By Ed Kuhlman, on December 11th, 2003
Last Saturday, we went antiquing in Mantorville, Mn. Mantorville is a small town near Rochester. Last Saturday was Mantorville’s Old Fashioned Christmas. There are a number of nice stores in Mantorville. We spent quite a bit of time in Memorabilia which is the oldest antique store in Mantorville. Paul currently has a lot of nice Norwegian items as well as nice glassware and furniture. There is also a nice antique mall in Mantorville. This is really a nice way to spend an afternoon.
While you are there be sure to stop in the Hubbell House. The Hubbell House has been serving customers in this building since before the Civil War. Mantorville is the county seat of Dodge County and has one of the oldest (or maybe it is the oldest) functioning courthouses in the state. We will be conducting an auction in Mantorville for the Mantorville Historical Society on January 24. Watch here for details.
By Ed Kuhlman, on December 11th, 2003
Christmas is approaching quickly. We were fortunate enough to get tickets to the St Olaf Christmas concert last Thursday evening. This is a wonderful way to start the Christmas season for us. If you are interested, the concert will be rebroadcast several times on WCAL (89.3).
On Monday evening I attended an auction at Tracy Luther’s auction gallery in North St Paul. Tracy had a nice pre-Christmas antique and gift auction. It was fun to watch the auction. Tracy has a good auction crew. They really kept things moving. Tracy and his associate sold 490 lots in just under 4 hours, averaging about 125 lots per hour.
I picked up a lot of pointers from watching Tracy and his staff. One of the most interesting things to me as an auctioneer was to listen to the bidding increments. In plain terms, the bidding increment determines what the auctioneer will be asking for on the next bid. For instance, if the bid is currently at $200, will the auctioneer be asking for $250, or $225, or $210, or $205. It is very important for the bidders to know what the next bid will be, or they will be nervous about bidding. Tracy has solved this problem neatly by predetermining what the next asking bid will be. In his system, the bidding increment will be determined by the current bid. In other words, if the current bid is less than $10, the bidding increment will be $1. When the bid reaches $10, the increment will be $2.50. When the bidding reaches $25, the increment is raised to $25. This excellent system is efficient and predictable and helps the auction to move along quickly. Tracy’s next auction is December 29.
By Ed Kuhlman, on December 2nd, 2003
Well I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. We did. We have a lot to be thankful for. We are all in good health. We had a good auction season this past year and we have made a lot of new friends. We are looking forward to Christmas. Our youngest son, Pete, will be home then.
I have been meaning to take some time in my blog to introduce our family and some of the people who have been so faithful in helping us with our auctions. Some of you may have noticed that Pete hasn’t been at our auctions this Fall. Pete is living in Washington DC and is working for Lutheran Volunteer Corps there. He is doing job skill tutoring in a program called “So Others Might Eat” He is enjoying his work but I know he will enjoy coming home and seeing his friends here. Before moving to Washington, Pete was deeply involved with music in Northfield, singing in the St Olaf Choir, playing bass in BarCode Blue and regularly dropping in to play at the Nordic Jam at the Contented Cow.
Pete has grown up at auctions. When I first started doing auctions, Pete was so little that Barb would take a playpen along for him. He has been helping me ever since. Pete is pretty good at mechanics and electronics. When he is available, I count on him to start lawn mowers and chain saws and VCR’s. Pete graduated from St Olaf last year with a degree in Philosophy.
One of the best things about auctioneering is that you never know what will come up next. Some days that can make you nervous, but usually something turns up just in the nick of time. We are starting to pencil in dates for next year. I will make up a calendar again pretty soon. I will be helping with a fund raising auction in Northfield for the “Friends of the Library” on February 28. I am working on an auction project for July 4. I will fill in the details next time.
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