More Adventures with The Pickers

So Team Plack is really rolling with the Picking of treasures for my store.  My students in thrift store/estate sale picking (Cara and Tony; Pia is too busy and Katie wouldn't be caught dead...) are developing a keen eye for a knitting/crochet pattern and now shove me aside as soon as we enter a thrift store while they head straight to the crafts aisle.

We tried something new last Sunday: an auction.  I've never been to one (at least not one that isn't a highfalutin' fundraising event for some school) so we weren't sure what to expect.  But they advertised "boxes of needlecraft magazines" so we needed no further encouragement to hit the road to Moscow, ID.

It was ... interesting.  On entering the building, we found dozens of tables of "treasures" (aka crap to anyone who wasn't in search of said treasures).  Everything from a hay rake to junk jewelry.  We quickly scoped out our items (only 2 boxes I was really interested in), got our number and settled in.

We were a bit dismayed to realize that MANY of the items were going to be auctioned off individually when the first thing up for bids was a pair of earrings.  That meant that OUR boxes were going to come up at about 9:30 pm unless we acted fast.  So I cornered auction boy Jerome and let him know we wanted to bid on 2 boxes and he brought them up to the front.  About an hour later, we were the winners of a big box of McCall's Needlework mags from the 50s and 60s for ten bucks.  Plus a wheelbarrow that somehow caught our attention, for another ten bucks.

Tony realized a second too late that he really wanted this cool railroad lamp.  Next time, Pooh Bear!

Here's a smidge of video of our auctioneer in action:

I had a great time, I'd definitely go again.