How do you liquidate 20,000 sq ft of rusty gold, old signs, boat motors, Petroliana, and other antiques? There's only one way: Through A Series of Man-Cave Americana Auctions.
I met George at one of my auctions several years ago which featured a couple of large antique porcelain-enamel Socony Oil Gargoyle signs. He was the happy high bidder on both of them and stepped up with some serious bids to secure is wins.
After the auction, he came over and introduced himself, saying that I should check out his 60,000 sq ft building in NH, as he'd been collecting signs, antiques, and other items for many years. But as busy people do, we put it on the back burner, and a meeting fell off the radar, until recently when he invited me up again.
This time he asked me to auction off his amazing collection because he has sold his building and the closing was fast approaching. I quickly agreed, hopped in Moby, (My Ford Transit T-250), and got to Farmington, NH as fast as I could!
Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed!
As soon as I entered the massive building my senses were bombarded with an overload of Americana. As an auctioneer, I'm used to seeing huge collections, but this was in a completely different league.
We walked through yellow-lined concrete paths to view countless crates of military collectibles such as helmets, theater-made knives, dummy shells, and uniforms, Civil War, WWII, WWI, Vietnam & other were just piled in several large rooms. Old signs, advertising boxes, oil cans, light fixtures, quack medical equipment, microscopes, and antique toys, piles of sports memorabilia...
When you see shrink-wrapped pallets of antiques, you know it's gonna be a great day!
George lit up as he told me about the history of this and how he procured that. Maybe the only thing vaster than this collection was his knowledge of their backstories! He knew so much about everything he collected that I felt I'd just taken a course on American antiques by the time our meeting was done!
He's also the owner of the Scrap Metal Farm in Farmington NH, so he was able to store his antique collection in 20,00 square feet of his 60,000 sq foot warehouse! Imagine having that much room to store your stuff! 20,000 sq ft + a dedicated treasure hunter + the means/ability to process large amounts of antiques = an overwhelming amount of loot!
I've been there about 3 weeks so far and I'm still digging out things I haven't seen yet, and things that he hasn't seen in years!
The phrase: "Everything Must Go" is so cliche these days, but believe me, it applies here! As I mentioned earlier, the building was sold, real estate closings are not something to be trifled with and this building must be emptied for the sale to go through.
How can this monumental task be tamed? The only way I know of is through a series of Absolut Auctions (no minimum bids, no reserves) There will be well over 1000 lots in the series of auctions. Many will be multi-item lots.
That's what George has decided to do, I'm honored that he chose me to help him with it. If you collect anything in the categories listed above, you're going to kick yourself if you miss these sales! Especially, since ALL BIDS START AT $1 and there are NO RESERVES!
See a complete catalog of all 400 lots in part 2 of this auction.
Thanks for reading and good luck if you bid!