Guest Blog: Going Thrifting by Leah Daehling

In a continuation of our Vintage Week coverage, Leah Daehling of Moxie Thrift shares her post today, for the Guest Blog, on attending auctions in her state of Nebraska to find goods to stock her vintage shop.  Fascinating and with eye candy too!

by guest contributor Leah Daehling

We drove mostly gravel roads to our Saturday destination. We followed the leader and filed in the next spot of the choo choo train of vehicles left half on the road, half in the ditch by the farm that hosted  the day’s festivities. No one seems to mind this parking arrangement. It does make the road a one lane road, but still, we don’t mind.

We scurried out and made our way, quite hastily, towards the many flatbeds of sewing notions and kitchen bowls and vintage goodies and travel cases and wall décor and all the stuff I won’t even see until later.

Until it’s held up by an auction ring person and all of a sudden, I want it. My mother in law, she’s good. She always volunteers to get our bidding number, so I can investigate the goods. So, I can devise the master plan for the day.

And, I do have a plan. A growing and changing plan, but a plan. I know I want to bid on this box and that. And this thing here. And, I am not sure what this is, but I think it would fit in my shop very well. If this doesn’t go for much, I
wouldn’t mind this either.

Oh, they are making announcements. It seems the auctioneer will stay in one place today. Each flatbed will be pulled away when the items on it are exhausted. And, then the next flatbed will move up in place. We all get to stay under the shade tree. This Nebraska sun can take a toll. And there is a lot of stuff, fine stuff, to get through today, so let’s all work together folks, and make this a great auction.

I always get that super excited/giddy/flushed feeling when an auction starts. I usually end up bidding on something just to bid. I’m that excited. And this auction is no different. I end up getting a box for $2.

I didn’t even want the box really, and not for $2. I can justify $1 for a box, but am annoyed at myself for letting myself get too excited. But I refocus and just in time. It seems like things are going for my kind of prices today. And they pick up 3 or 4 consecutive boxes or groupings that no one seems to want. I want them though, and I…wait…wait…wait, and bid right when he says $1. And I get each one of these groups. I already have a pile of goodies.

Again my mother in law is good. She is. And her son, who I was blessed enough to wed, inherited her good. They just know me. They get the mode I get in and they usually are there to assist and really don’t question my bids. They have seen the success of bids turn to sales. They love to hear the stories of where each item is going. Anyway…back to them being good. They haul the goods. I bid and go through the items and discard the junk I don’t want, and they haul the goodies away to our vehicle.

I like this auctioneer. The main one, not the chew spitting young one. The good one knows just when to push someone for one more bid. He knows when to interject a joke about a gigantic pitcher being a shot glass for this local or that. He gets it. The young one, he has potential. If he would stop spitting so close to me. I like one of the ring men a bit more than the others as well.

My father-in-law helped out with this auction today. He’s good. He usually helps with another auction company. He’s been doing this for a long while. He knows how to bait the crowd. He knows how to work the crowd. And, best of all, he knows the look I give him when I want something. Without saying a thing, he knows I want the item, and I would like it for $1, please.

The second, the third flatbed go by, there is still so much to sell. And I am buying a lot. I have a rough estimate of what I have spent. My mother-in-law found a pen and paper so we can keep track this time. I purchased a lot. But, with most of my flats and groupings going for 1 or 2 dollars, I find myself full of pride. This is a good auction. I am not sure why I am drawn to the stuff no one else wants. It may be my deep inner cheapskate surfacing, or it could be simply, no one finds the absolute beauty and reusability I see in quirky and different thrift and vintage. I guess I shouldn’t dwell on it. I share it on my blog sometimes, but mostly, my Etsy customers get to read what inspires me about each particular item. It’s part of my gift to them.

The crowd dwindled a bit. A good sign for fellow auction goers. Fewer potential bidders is always a good thing. There were a couple weddings in the area that day. They started the auction an hour earlier for that reason. I suppose people stayed for as long as they could. For most people, weddings trump auctions. Most people.

I continued to bid. I continued to get the bid. And I get tired. Spending money, $1 at a time takes something out of me. Maybe it was the sun, but  I’ll say it was the bidding. The auction items started to look like those in an abandoned storage room. Like leftovers. Some people don’t like leftovers. I love them. Covet them. This is when I get to take charge of the bidding. The auctioneer team asks the crowd if there is anything someone wants, let them know. Otherwise, they are just going to start sliding, pushing, clumping items together.

This is when I shine. Maybe it’s the fact that no one seems to want any of this, maybe it’s that there are just less people around, but mostly I think it the fact that I love this. I thrive on it. I appear to be completely calm on the outside, but I am ‘from here to there to over there’ with my eyes and I figure this and analyze that so very quickly, but so very calmly, I appear to be just looking. But, I want. I thumbed through the wall hangings and came out with 5 paint by numbers.

We hauled the rest of the loot. Oh, all the chairs and bedroom pieces, they went for so little. Hardly anyone is left. Mostly family. We are done hauling now.

I better check on that chair I wanted. They are almost to that chair. I will only take it if it goes for $1. It’s choice of chairs. Someone gets choice for $2, the lady took all 4. But I really want that chair. I offer her $1 for the chair I want. She says sure. Did I mention she is a distant cousin? I would have asked even if she wasn’t my cousin.

It’s time to go. We have all we can handle. The back seat as well as the back-end of my mother-in-law’s pickup is full. So full, my seat for the way home is questionable.

About the contributor: Leah Daehling: thrift seeker. vintage finder. coffee enthusiast. wanna be cook. storyteller. striving for bliss, finding it one day at a time. my store links: moxiephotodesign, moxiethrift, blog.