, three excellent auctions tomorrow. All three start at 10 in the morning, are between 70 and 100 miles from Grand Forks, and pretty spread out.
I’ll be leaving Grand Forks about 7 tomorrow morning for the 75 mile trip to the first one, which is for the estate of a long-time collector, in Moorhead, MN.
From the auction bill it looks as though there will be plenty of advertising tins, old magazines, books (many about Mn. & ND history), some nice pottery, and other misc. advertising items.
I’ll have 45 minutes to an hour to decide on what I’m interested in and leave bids for those items with the auctioneer before jumping back in the Explorer and driving another 40 to 50 miles to Kindred, ND for what will hopefully be the best auction of the day.
This auction is a combination of items from a turn of the century dry goods store located in Kindred and estate property from a family that originally homesteaded near Kindred in 1865. This one is loaded with a lot of old advertising items, paper, books, glassware, pottery, furniture, stoneware, and plenty more.
It sounds as though it’s received a fair amount of national advertising so there are sure to be plenty of die-hard collectors and dealers in attendance. That probably means most things will go for more than I’m willing to pay but I’ve talked to the auctioneer and he assures me there’s plenty of misc. paper stuff from the dry goods store and I’m hoping, if nothing else, I’m able to get a lot of it.
The third sale is in Bagley, Mn. which is about 70 miles in the opposite direction from Grand Forks. I’ve talked to the auctioneer’s wife and it sounds as if there are a number of things I’d be interested in so Arlene will be leaving here for that one about 8 tomorrow morning.
She will have a list of the items I’m interested in , notes about the maximum I’m willing to pay for them, and instructions to use her cell phone if she’s not sure about the condition they are in.
Whenever she does this it can get somewhat interesting, because she has a tendency to both develop “auction-fever” at times and also deciding I should own things I had no idea I wanted.
It will be interesting to see how the day goes. Hopefully we both come home with the backs of our vehicles full.
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