Friday (3/29/13), I went to Maurer Auctions. I had seen in their listings that they were having a number of plastic figure lots for sale. I have a long history with this auction house as they were the ones who sold the Marx warehouse that Gene Scalia and John Bowers had bought back in the 70’s. I had gone with my late mother to that auction and told her we would be there 10 minutes or four hours. Two flats tires and four hours later I had a car full of Marx toys. Over the years I have made some good purchases, but had not been there for a good number of years due to my former human job, so I decided to renew my relationship with this auction.
I arrived at the auction about twenty minutes after it started. I was in no rush as the lots I was interested were not until later in the auction. The auction is held at a fire house which has two large rooms, which Maurer auction was using for two auctions at the that day. One room was used for a train auction and the other room was used for the toy auction. I went to register to sign in before looking at the auction items. At the registation booth was Karen Maurer, the owner who surprised me by asking me how I was. I was surprised as it had been at least ten years since I had been at the auction. I asked her about her father as he had been one who started the auction company and she told me he was doing the auctionering in the toy auction. I wished her well and headed into the toy auction.
The toy auction was packed and they were selling various trucks. I started to look over the lots. The titles on the listing sheets can only give you hints of what you may find. It is actually reviewing the items themselves that will give you the true picture of if it is worthwhile to bid on or not. One lot had been listed as Britains plastics, when I looked at it I saw the lot I discovered, it was just painted Airfix French Grenadiers, so my interest dropped. Further review of the box, I discovered a bag of 40mm Merten American Civil War, I knew if the price was right I would pick it up. I looked at the other lots some were good such as a lot of 54mm Marx Saddle horses and another lot of 60mm Cowboys. There were other lots that I was disappointed in such as Marx 54mm Mexicans, the figures were good but there were not many figures in the lot. Another lot that I passed on was a lot of Marx Civil War figures.
Once I had made my decisions on what I want to buy, the next job was to look over the crowd. I wanted to know if there was anyone at the auction that I knew. I only saw two faces that I recognized. I found a spot and sat back for my items. I had figured I would use the time to work on my comedy bits that I am planning for youtube.
The auction went quickly, which I like. If there was any delay it was because of a bidding war on an item. I just relaxed as I waited for my items. I did bid on a couple of items, but the prices were too high. One person box bought five boxes of Marx Johnny West Fence for $75.00. At another point they had Marx gas station attendants with cars and the box they came in go for $90.00!
While I was sitting in the back a man sat down at the table and we started talking, he told me about a friend who’s mother had a pool table. When the mother died, this friend offered him the pool table for $500.00 which the guy accepted. They went up to friend’s mother’s house, took apart the pool table and brought it back to the guy’s house. The pool table was supposedly owned by Groucho Marx’s uncle. The guy had the wood checked on the pool table and found out that it was not Rosewood as he thought but Cuban maghony, which is extinct. The pool table was appriased at $35,000.00.
The auctioner took a lunch break and the crowd thinned out leave the people who were interested in the plastic figures. While on the lunch break the auctioneer told of finding nitroglycerin amongst a train collection that Maurer sold! They had to call in the bomb squad who took it to a local gun range where it was blown up. He was told that it was the largest explosion they had ever had. The reason that the nitro was there, the owner of the collection’s father had been in the explosive business and they had been around it all their lives.
The auction started up again and we got to the plastic figure and accessory lots. When biding you have to know when to hold and when to fold when it gets too crazy. I bid on a Marx circus lot and quit at $50.00 as I saw it was going to go higher. Like wise on the 60mm Marx cowboy lot and the 54mm Marx horse lot, I passed. The Marx Mexicans which went for silly money $70.00 and I would not have given more than $10.00. On the other hand, I was able to pick up 8 lots. I got the Britains lot which I wanted and got a lot for a friend. One lot I bid on I thought I had overpaid. It was load with bonnie bilt army figures and an Eldon 45mm army. I quit after the last lot I wanted and headed home to sort the the figures out. I found in the lot a medival bagpiper made in Italy. He is 54mm and excellent. I decided to keep him.
It was a fun day and I hope to do it again in the near future.