Auctions and Crockery

Witness, the delightfully retro (or possibly just 'grandma') crockery set I got yesterday:

On Saturday husband and I bid at an auction. The auction was good. Well, good experience anyway. Very much more stressful though because this time we could have afforded to bid more but didn't think the house was worth it so pulled out. We thought that $350k was a good price for the house but guessed that $360-70k was more likely at auction.

Part way through the auction I was feeling a bit cheeky. I asked the auctioneer to give me five winks in a row to get another bid out of me, which he gave me somewhat embarrassedly.

When we were inspecting the house I said that I thought the crockery in the kitchen would have to stay because it matched the daggy kitchen so much. I knew the little old lady had gone off to a home and jokingly said I'd ask for it at auction. So when I was on my cheeky streak I asked them to throw in the crockery, much to the amusement of the 40-odd people watching. 'The crockery is on the market!' was the response from the owners.

All up there were four other bidders. We'd got rid of three and thought the house was ours but then a guy piped up at about $370k. Gah! I asked him (well, called out across the street) if he really wanted the crockery that badly. I like to put on a bit of a show! Unfortunately it is in the rules that you can't intimidate other bidders, so I thought masking it with friendliness would be the way to go!

We pushed to $379k, he went $380k and we decided not to go more.

A disappointment but at least we got the old lady a good price by driving it up!

On Monday I had a call from the auctioneer - the vendors (old lady's sons) were disappointed that we didn't get the house because we seemed like such a nice young couple. They're pretty sure the guy who got it will just subdivide the land and develop (damn baby-boomers! they always out-bid us!). BUT they'd like us to have the crockery. So yesterday I went around and picked up my new brown floral crockery. God knows what I'll do with it! Apparently 'Johnstone' is a good brand and I could fetch a tidy sum for it but it has such nice story now!

Ah well. Back to house hunting on Saturday...