On Friday December 20th, I took a break from my other commitments to go over to Merchants Square in Allentown to the K.D. Smith Auctions. They were doing the first of their auctions for Harry Rinker a noted antiques authority. Harry had a massive collection which he was down sizing. The first auction contained Hopalong Cassidy items and toys from Harry’s Closet. Harry would buy items each year at the end of the Christmas season, which he would put away with the idea to see if they would increase in value. What was making this auction more interesting was the television reality show “Baggage Battles” was going to film it. So I thought it would be fun.
I arrived at the auction about an hour and half before the start of the auction. At the door to get into the auction was a young lady, who was having you to fill out and sign a release form because of the filming the auction. After you filled out the form, they took a picture of you with your release form. Once that was done I entered the auction.
As I entered the auction, I saw various camera people working with people from the show. The director of the show was working with Laurence and Sally Martin. Laurence was sitting in a Soap Box Derby car. Laurence was talking to his wife Sally about the car. The director stopped them once or twice and gave suggestions of dialogue.
In another part of the auction Mark Myers was having a conversation with Traci Lombardo over a set of Snow White tin litho kitchen appliances. Traci is joining the show for the fourth season of the show. Mark was giving Traci a hard time over the set, that she did not do dishes. Once again they had to do some retakes as the dialogue was wrong or the assistant director wanted to added something. During the breaks I found out that Mark had heard about the show from a friend who said they were looking with someone with his profile. He was interviewed and got the part. Traci likewise was selected for the role based on her profile. Traci has been a collector and a dealer. She will bring an interest aspect to the show.
The last person I talked to was Billy Leroy, who Laurie and I had met at Hackensack Toy Soldier Show. I reintroduced introduced myself to him and reminded where we met before. I asked him about the Partridge Family Lunch Box that had been owned by David Cassidy, which he had bought at the Hard Rock auction. Billy told me that he still had the item and that David Cassidy had donated. I kidded him about it saying I was going to chided him for doing a rookie mistake of not checking to see if it had a thermos. If he had sold it, I would like to know the buyer as I had some swamp land in Hokendauqua ( a little town north of Allentown) to sell them. The amazing thing there was no swampland in Hokendauqua. Billy got a little laugh out of it. They had Billy go over to some military uniforms and musical instruments and talk about the items. Billy was not happy trying the trumpet.
It was almost time for the auction to begin. One thing that impressed me was the amount of behind the scenes crew they had for the show. They had four camera people in the front to tape each of the people on the show and another camera in the back to get the auctioneer. “Baggage Battles” also had another person with a still camera. I sat one seat over from Mark Meyer, which was good as Mark left for a moment and would have lost his seat if I had not been there. The people to my right knew Mark and asked him about his store. Mark replied that he had closed the store due to a combination of being on the road for the show and his landlord raising his rent. Mark is doing EBay and we talk a little about the fun of doing EBay.
The auction started on time. Various items were put up for sale and the people from Baggage Battles bided on various items, sometimes they got the items. I helped razed Traci when she bought an item. It was fun to watch them do their stuff.
After an hour I left due to other commitments. I wished everyone well and headed out. I was impressed how nice the people were and enjoyed the experience.
Laurence and Sally looking at some of the items up for sale.
Another shot of Laurence and Sally looking at the auction items.
Traci and Mark discussing the merits of the Snow White Kitchen
Billy trying to play the trumpet