Saudi Tag

Saudi Tag

When we lived in Denver we were at a playground one evening playing tag with our children (Rob, and Ali) they were a lot younger then. We looked up and saw an Arab family watching us and I figured they had no idea what we were doing.

I went over and asked if they wanted to learn, and we wound up teaching them how to play freeze tag, with electricity. If you never played yourself, here is what we did, the swing and playground equipment was base, if you were touching it you were safe, if you got caught by the one who is it, you got frozen where you stood unless a group got together and someone was touching base you could link up and rescue the frozen one by having "electricity" pass from base through the people holding hands or touching somehow, bringing base to the frozen person and un-freezing them. We played with them for a while and then left.

The cool part of the story is a day or two later we were on another walk and saw the same family playing freeze tag at the same park. I like to think we introduced freeze tag to Saudi Arabia.

Bigfoot in my front yard!

We were packing our van to go set up a tent for an upcoming auction when I looked up and saw a big tractor trailer backing down my street. Now that is something that doesn't happen every day all by itself, but while I watched I noticed that it had Bigfoot on the back of the truck. The big tractor trailer parked across the street from my house and Bigfoot hit the road. There was a Dare event at the park and the tractor trailer could not make the turn, so they just drove here. Watch the car that goes by right as bigfoot is at the stop sign, imagine what went through their minds! We are gonna die!!!!!

Memorial Day Musings

A few years ago my wife Tina and I were able to go to Boston with our daughter Ali. One of the great things we did there was to eat in the Green Dragon Pub.

This was the pub where the Sons of Liberty met, we sat where they sat (they went there a lot, we were bound to set where they sat). This is where the patriots learned about the British plans to capture and destroy military supplies at Concord (at least by some accounts). It makes you think.

I wonder if we sat where some of them had their last meal? Now today it is Memorial day, and I want to remember. I want to remember those who lost their lives in service of our country. I want to remember the first to die. According to Wikipidia
" The eight colonists killed, the first to die in the Revolutionary War, were John Brown, Samuel Hadley, Caleb Harrington, Jonathon Harrington, Robert Munroe, Isaac Muzzey, Asahel Porter, and Jonas Parker. Jonathon Harrington, fatally wounded by a British musket ball, managed to crawl back to his home, and died on his own doorstep. One wounded man, Prince Estabrook, was a black slave who was serving in the militia."

I want to remember those who just died, icasualties.com reports that yesterday Sgt. 1st Class Brian Naseman, 36 of New Breman, Ohio, Sgt. Paul F. Brooks, 34, of Joplin, MO., First Lieutenant Leevi K. Barnard, 28, of Mount Airy, N.C. , and Major Jason E. George, 38, of Tehachapi, Calif. all died this week in Iraq.

And I want to remember all those who died in between. My father lived through WWII and Korea, he was one of a handful of soldiers in his unit of 2,000 in Korea that lived.

I have very little to say, I hate war. I don't think many of the people who have been in service feel otherwise. I spent 5 1/2 years in the US Army and am proud of my service but, my service pails in significance compared to these people. I hate war but I love my life and I am grateful for those who would put theirs on the line to protect mine.

I wish I had met each and every one of these people throughout the the years who laid down thier lives. I wish I could thank them myself. I don't want to forget.

Common Crap Road Show

We did an auction this week in a villa. The weather was bad and it rained with out stopping almost all day (not the best situation for an auction with furniture). We were selling furniture and a few tools and some books with almost no smalls. We had a great crowd and got what any Auctioneer in this area would have considered good prices.

The furniture was nice, but not antique, we had some particle board stuff mixed in with some normal furniture (some was newer, some like the couch and love seat were older had some stains and wear and were covered with a slip covers). In the basement there was a treadmill, the big particle board desk and a sofa. The treadmill was heavy, and a fairly nice one, the couch was OK, a run of the mill type you see all the time and the desk was one of those L shaped types, a big lumbering brute.

The treadmill sold for $370 and I was shocked. I have sold many a treadmill and Nordic Track machine, and weight bench etc. they normally don't do much around here, they are very common and most people do not want to

• move them
• put them in their already overfull homes
• try to sell them at their store, mall booth, antique store etc.

The seller made a comment like "you gave away my treadmill" to which I replied, no I sold it for way more than it was worth. I had an absentee bid from one of my best friends on it for $75 because they have bought used treadmills before and both they and I know what they normally sell for. I was desperately hoping I could get an $80 bid so I would not have to carry the treadmill out of there (my freind is on a long-term out of town job). The whole thing got me thinking, I could start a TV show, the Common Crap Road Show. People could lug in their treadmills, their particle board desks, Readers Digests, National Geographic, Avon bottle collections, boxes of Beanie Babies, collector plates etc. and stand in long lines. At the end of the lines we would have experts in the various fields of stuff and a camera crew to capture the magic, it might go something like this:

Expert: Well Sally what find did you bring us today?

Sally: Bill I have a fantastic treadmill from my basement!

Expert: Indeed you do, what can you tell us about this beauty?

Sally: Well Bill, this is the Cardio 2000 from Sears, I saw it last January and just had to have it, I only used it once. It is like brand new!

Expert: And so it is! We see these a lot and what a fantastic machine it is.... They were designed by Steve Franklin in 1995 and have been in production since then. They made millions of these all just like yours, they are very common, in fact almost every basement has one. What did you pay for this fine piece of exercise equipment?

Sally: We shelled out $1,400.00 for it and I have the receipt right here! (She hands over the receipt to the Expert).

Expert: Well Sally I've looked at the receipt and I need to point out a few things:

• first is that you paid only $1,040 for the treadmill (see here on the bottom line)
• second I noticed that it says you got free delivery and set-up, you didn't really fall for that did you? Sally free delivery and set-up are built into the price, they factor in an average of $225 in the treadmill industry for these services to pay for the truck, the crew, insurance and such. I'm sure you understand this
• I also note that the date is Jan. 12, 2008 (that's several months before the sub-prime mortgage meltdown right?)
• My experience in the industry is that the second hand stores charge somewhere between $200 to $225 to pick these models up

Sally: Bill, that all sounds correct and now that you mention it I do remember it cost less if we would pick it up ourselves, but we didn't want to have to load that machine into our car, it would not fit and it costs so much to rent a truck these days. Besides my husband has a bad back and we didn't think we could trick any of our friends into moving a 250 Lb treadmill.

Expert: Right you are Sally. Do you have any idea what this treadmill is worth in today's market?

Sally: I was thinking it should bring at least $1,500.00 since it is in like new shape.

Expert: Well Sally, if I had to place a value on this treadmill, in the shape it is in right now, out here in our convention center setting with 5 loading docks and a truck dock leveler I'd say it is worth (dramatic pause) $100 to $125, now if you take it home and put it in you garage with clear access and put it on a sturdy table where it can be rolled on to a truck I'd say it could expect to get $50 to $75. If you take it back down to the basement I'd value this treadmill at $5 to $25, does that surprise you?

Sally: But, but we paid $1600 for that treadmill, I don't want to give it away!

Expert: Sally, thank you for bringing this gem to the Common Crap Road Show!

Host: Good job Bill, now Gary has a homeowner with a set of Norman Rockwell Plates...

Rob and Rob lite at CAI

This is where we are spending the week, tough gig.

I am at the National Auctioneer's Association's Certified Auctioneer's Institute this week with my son Rob (we call him Rob lite) and we just got here in Bloomington Indiana at the University of Indiana.

The program has been discribed as the Master's Degree for Auctioneers.

The campus and town are beautiful, as we pulled into the area I told Rob lite that I thought I had seen it before in a movie. About 30 years ago I watched a nice move about a bicycle race called Breaking Away and I loved it. It turns out it was filmed here. I'll have to go rent it again.

The buildings are all made form local Limestone and the quarry is right out of town.

This is a little local restaurant, I will have to go see if it is any good!

Our first night we went to Nick's, they have big rooms to fit lots of auctioneers, good food and beer. We had dinner with Rick and Cindy from San Antonio, Texas we got to share some ideas with them about charity auctions and they told us about their work with auction processes and documentation. Very interesting, we auction types are always re-inventing everything. I have a background as a software engineer, we like process control!

Stuck in a rut

OK, it wasn't a rut, it was a long gravel driveway covered in 6 inches of very slick snow, but I've skipped a bit.

When we went to set up the auction we had already been there, we knew better. The driveway was long and steep and we had no business setting up an auction there on a snowy day.

The appointment was on the schedule, and we Auction types are schedule driven people, so we went. My 21 daughter, Ali said "I don't think I would drive down this driveway". What did she know? Did she have my years of experience? NO! My masterful driving skills? NO. My cat-like reflexes? NO. Did she get us stuck right by a tree that wanted to eat my van? NO, but I did.

We slid right up next to that tree, and then the fun began. We tried to shovel our way out, and we slid closer to the tree. We tried shoveling, putting boards under the tires, pushing, using a ATV to plow, using a 4 wheel drive to pull us out, a wench, and all we did was slide closer to the tree (actually several trees) break ropes, and straps, and get the 4 wheel drive stuck.

Then we got a guy with a tractor to pull us all out. It was a 4 hour ordeal.
And people think all an Auctioneer does is talk fast. When I meet new people they always ask if I can talk fast, the seldom ask if I can get myself extricated from a slick road.
Rob

Sgt. Garcia's Flag

It's the 3rd of July and Mrs. Garcia is in Spain, she has been there over 3 years now.

A little over 3 years ago Mrs. Garcia hired us to do an auction for her down off of Hampton by the hill. She was retired, her husband had passed away several years ago and she was living with her son. She and her son were in the process of selling their possessions and moving to Spain they were both retired now and had family in Spain and thought it would be nice to go live near their family.

Mrs. Garcia had another son who went to Vietnam but was killed there. One of the things we sold that day was a real to real tape deck he had sent home but never lived to enjoy. We had a good auction and sold everything in the house. Mrs. Garcia ran a tight ship and kept a very clean house, there was very little clutter and the house was in very good shape after the sale (I think you could have picked up the leftovers in 1 Hefty sack.

After the sale Mrs. Garcia came to me with a folded flag (the kind that come from a Veteran's funeral after they take it off of the coffin fold it and hand it to the family saying "On behalf of a grateful nation" I had never seen the flag during our setup as she had it in her personal area with the things that were not to be sold. She asked me if I could get take care of for her, that she could not do it. What she wanted was for me to dispose of the flag for her. I guess that because she was moving to Spain she thought it unwise to fly it there and she didn't know what else to do with it. I told here that I would do one better and that I would give the flag a new home and that on every 4th of July I would take that flag out of it's case and fly it in her son's honor at my home.

On the 4th of July we have a party, we love our country and respect those who have given us our freedom. Don't get me wrong, I love Veteran's day and Memoral day as well but to me the 4th of July means freedom, it means shoeless soldiers at Valley Forge, it means cold wet sailors reefing sale in a gale off of the coast of Cape Horn on the way to some distant land to project force for this country, it means Devil Dog Marines fighting like pit bulls in the Belleau Woods, it means members of the 8th Air Force conducting daylight bombing raids over Western Europe, it means a flag from a man I will never meet who lost his life in a far away jungle, a mom with a real to real player sitting in her basement for 30 years waiting for a son who wasn't coming home.

So, tonight I'll go down to my basement and get out Sgt. Garcia's flag from the box I have that is full of flags from the estates of other veteran's, and tomarrow morning I will spend the morning hanging them in my yard, and Sgt. Garcia's flag will wave once again over the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Rob
www.moundcityauctions.com