The Rush of an Auction...

So, I woke up today a little past a quarter to 10, which was remarkable in and of itself as I didn’t fall asleep until nearly 2am last night. I headed out to the living room and saw Linda sitting on the couch. Rich was nowhere in sight. “Hey Linda, is Rich at coffee?” “No, he’s at the sale.” DOGGONE IT! Over the past couple of weeks, Rich had talked about going to this sale and we had talked a couple of times of going... together!! I could have sworn he was going to wait for me. But nooooo… it was past 9am. Silly me for sleeping in on a Saturday morning!

I took a boot camp style shower, got dressed and headed out to the fairgrounds. All of the furniture had already sold, which was fine – I most certainly didn’t have the money for the useful stuff; I had a goal… a vision... I would play the $1-$3 game on something small. First, I had to stake out something I considered worthy of money. There was only one item: two small plastic bins; the top of which was filled with various shoe and leather cleaning supplies. Mostly, I was in it for the bins; perfect for putting other micellaneous crap in.

After an hour long wait, it was my turn. The auction was headed up by Mike Crabtree. He’s a no-nonsense auctioneer with a witty sense of humor who hails from Atwater. Out of all of the auctions I’ve been to, he’s my favorite auctioneer. For those who haven’t been to auction, it gets intense really fast! The item was announced, “Shoe shine stuff!” I instantly raised my hand, “$1.” Good. Someone else counterbid, “$2.” Another bidder raised it to 3 dollars. DOGGONE IT AGAIN! That was the top of my limit. But no, wait, it was only $2.50. I quickly raised my hand, “$3.” Surely, it was mine. Someone raised it again to $4. NOOOOOO!!! It’s past my limit… I’m done. But then I just had to look up at Mike who was looking at me with those eyes that pleaded, "Nick, you want this item, don't you??" Well, before pulling into the parking lot, I told myself that $5 was the absolute max I would spend on anything. *sigh*…Fine. “$5.” A couple of seconds pass that feel like forever. Soon I heard the magic words, "Sold to number 120!” It was mine! All mine!!! Bwa ha ha ha!

Then it hit me… I spent $2 more than I really wanted to. And all I got was some fairly useless junk.

Damn Mike Crabtree. I hate him. :)

My Newly Purchased "Treasure."

P.S. -- Yes, the wife was mad. :)