From The Daily Gleaner
If you want a few hours of excitement and the chance to find a treasure and possibly a great deal, go to an auction.
At left, auctioneer Mark Sloat takes bids on a car. Above, an auction goer checks out the different items up for auction at Cameron Industrial Inc. Auctioneers and Appraisers in Maugerville. Below, Sloat gets the crowd going as he takes bids on various items, including a piano.
But unless you do your homework, know your limits and stick to them, you could get caught up in bidder fever, meaning you could get carried away and pay too much.
It’s just after 6 p.m. in Maugerville and a crowd is standing outside a large white building where auctioneer Mark Sloat is calling for bids on a variety of large items, including a 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid with 65,000 kilometres.
Two people are in a bidding tug of war for the car. In the end, it sells for $3,400 and Dan (Woody) Woodfield is pleased with the purchase. He is an auto auctioneer and plans to resell this at another auction for more money. He estimates it will sell anywhere from $5,500 to $6,000.
Whenever he comes to an auction it’s all business for him, he says, but he knows the appeal of auctions for others.
“There’s always something new. There’s such a variety. It becomes a meeting place for people.”
Even if you do pay a little bit more than something is worth, he says, an auction is a few hours of entertainment and excitement, generated by the auctioneer.
Woodfield says there are great deals to be found at auctions. His best advice is to do your research before you bid.
“Yeah, you have to do your homework ahead of time and come prepared that when it goes to a certain amount then know your limit and stop bidding,” says Woodfield.
Inside the room is filled to capacity, as people wait to bid on some of the more than 400 items, which include everything from oil paintings to farm implements.
Jennifer Hacking goes to a couple auctions a month. For this woman it’s an evening’s entertainment and a chance to pick up some great deals on unusual things.
Recently she found a really great sofa for only $65. She was prepared to wait for that deal. She went to auctions for three months before she found it.
As she looks around the room she spots antique dealers and collectors who know the value of what’s here.
Tonight she has her eye on a marble-top commode. She checks out the crowd and guesses that the antique will sell for $85 but she isn’t willing to bid over $50. Before she bids she sets a price and she doesn’t waver from that amount.
“That’s the way to do it. Otherwise you will get excited and you will bid too much,” she says. “You have to look at what you want, and, if it’s exactly what you want, you have to pick a price in your mind and say, ‘Okay that’s it.’”
Ray Mulholland goes to auctions once a week. He is strategic in his bidding and says it is always a good idea to keep a level head, otherwise you can get caught up in the moment and pay three times what something is worth.
He would like to bid on a projector but he says it is one of the last things up for auction and he expects by the time it is up for bid he will be home and fast asleep.
“They usually do 100 items per hour so it won’t come up until 10 o’clock.”
Pam Campbell, the former principal of Leo Hayes High School and now the federal Liberal candidate for Fredericton, is here. She is in a bidding war with another person for an antique push sleigh. She thinks it would make a lovely winter ornamentation for greenery on her front porch.
The bid goes up to $65. She lets the other bidder have it for that price because anything more would have been too much to pay, she says.
Before placing a bid on anything, she advises looking the item over carefully to be sure it is what you really want and that it’s in good condition.
Usually she will arrive at the auction house the afternoon of the auction to take a look, then she decides whether there is anything she wants to bid on.
Campbell likes antiques and she collects certain things. When she knows those items are up for bid she will come to see if she can acquire them.
“I collect Depression glass and I know pretty much what to pay for it and if it goes for more, I won’t buy it.”
She has her eye on a piece and plans to bid for it but she says she won’t pay more than $25.
“Sometimes I really want it and I will keep on bidding but that’s very foolish to do that.”
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I always said when I reached 75 I would get rid of them… they need a lot of looking after and tender loving care 
