Thank God the weekend is over!!! Now I can rest in the cool!! Two days, two auctions.... Saturday's was intense. We auctioned 57 cars and trucks, mostly trucks, chevy 1500's, 2500's, and 3500's, 4WD and not.... And a bunch of Chevy impala's too. Did it all in 1 hr 15 mins!!! We were really rolling them thru there.... It was only 97* and there was a breeze so not too bad....the prep work on these (fleet reduction auction for Westar Energy) is intense, time consuming and exacting....the company demands a huge paper trail on each vehicle, which makes check in and check out at the actual auction some kinda Hell...we get to the lot at 7 AM and it's GO from the minute we get there til 5 hours later when we can pack up and go home.... They do two a year and people call us all year long wanting to know when the next one is... We have dealers, general public, employees, and on line bidders... We run the auction live on line.....we sold two trucks to a dealer in Sandusky , OH...and a couple in Indiana, I believe.
There were 87 registered bidders for the on-line live auction and about 200 people at the auction site as well..I clerk the auction and cashier and do the bookwork afterwards....
Sunday's auction almost killed us!!!It was a household goods auction and the house and 10 acres was up for auction also....it was 80* at 8:30 when Miche and I got there...the guys had been there since 7AM....they were soaked in sweat already and it got really hot after that...there was SO MUCH junque there!! And they just kept bringing more out!!! No matter where we went, the shade had just moved over...so the guys were in the sun all day....I was frantic, clerking, watching for signs of heat stress, keeping up with the guys, and trying to get through their "I'm OK, I'm tough and I can handle it" attitudes!!! The first one to go down was the youngest....that scared me..
Our concessionaires are wonderful...they were out every hour and a half replacing hot water with cold....and in the afternoon, when the heat index was 114 plus (actual temp 105) they kept coming around with mop rags soaked in ice water for our necks...Miche had brought gatorade for us and had a friend of hers bring more....that saved most of us...We survived the day....which is a tribute to Old Age!!! Our set up guy is 80 years old and he was there, working all day...Darrell and I are 65, we made it, none the worse for the wear; Darrell's brother, Terry, is almost 70, and he made it til about 3:00....before the heat got him....Miche mAde it, in the trailer (stinkin' HOT in there for sure), cashiering, with two fans to blow the hot air around.... She's AARP material, like the rest of us!! The two Eastman brothers, B J and Craig got through too....B J had a couple of issues with overheating ....but when I finally convinced him to take off his hat and look sweaty like the rest of us, he got thru that too....what a day!!!
It's just a barrel of laughs to be auctioneers.....
The seller got thru the day too.....he sat in the shade , nippin' all day on a bottle he found in his camper and by 6 PM, when we were done, he wAs SOOO gone he couldn't even stand up, let alone talk!!! Darrell took him home to his other house after the sale .....had to literally put him into the truck and walk him into his house.....guess he had a good day!!
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