Kuhlman Auction Service

It sure feels like winter here. By the way it feels we are lucky to be done with outside auctions. We had quite a season. September, October, and November were very busy months for us, and it will be nice to take a breather. A short breather, we trust. An auctioneer’s life is focused around either being busy, or trying to get busy. I sometimes think of a roller coaster analogy. In the winter, when you are starting to sign up auctions and start advertising for them, it is like the roller coaster climbing up hill. It seems to take quite a while and isn’t too scary. Then as you near the top and see just how far off the ground you have gotten, the nerves start. Then you go over the top and you have to just hang on for the ride because you couldn’t get off then even if you wanted to. At the end of the ride, you get off the car with your legs shaking, totally drained, and just glad to be alive. Then, moments later, you run back to get in line again because it was so much fun.
Well, we are getting back in line for the next ride. This is a good time of year to get reorganized for the next ride. We are starting to line up some auctions for next year already. The first auctions of the year are usually the fund-raisers. If your organization has never had an auction fund-raiser, you should give us a call. Crazy things can happen at these fun events. As I mentioned, Jerry sold a bushel of apples for $3.50 each at the Camp Omega fund-raiser earlier in November.
At this moment, I will be doing an auction for the Girl Scouts at Brackett’s Crossing in Lakeville on February 21, for Cannon Valley Sportsmen at their Game Feed in Northfield on March 13, Northfield Arts Guild in Northfield on March 20, and at St Dominic’s School in Northfield on April 17. These are just the some of the early ones we have firm dates for. We are working on a number of other auctions, so keep watching our web site.
Have a happy Thanksgiving

I hope you had fun this weekend. We sure did. On Saturday, I helped Larry Valek with the Tuma auction located on Isle Avenue in rural Webster, Mn. Larry sold many pieces of nice glassware including pink depression, Bohemian glass, a glass shoe collection and many more. There were also trumpets, a trombone, several shotguns, furniture and more. There were several hayracks full of items including many nice old toys. A Structo garbage truck (early 60’s) brought $195. It kept trying to rain all day and was sort of cold, but Larry had a nice crowd and bidding was good all the way through the auction.
All week long, Jerry and I had been getting ready for the Sunday auction at Walt Gaul’s Auction Barn near Owatonna.

This place is a real treasure. Walt has regular Thursday auctions all year round. In the summer the auctions start at 4:30 but starting on December 4, the winter schedule begins with auction starting at 12:30 PM. Walt’s auctions are always interesting. You can bid on anything from hay to antiques, chickens and geese, household items, farm machinery or almost anything else you can imagine.
We were pleased to be able to work with Walt in his building for our Sunday auction. We had items from households in Mankato and Faribault, an estate from Northern Iowa, and a nice assortment of estate jewelry from an estate in Missouri. There was a nice crowd. The building was warm, and the bidding was spirited. A yellow opalescent hobnail epergne sold for $200. Cap guns sold for $60 (choice). We sold about 600 lots in 5 hours, so the auction was moving along pretty fast. People loaded up on treasures. There were quite a few nice pieces of furniture as well as a mohair couch and chair. Walt always has a good lunch and they are known far and wide for the Thursday hamburgers.
This week I hope to spend a little time in the office. We have had quite a string of auctions. On Sunday I will be working with Larry at the Northfield Armory at an 11:00 AM auction with a lot of nice new oak furniture.

This is a new milestone. Two postings on my blog in one week. I just wanted to take one more moment to talk about the auction this Sunday, November 16 at Walt Gaul’s auction barn located 4 miles East of Owatonna, MN on Hwy 14 and then 1 mile South on Cty 59. If you haven’t been to Walt’s place before, consider this to be a personal invitation. Walt’s auction barn is a real treasure. As my friend Jerry says, if Norman Rockwell was still alive, he would paint a picture of it.

This will be a real Americana country auction. In addition to the two households that we were originally working with, we were fortunate to be able to add a very nice old estate from Iowa. There are so many primitives and collectibles and old furniture in the rough that we will have to sell with two rings and sell fast at that. There are old postcards from towns in Southern Minnesota, wooden bowls, a Norwegian map from 1906, a 1953 picture of the original Leuthold’s store in Kasson. Norwegian books, an old rocker that may have come from Norway, kitchen primitives, a china cabinet, round oak table, library table, shelves, chairs, pressed back chairs, mohair couch and chair, oak and ash tables, old pictures. All the small items and box lots will be sold inside the heated auction barn. Dress warm anyway, because the furniture will be sold outside. Hope to see you there.

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.