In the real world, buying items at auctions isn’t anything like “Storage Wars” or other auction based shows. I started buying and selling at the beginning of 2014 to help build a mission fund for our family for an upcoming effort we have planned. I enjoy the people I meet as I buy and sell things and I really enjoy helping people find a good deal.
Below are some of the unique items I have found in auctions…
Mobile Sign Trailer – SOLD
My poor wife never knows what I will roll home with. I have tried to restrain my auction buying and limit myself to specific items…but some deals are too good to pass up. A local municipality was auctioning off a pair of these signs and I was able to pick one up. Definitely among the more unique things I have towed home from an auction.
Arcade Games – SOLD
I had the opportunity to purchase a pair of arcade games in a local auction. Perhaps it is my geeky side that though these would be really cool to play and sell. I had never looked inside an arcade machine before and they are amazingly complex systems. Confidential Mission and Vortex are both fun systems to play.
1967 Soap Box Derby Car – SOLD
I thought it was amazing that a soap box derby car that was built for one race day is still intact and in working order nearly 50 years later. This car has some great local (Fort Worth) history. The sponsor of this car was Bolen’s Toy Palace. The owner of the store, Bob Bolen, was one of Fort Worth’s longest serving mayor who paved the way for Fort Worth to be the growing city that it is today. This car also came with the 1967 entry ticket for the Fort Worth Soap Box Derby Race and includes all items purchased to build the car and the prices. Really cool!
Worksman Industrial Trike – SOLD
I was able to buy a pair of these Worksman industrial trikes. I have seen these around but never had the chance to own one. They are pretty incredible! I am holding onto this one for a while and having some fun with it. People point and give a thumbs up when I’m riding it around the neighborhood doing errands. Would you believe this bikes retail for over $1,200 each?!?
Original American Airlines Center Architectural Rendering
Perhaps the coolest and biggest find I have made in an auction happened by accident. Early in my auction career I was making purchases from a collection of items removed from a hotel during renovation. This image caught my eye but another bidder took it to $10 so I passed. That bidder wound up not paying his bill so the print of the AAC came up in a second auction. This time I was able to buy it for $5.
When picking up the items I found it in a cracked plexiglass frame. I tossed it in the back of my truck after loading many other items into my trailer. It was stored in my garage for about a month before I decided to take it out of the frame to check for damage from the crack in the plexiglass. When I removed it from the frame I found a stamp from an architecture firm and noticed that much of the work appeared to have been done by hand.
I reached out to the firm in DC and with the help of a wonderful secretary I was able to verify with the original lead architect that this was the working display that he had created by hand for the various presentations during the approval of the AAC. The firm even gave me a value for the rendering based on similar items that they have seen sold. They provided me with a real world value of $7,500 for the piece. I was hooked on doing auctions from that point on.
The rendering is about 28″ x 70″ and is a piece of Dallas sports and architectural history.
