Last Sunday we had the Ida Wiese auction near Northfield. What a day and what an auction. The weather cooperated and we had a beautiful day. We had a big crowd with 200+ bidders. Ray Larson loaned us hay racks for the auction and allowed us to park the cars on his bean field across the road. This is the kind of old time neighborliness that makes people long to move out of town and live in the country.

The day was just right for an auction. We had two rings going all day and we finished about 4:30. People had just enough time to get their things loaded before dark. The 1926 Model T touring car sold for $2,900, The John Deere 320 garden tractor for $2300. A nice Majolica platter for $165. There were more stereopticon cards than I have ever seen at an auction. A group of Native American cards sold for $100. Prices were good overall and as usual, there were a few bargains. The antique radios and radio parts sold well. We were so busy with two rings that I didn’t have time to think about taking pictures until the auction was over so you will have to use your imagination to picture the fun and excitement of this auction. Larry Valek sold the radios, tools, and car with help from Nathan and Ben Brockton. Jerry and I worked with the electronic items, lawn items, and of course the antiques. Thanks to all our helpers for their role in making this a successful auction.

We are starting to get caught up with things now. It takes quite a while to put together an auction like the one we had Sunday. We have been working on it for about three weeks to get it ready. If you have a friend or relative who might be considering an auction, have them give us a call so we can start the process. It is not too early to start thinking about dates for Spring auctions, especially if the owners have large accumulations of items to sort.

This week Jerry and I are working on getting ready for our auction with Walt Gaul at his auction barn 4 mi E of Owatonna. The more we work the better this one is starting to look. In addition to the items from the Norman Kalien household in Faribault and the Mildred Lindloff household from Mankato, we will be selling some really nice old furniture from the Arnold Thompson estate from Northwood, Iowa. None of these items were listed on the auction flyer or on the ads in the papers, so you may want to come and take a look. Many of these items originally came from Mr Thompson’s mother’s estate and are consequently quite old. There is a round oak table with 3 leaves, china hutch, library table, record cabinet, oak shelf, fancy mirror with round beveled glass and coat hooks, Winchester .410 breakopen shotgun, Iver Johnson .410 break open shotgun, pressed back chairs, pressed back high chair, postcards, glassware, old rockers, fern stand, etc, etc. This will be a nice Sunday auction. Hope to see you there.

Oh, yes. One more thing. Larry Valek (Valek Auctions) is working on getting ready for a huge antique auction near the freeway on Isle Avenue. This auction will be for Helen Tuma. Larry says they will have a really large quantity of good glassware. Lots of Bohemian glass and Czech items. I will be helping Larry with this one on Saturday before our big auction on Sunday. It’s nice to be busy.