The 2013 JEFCO RC Auction was held at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds on Feb. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of 2013 in the Exhibition Hall, and it seemed as though there wasn't near as many items up for sale as there had been in years past, I felt. There certainly were a lot more of giant scale sized aircraft of all makes and styles though.
The buyers were not paying much for any particular items that I could get a sense of this time around either. Some items went off the block at good prices while junk sold upwards of stupidity, or thankfully nothing at all, as it should have done.
I listed 22 items total for sale and eventually every one of them sold for at least my minimum listed price (if the item had a minimum price listed), other than one item that I ended up lowering the price on it during the second time around going across the block.
I purchased a few items for myself and picked up two planes that I am going to sell them at a great price, since luckily I did get them for a reasonable deal at the auction.
I had a very enjoyable trip with Buzz Haviland, who rode with me in my pickup pulling my enclosed trailer to the auction, and we shared the expenses of the trip so we could save on the overall costs involved of going to the auction. Ed Vincent also was in attendance all 3 days of the show and he and Buzz both sold items there at the sale also. Buzz and Ed both brought home a few items for themselves from the show also.
I am listing a couple of planes for sale if anyone is interested in them. Please feel free to contact me day or night anytime to discuss these items at (719) 240-6805.
The folks at the auction tried a new idea this time around and it seems to have had limited success in its initial trial run, and hopefully those in charge at the auction can work out the last of the bugs on the procedure to sell items across the block on a first come, first served basis. They used various colors of dots applied to the items as they came in the door in order to try to get those like colored items up to the auction block in the order that they were checked into the sale. That seems to have had some success, but still has its flaws to work on yet. The accounting and sales went very smoothly from what I could tell as it didn't appear to have really long lines waiting to pay for their items and get checked out the door with them.
I had paid for some items that I'd purchased on Saturday early on during the event and then later that evening just before shutting down for the night I went back through the payout line and between what I sold vs. what I won at the auction or the "buy-it-now" tables, I ended up getting a check paid to me for the day. Sunday morning first thing and I get a phone call from the event organizers asking me to stop by the payout table to discuss some issues with them, and upon going over there and speaking to them we realized there may have been an overpayment to me from the check earlier the day before on Saturday. We decided to wait and see what the rest of the buying and selling ended up doing to the final pay tally, as I still had items left to be sold, and a couple of items that were over on the pass tables to try being re-ran across the block after all the first items went through. At the end of Sunday's event it was time to settle up and the adding machines and scratch paper tablets and pencils came out and we all sat down to reconcile the mistakes on the books amicably between all of the great folks at the auction and myself. I have never been more pleased and encouraged at folks that wanted to genuinely do what was right by everyone than I did right then and there. Thank you to all of the great folks there from the JEFCO aeromodelr's group...you did your best and I saw it, and appreciate it whole-heartedly.