Online Bidding

Kim's Blissful Tip Of The Day:

Why sit in an uncomfortable chair in a  room full of people waiting hours for your treasure's turn to be bid on when you can do it in the comfort of your own home?

Just go to Auctionzip.com and find your local auction house, then see if they offer online bidding.  These days most do and it is way more convenient than going to the actual auction.  There are two ways you can bid online.  One way is to offer your highest bid and then wait until the auction is over to see if you won.  The other is called Live Bid and it is where you bid as the auction is taking place, giving you a better chance of winning.  But some auction houses charge a fee for this type of bidding.

I've been doing a lot of online bidding recently and it's a lot of fun.  You just have to make sure you keep track of the items you are bidding on or you could end up spending more than you bargained for.  The best way to do this is by keeping a pen and paper with you when you bid and make a list of all of your bids.

One downside to online bidding of course is that pictures can be deceiving.  A description of the item's condition is usually included, but you will have to make sure you are willing to commit.  So far I haven't been disappointed, and all of my items have been exactly as described.  Additionally, there is a set minimum bid for each item and then a range of what the item is expected to sell for.  For example, your auction house might set the minimum bid for a piece of furniture at $25. They will then provide you with a range of $40 - $70, which means the final sale price will probably be somewhere in that range.  This gives you an idea of how high you should bid, depending on how much you want something.   A lot of times I just bid the minimum on a variety of things, hoping to get a steal.  Which brings me to my next point.

If you choose NOT to do the Live Bid, be prepared not to win.  I bid on anywhere from 5 to 10 things at a time and am lucky if I win one.

My latest score was this very, very old wicker lamp table, which I was delighted to discover goes perfectly in my family room.

Don't you just love the color?  It looks like someone painted a turquoise over top of the original lime green.

I spy with my little eye someone playing in the back yard!

One more tip:  If you are a dealer or you have a business buying and selling furniture, give them your tax ID # when you go to pay for your items and you will not have to pay tax.

Happy Bidding and have a fabulicious day!
xoxo,
Kim

Auction House Love

I've been getting back into auctions lately after taking a long break, partly because yard sale season is off to an unusually slow start this year.

Last week I won this lovely hand-painted magazine stand.

For now it sits next to the fireplace.

And right now I have an absentee bid on this baby.

I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed real hard.  It's gonna be a long day as I probably won't hear back until tomorrow.

I can just picture it over the fireplace against the newly painted pale yellow walls.  Oh please oh please oh please let me win!!!

On another note, tomorrow is the first show of the season at Clover Market and Denise and I are hoping for a big showing.  It's going to be sunny and 80's.  Perfect weather for shopping and hopefully buying!

I'll be posting pics of our booth next week.

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulicious weekend!

xoxo,
Kim

Night at the Auction

In my not-so-vast experience, auctions can be hit or miss. Yardsales are a sure thing - you are always guaranteed to come home with at least one thing you can't live without. But on auction night you can stand for hours in the same spot and not come home with a single thing. Other times, you hit it big. Friday night was one of those times. On Tuesday, when my BFF and I brought some of our own items to the auction house to be set up for Friday, we were able to get a sneak peek at some other things that would be up for auction (usually we wait until an hour or so before auction to start browsing). I laid my eyes on these beauties and couldn't get them out of my head for the rest of the week.

A purdy set of Liberty Blue Staffordshire Ironstone dishes. At this particular auction there are different rooms where they auction off things simultaneously. This makes it difficult when you want things from each room, as you can imagine. Well the back room is where they auction the higher-end items. That's where these dishes were, which meant the chances of my getting them for a small sum were slim to none.

I waited patiently ALL NIGHT for the auctioneer to get to my dishes (I called them mine even though I was trying not to get too attached!). Fortunately, my husband got there from work and I asked him to please sit for me and wait to bid on these dishes while I went into one of the other rooms to check out some other things. He asked me how high I wanted to go and laughed at me when I said, "Ten bucks". The look on his face said it all, "no shot!". I knew he was probably right, but I still didn't give up.

As each minute turned into hours, I knew my chances were getting better. You see, as the night starts to wear on, the crowd begins to dissipate. The more people who left, the better my chances became! I routinely came back to check on my sweetie, who was waiting patiently for the auctioneer to get to my china. After returning three times, I finally saw the most wonderful sight! My DH putting my new set of china in a box to take home for me! And I only had to pay.........you guessed it! Ten bucks!!!! Yippeeeee!

Four Yardsales and an Auction

As promised earlier in the week, here are my finds from LAST weekends adventures in yardsale-ing.

This is alot smaller than it looks, but I picked up this sweet little white urn for $1.


These cloth cocktail napkins also came in at $1. I fell in love with the bright colors.


I picked up this table for $5 at a church flea market. I thought it was so unique the way the little door in front opens instead of a pull-out drawer. It was old and chippy, so I painted it black and added some Rub n Buff in "Antique Gold". I'm happy with how it turned out. The space next to my couch is very small because the door to my basement is right next to it so this little table was the perfect size - just big enough to hold my table lamp.


This little stool was given to me by my BFF. She picked it up at an estate sale for $1. I spray painted it red and turned it into a plant stand. It goes great with the new yellow walls in my Mud Room.


Of course I saved the best for last. My wonderful hubby loves going to auctions. One in particular is out in the middle of nowhere and there are always lots of treasures to be found. I try to go with him when I can, but this particular time I stayed home. Well, he just knew I would LOVE this accent table so he bid on it and won it for $4!!!! The man knows me SO well!! The picture hardly does it justice, as it is SO beautiful. I love the legs and the scalloped edges. The handpainted sage color goes perfectly in my Living Room. The best part is - there wasn't anything wrong with it! All I had to do was wipe it down. Gotta love that!



I'm taking the weekend off from yardsale-ing, unless I find some loose change in the sofa! Gotta feed the family!