The Auction

I hope this story of the auction at our convention is worth the wait.

On Thursday night, the opening night of the convention, there was a beautiful Hawaiian reception and then at 9:30pm the Live Auction started.

If you have never been to a REAL live auction you won't really appreciate the pressure that builds up when you are there. The auctioneer does this for a living, he is hired to get the maximum amount of money he can for the item he is auctioning off, no matter what it takes sometimes. This auction was no different.

We have never really been able to participate in these auctions before due to our financial situation but this year was different. Eventhough we hadn't talked about buying anything we both figured we could at least take the chance. There were several things at the auction we both liked but nothing we felt like we HAD TO HAVE.

There were about 50 things to be auctioned off. They ranged from sports collectables to trips to jewelry. I think I figured if I saw something I liked that wasn't being bid on I would bid. We weren't real serious so we only got one bidding paddle for the two of us.

The auction got started and one of the first things to be auctioned off was a Babe Ruth collectable item. It was the trading agreement to the Red Sox, along with a picture of him framed and matted. It was neat but not something either of us would have picked. A friend of ours who was also there did want it, she started bidding on it and Jim decided to mess with her a little bit AND get the bid up so he started bidding against her. The mix between the fun, excitement and ego got to him. She bid $400 he bid $450 she bid $500 he bid $550 the bid got higher and higher, she was getting more and more hestitant as she bid, and I finally got Jim's attention and gave him the eye that that was enough, he bid $750 and she reluctantly bid $800. The auctioneer kept pressuring Jim "$850, $850, $850, $850?", Jim shook his head "NO" and finally the auctioneer confirmed with Jim that he had bid $750. when Jim nodded yes the auctioneer said they had two and he would let them both buy one for the $750 bid. My jaw dropped a little and Jim was shocked. Our friend gave Jim a playful dirty look because he had cost her more money and I gave Jim a kind of dirty look because he had COST us money, but it was all for a good cause and fun too so I figured I would just get even.


The very next thing that was up for auction was a Phil Mickelson (a golfer) collectable, it is framed with a coupleof pictures of him and his signature. Again not something I would have normally cared about but when the bidding started it was pretty low. I figured my dad would like it and so I started bidding. Nobody else really bid against me so I got it for $450. Jim laughed at me and I went and paid for it.

There were several other things that we really liked, like a couple guitars one signed by Van Halen and one by Carlos Santana I would have rather had those but we had already spent our money.

The other thing we REALLY liked was a framed collectable of the Rat Pack. It had a picture of them and all of their signatures it was framed and matted, really classy. It was coming up for bid and I told Jim he could bid up to a certain amount ($1300) - he must have been super excited because the opening bid came and the auctioneer said "do I hear 5-5-5-" and before he even finished Jim raised his paddle then he finished "5-THOUSAND" I ALMOST DIED!!! Jim did too (he thought it was $500), I grabbed the paddle out of his hand and he turned white. I sat on the paddle and we both prayed for a moment desperately thinking about how we were going to pay for this.

That moment recalls in my mind like it was a million years but in reality it was a second or two. Finally someone else bid and the thing got up to $6500, the auctioneer turned to Jim again pressuring him to bid higher and I was giving the meanest look I could and again the auctioneer tried to verify with Jim his prior bid. I began to realize he was going to try to make us buy that too, they must have had a duplicate. I looked at the auctioneer with the meanest look I could muster and mouthed "HE MADE A MISTAKE". The auctioneer saw that I was serious and turned and declared the other bidder the winner.

I was immediately relieved but Jim couldn't shake the nervousness off. We left the auction not too long after that, as I think we had reached our "fun" limit. We went back to the room and Jim couldn't calm down. It is funny to look back now, but also scary thinking of what we would have had to do to get that $5000.

We are happy with our auction items and are going to put both of them in our conference room at work.

That is definitely a story we will be telling for a while.