You sit in the audience, caught up in the expectant hush of thecrowd and tighten your grip on your paddle. The adrenaline racesthrough your veins.
You've got your eye on a tea set that you suspect might beLimoges. It has delicate gold tracings around the edge and only thetiniest nick in the teapot's spout. It's in a box lot coming up next.
You look around suspiciously. Surely everyone has seen it andknows that the estimated price on the lot, which is a box that alsocontains a bunch of linens and some spoons, is too high.
The auctioneer starts the bidding at $100. For a minute, nobodymoves. You swallow and get ready to raise your paddle and claim yourprize triumphantly.
The crowd goes bananas. Before you can say "my tea set" the priceon the box has gone straight through your ceiling of $150 and hasclimbed to $750. You're astonished. Surely the tea set wasn't thatgreat?
It wasn't. You hear two antiques dealers behind you say it wasthat set of pre-Civil War sterling silver teaspoons that drove thefrenzy.
You feel crushed, ready to throw in the towel, but nine lotslater, another pretty little tea set comes up. You'd spied itearlier, but dismissed it as out of your price range. Again, you hearthe bidding start at $100 and just for laughs, you tentatively raiseyour paddle.
You sit there, not quite sure what to do with your paddle now thatit's up there. The auctioneer looks right at you and nods, saying"I've got $100, do I hear $125?"
Your pulse quickens. There's a rustle to your right. Someone elseraises her paddle. "I've got $125, do I hear $150?"
Hmm. That's why you set a ceiling in the first place. You raiseyour paddle for the last time, happy to see this time that your handisn't shaking. You look sternly at the auctioneer to let him knowthat you really mean business this time.
"I've got $150, do I hear $175?" Your neighbor looks over at youappraisingly, then shakes her head ever so slightly and puts herpaddle down.
The auctioneer looks at you with-or are you just imagining this?-a knowing smile for such a canny connoisseur. He says again, "I'vegot $150, do I hear $175?"
He waits for what seems like a hundred years, then finally saysthose magic words, "Going once, going twice. Sold to No. 231 for$150!"
Few other buying experiences can match the thrill of an auction.You can get some unbelievably great deals-not necessarily what youset out to get-but great deals nonetheless.
According to David Pace, owner of Pace Auctions in Des Plaines,"The beauty of the auction process is that it is one of the onlyplaces where people who aren't dealers can buy priceless antiques atdealer or better prices."
Pace Auctions, founded in 1973 by Pace's father, specializes inantiques and estates. It gets merchandise from all over Chicago andholds regular estate auctions every Monday night. The average lotgoes for $50 to $60. Pace also holds specialty architectural salvageauctions and auctions of fine estates.
There is almost nothing you can't buy now at an auction. There arethe estate auctioneers like Pace, livestock auctions, car auctions,real estate auctions, and, of course, even Internet auctions.
Auction styles vary enormously. There are country auctions, wherethe auctioneers talk so fast you can hardly understand what they aresaying.
Then there are elegant salon auctions, where priceless paintingsby Old Masters can sell for millions, and where bidders indicatetheir bids by the merest lifting of an eyebrow. And there are"estate" auctions like Pace's Monday auctions, where for a modestsum, you can buy a raggedy old picture which may turn out to befabulously valuable, or just a raggedy old picture.
All auctions have one thing in common. Whether you come away withthe tea set of your dreams, or a painting of Elvis on black velvet-they're fun!
Pace Auctions, 794 Lee St., Des Plaines. (847) 296-0773.
Auction Store, 175 W. Jackson in Chicago, (312) 786-0077.
Landmark Liquidators/ Saturday Night at the Auction, 6826 S. StonyIsland, Chicago, (773) 288-7372.
Emerson Howell Nagel is a Chicago free-lance writer.
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