Two auctions in one day

After helping Dan unload his hay west of town, I drove east of town to attend an auction. It was mainly a horse and horse related auction at a small arena.

The auction started at 10 am and I never arrived until almost 11 am. Normally arriving an hour late isn't a big deal as the small stuff sells first, but as this was not a household auction, they had didn't have much small stuff. I missed out on buying the cross-country skis as they were already sold. When I arrived they were at some corral panels. The panels were what I was interested in.

It turns out they had just sold a group of panels. The buyer did not take all of them so they were offering the rest to other buyers at the winning bid. A few people had taken one or two here and there. I was trying to figure out what was going on, what the bid was, get a look at the panels, and thinking if I could use any as a gate (which is what I thought they were initially). The panel had a small people sized gate inside it. I was trying to determine where I could use this length of panel. Before I could strongly decide (I was leaning towards buying two of them), the auctioneer restarted the bidding. This time the person had to buy the remaining 8 panels. I found initially the panels had gone for $75 each. This time the wining bid was $62.50.

No panels for me. In the end it was ok as after I had a chance to look at the panels I found they were panels and it would take some extra work to make use of them as a gate. Still with my loading corral rebuild I could have used one just to have a small extra gate. Oh well.

As this appeared to be an arena and horse boarding facility lots of multiple horse related stuff was for sale.

They had 52 solid panel dividers. One person bought all of them at $180 each. That is over $9,000. These panels are the blueish panels in the photo.

Other items sold for relatively high prices. The winning bid was a little cheaper than buying new, but sometimes it seemed like by not much. It seems that horse people pay good money at auctions. I've noticed that at other auctions I have attended where there were lots of horse related stuff. Today I was shut out of everything I had an interest in.

Once the equipment was sold they moved inside the arena to sell 30 horses. That's when I decided to leave and attend another auction.



As I left I walked by a large corral with a huge big black bull. He wasn't for sale. There is a difference in how a bull and a steer looks at a person. There is no fear in a bull's eyes.



Auction 2

I hadn't planned on attending the second auction as it was in Bigfork, about 30 miles from my place. But as I was east of town already and partway there, and feeling frustrated at being shut out at the horse related auction,I drove to Bigfork.

This auction was of a building company selling out now that they completed their development. Perhaps there was something I could use. The ad did mention lots of water faucets and I could use another one.

The auction started at 10 am and I arrived several hours. The faucets were already sold.

Things seemed to be selling for reasonable prices. I looked around. A few things here and there caught my interest so I got a bidding number and stayed.

The crowd had lots of building contractors judging by their coats and clothes with their company's names on them. And a different crowd as I didn't recognize anyone. Another difference was the auctioneer was a woman. That is not a common sight. She was good.

When they got closer to what I was interested they split into two auctioneering groups to speed up the auction. The problem was I wanted stuff in each group and both groups sold the stuff about the same time.

I ended up with nothing. I was interested in several nicely framed prints from the company's office. I figured since the main items were building tools and supplies the office stuff wouldn't sell for much. Where did the women come from? The prints sold for much more than I expected. The winning bids were not outrageous but more than I wanted to pay. They were in the $50 to $100 range.

While the prints were being sold the pallet with the boxes of bolts and nuts was sold and I missed out. I seen the winning bidder's number was the auctioneer's number. He had bid well on the pallets of nails shutting me out. I imagine he did the same on the pallets of bolts.

I watched as they finished the pallets of miscellaneous stuff and worked through the boneyard. There was a a very long 6" by 12" beam. it may have been 30 ft long. I thought it would work as a replacement to the sagging pole above my driveway. But how to get it home? I didn't seriously consider buying it and wouldn't ya know, it and a number of other miscellaneous wood and stuff all sold for $2.50. Ah well, I tried lifting the beam and it was too heavy to lift. if I did try to use it above my driveway I would have to get some equipment to lift it high, and perhaps get new posts to support it.

Since this sold for $2.50, and few people were around to bid, I figured I would get the pile of steel posts cheap. They were all used and a little rusted with various sizes. A handful of people around and two bidders wanted the posts. I didn't get them, though I didn't try too hard as I have plenty now after getting those from Tony.

Two and a half hours spent here and I came up empty handed. Two auctions and nothing bought. I am feeling bummed as much of the day was spent at the auctions and I have stuff to do at the ranch before winter comes and the snow flies.