Event Reports

Post Christmas Auction - Wednesday 28th January 2015

We held our 11th Post Christmas Auction on Wednesday 28th January at the Grey Horse and what a truly amazing auction it was !!!

The room wasn't as packed out as in previous years, largely due to the weather forecast which threatened heavy snow that evening, however, we still had a most respectable gathering of bargain hungry punters ..... including 3 very brave souls who turned up on bikes despite the freezing temperature and onset of snow.

An eager crowd

Most people brought items with them to donate, so we had an immense amount of stuff to auction off, with the obvious unwanted Christmas presents, garage / shed / loft / cupboard / wardrobe clearouts, and other assorted 'junk' (but it's certainly true that one person's junk is another person's treasure).

Some of the amazing bargains to be bid on
Some of the amazing bargains to be bid on

There was lots of bike related gear donated, including several helmets, several textile bike jackets and several pairs of textile armoured bike trousers. You could pretty much have kitted yourself out with a complete full range of riding gear. For fans of day-glo, there were multiple flourescent vests and Sam Browne belts.

Additionally, lots of other clothing, CD's, DVD's, books, household items, and enough aftershave, perfume and make-up to fill a small branch of Boots. We also had a number of hugely generous donations from local dealers and traders (see list below).

Once we had issued everyone with a bidding number and Lorna had done the rounds with the raffle tickets, the auction started around 8:15 and went on to last nearly three hours !!! There was particularly frenzied and competitive bidding for a good number of items, with many fetching good sums. Others went for ridiculously low prices, which obviously gave the winning bidder a fantastic bargain.

Chas in fine form

Our auctioneers Chas & Martin did a most splendid job, as it's not easy auctionnering solidly at a tremendous pace for well over an hour and a half each.

Martin in fine form

We managed to clear virtually the lot, with only a tiny number of items remaining unsold, which have since been donated to the Wakefield Hospice. Everyone who attended seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and most folks got multiple bargains. Sharon of BADMAG won the raffle first prize, which was a teddy bear and chocolates gift set - that's Valentines Day sorted for Stuart !!

BADMAG's Stuart has Valentines Day sorted !!!

With the weather keeping the numbers down, we weren't expecting to break any records with the funds raised.

Cath & Sharon, our intrepid book keepers

However, Cath & Sharon, our intrepid book keepers just kept on adding ... and adding .... and adding the takings and the auction raised £400, with the raffle raising a further £45. This was more than last year's auction raised, so to say we were rather pleased with the outcome, is something of an understatement. Bearing in mind the bidding on a lot of items started at 50p, this is a staggering and truly impressive result !!!!

This amount splits nicely into 3, so the MAG fighting fund will receive £300 (2/3 of the proceeds), and the remaining 1/3 (£150) will be donated to charitable causes, as advertised, and as we have always done.

A rather splendid start to the new year !!!!

Particular thanks have to go out to the following local dealers and traders for their most generous donations:

They are all heroes and thoroughly deserve your business.

A Special thanks to our organisers - Chas, Martin, Cath, Sharon, Lorna and Steve (although he didn't do much ;-) ... who helped the evening go so smoothly.

We will be holding our 12th Post Christmas Auction in January next year so, hope to see you there.