I picked up my choice of a couple more beer tap pulls --
I won a mixed lot of random brass/copperware, which included several oil cans and other interesting items --
...one of the items in that lot requires further research. It is a (formerly) silver-lined drinking mug, with various stamp marks, including "1891" and "VR" (Queen Victoria) --
My wife lost out on her favorite of the various flats of miniature oil lamps, a type of collectible which first came to our attention earlier this year when visiting the oil-lamp-rich Amish area of Ohio. However, she approached the winning bidder and offered him $5 for the one that she liked the most, and was able to make a sweet deal --
I won a heavy jar filled with WWII-dated US coins; most of these were pennies (both copper and 1943 steel ones), but there were also several silver dimes and other valuable ones --
Ever since I was a kid, I have always likes those stupid bronze-coated cheap pencil sharpeners (don't judge me!!) and used to always pick one up as a souvenir on our family vacations. I don't know what happened to the ones I owned, but I always look at them when I see them in antique stores or flea markets. So, naturally, I could not resist bidding on (and winning) this lot of them when they came up for auction.
I picked up a lot of die-cast metal models and plastic model parts --
Specifically for decorating one of our bedrooms, my wife picked up an attractive framed canvas print...
...as well as an interesting lamp...
She also scored a mysterious large (oil?) can--
...as well as a quaint children's picnic basket --
While it turned out to be a nightmare for the two of us to transport, we also scored an extremely large and useable cabinet --
Possibly one of the best values I have ever found at an auction is the "choice" pair of pocket watches I picked after my winning bid of $8 each. One of these had a $100 price tag on the back, but I think that was a pipe dream of the former owner. A quick trip to Walgreens for a replacement battery, and the "$100" watch is now my everyday timepiece.
With the evil intent of making this into the perfect too-big-to-be-good wrapped gift for our family's Christmas "Yankee Swap" tradition, I bid on a large velvet painting of a Doberman pinscher. I am unsure whether I am happy or sad that I dropped out of the bidding... but my family members can breathe a sigh of relief. Or perhaps not, as now I have a goal...
But... without any doubt, the biggest attraction of the night were the dozens of up for auction. Among the life-sized items were a witch and the torso (just from the waist-up) of a horned demon. EVERYTHING was impressive -- but when the bidding started, the crowd became rowdy, mischievous and silly. The auction was by "choice," which meant that the high bidder got his/her pick of any of the items, as many as they wanted, at that price per item. The item handlers started getting goofy running around with the "ghosts" and severed limbs, and the audience would shout out their opinions of which items the winning bidder should select. Sometimes these multiple-hour auctions gets tiresome, but this one was ironically infused with life while fighting over icons of death.
I was only able to get two winning bids. For the higher "choice," I picked both the full-body battery-powered crawling zombie...
...and spooky [B]spook[B]. This following photo was taken after I stored the spook in the rear of my garage. This means that when I back my car into my garage space, THIS is what I see in my rear-view mirror. Every night.--
When the bids got lower, I was again able to jump in, and picked up this worm-riddled skull with juicy rubber brain --
Later, one of the winners was trying to divest himself of some of the unwanted items he had acquired within a large box won during the Hallowe'en decoration bonanza. I accepted from him the gift of a small winged demon --
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