[78-L] Bear in mind...

[Steven C. Barr]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Taylor Bowie" <bowiebks at isomedia.com>
> DL wisely pointed out:
>> Some days you eat the bear, some days the bear eats you. Don't worry, I
>> don't
>> have any more wise sayings.
>> Actually these are "traditional" auctions, and this is the way record
>> auctions
>> operated for many years, since you don't know what the next highest bid
>> was.
>> And in the Hawthorns' case, you find out how much you lost by since the
>> "items
>> you didn't win" are enumerated in your invoice (no crying towels
>> included).
> Yes,  I know it's "traditional" but that system is still not a true 
> auction,
> where bidders raise each other or where "the house" does the raising for
> you.  If David bids a dollar and Taylor bids five dollars,  I pay maybe a
> buck-fifty on a real auction but I pay the full five on the "traditional"
> auction.  I'm usually all in favor of  "tradition" but not in this case!
> My first record  "auction" was from a November 1965 issue of Record
> Research.  I won three records:
> Varsity Eight (Cummins/Radlach) Oriole of You're Driving Me Crazy   75
> cents.
> Jane Gray Harmony (w/ Rube Bloom) of Say It Again   50 cents.
> And my big purchase,  the Armstrong Okeh of Hear Me Talkin' To Ya b/w 
> Tight
> Like This for the staggering sum of $1.75.
> I think the shipping was fifty cents.  BTW I still have all three of those
> copies of the records.
>
Back in the early seventies, when I still lived in a "mobile home" in 
Bloomington,
Ill's while attending Illinois State U...I had an old and terminally-rusted 
pickup,
and used to frequent "farm auctions" and the like. I was usually looking for
old...but not yet "antique" (i.e. NON-victorian...?!) furniture...plus the 
odds'n'
ends one needs to create a livable "home!"

I was known among the area auctioneer as "the guy who would ALWAYS
put in that last 25-cent bid on boxes of junk!" These boxes were usually the
result of emptying kitchen drawers...once the "worthwhile" items had been
pulled out for separate sale...into a pasteboard box...which meant they
contained (1) the various items I needed for housekeeping (usually old
enough they looked like the stuff my grandmother had)...and (2) unexpected
bonuses (boni?!), like a vintage Coca-Cola icepick! Never bought any 78's
thusly, though...!

In 1977, right after I moved to Toronto, I ran across a weekly auction
right across the street from the apartment I was "calling home." One
evening, there was a box of 78's on sale...I started the bidding, but
then noticed there was a young kid bidding against me (who was, in
fact, Jeff Healey!). IIRC I won the lot...and then asked the kid (Jeff)
if he wanted any of the records I didn't need?! He did...and for about
a decade thereafter I ALWAYS offered Jeff my "extra 78's" quite
cheaply...!

...stevenc