Girlie-Girls at the Auction

The 2012 buying season launched yesterday with a country auction conducted by my favorite auctioneer, Don Wallick, who can actually sing auction patter to the tune of Ten Little Indians. I’ve mentioned him here before, but every time I hear him, which is maybe three times a year, I get such a kick out of it it’s like a whole new experience. This time the ad promised better than reality, but I did get some stuff – all paper. The books were truly terrible -- broken down, worn-out, odiferous tomes in need of serious plastic surgery. So I let those go and honed in on paper, some of which still required the “nose test.” I will not buy overwhelmingly musty items no matter what they are, but I will break down and get those with just a light whiff because I’ve had great success getting rid of minor odors. The downside is you have to tie up your money for a full month as they languish in what we refer to as the SBB, or Smelly Book Box.

The process is simple though. I use a large plastic tub with a lid and a product called, plainly enough, Book Deodorizer, which I buy online from http://sicpress.com/book-deodorizer. This stuff is biodegradable and not too pricey at $16 a pound because it lasts for a long, long time. I know non-clumping kitty litter is dirt cheap, but these magic pellets are much better. Because of them I’ve been able to buy gems I wouldn’t have looked at twice and that includes books as well as paper. So when you consider that it provides you with a chance to seize the moment as well as make a nice profit, Book Deodorizer quickly pays for itself. And, no, this not a paid advertisement!  I truly like the stuff and am passing it on to you in case it helps. Below see a photo of some items in the SBB. The pellets are visible in the upper left corner.

One thing that was funny about the auction was that I wound up for the second year in a row with girlie-girls, my affectionate name for the pin-ups of the 40’s. Last year I had great ones, all bought from the same estate sale, including Esquires, the scarce Springmaid calendars, Earl Carroll’s showgirls, and the coveted Vargas. This time I got MacPhersons, but they’re colorful and gorgeous inside and retain their original envelopes. I only got two – they had three – but the third lacked the envelope and was smudged on the front, so I passed. Here’s an interesting fact about them that I may, or may not, have shared in the past. For some very odd reason, unknown to me, women buy these much more frequently than men do – at least in my experience. Every one I sold, except for one from the Akron Antiquarian Book Fair last year, was purchased by a woman. Even my one male buyer bought the Varga for his artist wife. One other one, the Springmaid calendar, was bought by a woman, but for the historical society in the town in which it originated. The only theory I've ever come up with on the subject is that perhaps some women buy them for the same reason  African Americans buy old racist advertising -- as part of their exploited past. But it could be too that women just find the girlie-girls fun. Sometimes we risk overthinking stuff.

Anyway, the other thing I got were lots of Ohio related booklets and a couple great oversized booklets on steamships. Some of these are currently residing in the SBB, but will be fresh and perky long before the show in April. My favorite is a booklet about the Cleveland Coloured Gospel Quintet which has some snapshots of the group laid-in. But happy as I am with the spoils, my old auction complaint remains viable. As always, at the end of an auction they gather stuff up into lots, which would be fine were it not for people rummaging through them and mixing it up and the fact that like things don’t always get boxed together. Consequently, it’s easy to miss something you had previously picked out. I had had my eye on two Electrolux catalogs from the 30’s with GREAT illustration, but when I went back to see where they’d landed I couldn’t find them. All I can think of is they must have gone into the box heaped with wretched looking Physical Culture magazines, as it’s the only one I didn’t plow through. I was pretty disappointed  because I have a customer to whom I could have quoted . Grrrrrrr …

But overall, long day that it was for relatively few items, I enjoyed being back in the groove. As you probably know by now, I whine and kvetch like a broken record, but in the end, I still love the thrill of the chase!