By Roger Bluhm 

Now that spring has finally arrived (I hope there isn’t three inches of snow in the morning), auctions are under way in the area.
    I’m not a farmer and farm auctions seem to be the order of the day early in the spring, so I haven’t been to one this year, but there are some coming up with will hold my interest.
    I got my love for auctions early in life. My parents both loved auctions and would often bring me along to go to an auction. Now, at 12 years old, auctions can be a little boring – and I thought they were back then.
    Yet, I know my parents got some great antiques at some of these auctions in out-of-the-way locations in South Dakota and my mother still has many of them today.
    She has an antique bookcase and antique crank telephone. She sent both of them to Texas to have them refinished years ago and they still look great.
My parents bought other antiques – a buffet, a rocker, lamps, etc. – but sold them all at an auction when we left South Dakota and moved permanently to Florida when I was 14.
    My parents loved antiques. My dad owned a 1942 Ford – I think that’s what it was – that still ran. Every once in a while we would climb into it and tool around town. I loved that car.
    Once I got married, auctions became something my wife and I enjoy together. There are some great bargains to be had at auctions. We bought many a household furnishing at an auction, as well as a collection of oil lamps (since sold at a garage sale), radios, tools, a TV once, a myriad of recliners (all of which have become worn out and discarded), as well as some beds, dressers and other items.
    The household furnishings my family and I will move later in May to Valley City are numerous and better than half of them came from auctions.
    People are competitive by nature and the dynamic at an auction brings that out. I’ve watched bidders go as high as $200 for a quilt because it was handmade and both were quilters. I’ve also won two chairs for $10 because no one else wanted to bid against me for them.
It’s kind of a let down when you realize that NOBODY else wants the same thing you do. On the one hand, it’s a great bargain. On the other hand, you begin to doubt your own taste since nobody else felt the need to bid on the item.
    The problem that arises most often for me is that the person I am bidding against often will go much higher than I will to win the bidding. I often wonder if the other bidder really needs the item more, if the other bidder sees something in the item that I don’t see or if the other bidder is just caught up in the bidding and wants to win more.
    Like others who attend auctions, I won’t go over a certain amount for an item. If it becomes too pricey, I back off and let others have it. Why spend more than I want for an item if I can wait and get it at another auction.
    Auctions often have food on the grounds, so you can buy bargains and lunch in the same area and you don’t have to leave the auction to eat.
    Children seem to enjoy auctions by running around, looking at stuff and, eventually, finding other children to do things with as their parents stand around a trailer stuffed to the gills with odds and ends.
    It’s like a garage sale, only different. In this case, it’s not first-come, first-served, but high bigger that takes home the prize.
    It doesn’t matter, really, why I enjoy auctions, whether it’s due to my parents, the bargains, the competition or the fact it’s something I can share with my family. The important thing is that auctions are gearing up and it’s the perfect time to attend one – just before moving so my wife can complain I’m just getting more things we have to move!!

Roger Bluhm is publisher of the Times-Record.