As usual at this time of year one or two of our older ram lambs having established their place in the hierarchy of the flock, are now testing their strength on my wife. (Strangely enough they rarely try their luck with me)
At this age their gentle aggression is a sign that we need to get them ready for market; and it is this that reminds me of the different auctions I have attended over the years. From antiques, to bric-a-brac. Farm sales, house sales and cattle markets, all have been venues of anticipation and excitement which have led to disappointments and triumphs in equal measure.
I remember a house contents auction at Frampton-on-Severn about 1968 when I purchased a nest of coffee tables, only to later discover that there was only one. However, the following month at Dursley I bought two Parian figurines and was delighted to be then told that there were four. Then there was the Hepplewhite chair (well the back might be) from the estate of Mrs Clifford of Witcome in the mid seventies. The same sale yielded a barometer for £70 which was about £69 more than I should have paid. Any disappointment with that purchase disappeared at the North Cornwall show ground when I found an absolute bargain. An almost new two tonne ratchet winch for £11.
Over the years auctions have allowed me to acquire lots of useful stuff I couldn’t afford as new. Mind you the road to success is not guaranteed, and at one local farm sale I sold an old slot machine preloaded with fourteen old pennies. It went for only £1 which was probably less than I would have got from selling the pennies on their own.
Last year I got an almost unused 2.5 mtr Orsi flail mower from Howard Pugh’s Ledbury Farm Auction for less than half the same kit from a dealer would have been.
There is something about an auction not found anywhere else, and amazingly this ‘something’ is even found in on-line sites such as eBay. I’ve also found it on the on-line site Funding Circle, where lenders bid to lend money to businesses who want capital for expansion or development. Incidentally, my return when lending directly to small businesses is six times greater than anything the banks offer and up to-now, just as secure.
Whether in triumph or in failure there is always the sense of excitement at an auction and I am glad that my daughter and son-in-law share my fascination with watching the hammer fall.
One has to be careful however when bidding, and Sonya learnt a lesson when buying a car at Southampton Auctions. As the car was driven onto the stand she caught the auctioneer’s eye and then turned to Anthony to enquire, “What shall we go up to?” He instantly replied, “Too late. You’ve already bought it. “But, experience does teach you the techniques to use when bidding, and these paid dividends when they later bought their smallholding, at an auction in the Green Dragon Hereford. Luckily for them there was no London money bidding on that day.
A friend of mine who often accompanies me to Ross or Hereford Cattle Markets once commented that farming is a uniquely odd business. “It is, he said, “The only business where you do all your work and spend money before you know what you are going to get for your product.”
I suppose he has summed up the thrill of the auction. He is right! You don’t know what you are going to get for the thing you are selling, and you don’t know what you will have to pay for the thing you want. The thing about auctions is that they make you decide!
Whether selling or buying you accept the hammer price or you pay the hammer price. There is a wonderful finality to an auction. It is Yes or No and then life moves on.
Talking about life moving on, I must close now because my daughter is calling around to pick up the Shogun. They bought an Ivor Williams 14 foot trailer at the Three Counties auction last weekend and are now destined for the New Forest to pick up the log cabin they bought for a bargain on eBay yesterday.
View from the Pew 