We held our 7th Post Christmas Auction on Wednesday 26th January at the Grey Horse and what an auction it truly was. We were happy to welcome along members of Colne Valley & Barnsley MAG branches, together with our auction regulars, from Wakefield and further afield (familiar faces, who turn up every year just for the auction, some of whom are not even bikers, but happy to support us and bag that bargain !!!).
We had an immense amount of stuff donated to the auction this year, 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). There was lots of bike related gear including 2 top quality helmets, several jackets (leather & textile), gloves, boots, leather trousers, luggage, and a brand new pair of Draggin jeans worth over £100 !!! You could have pretty much kitted yourself out with a full range of riding gear (if you had a cartoon proportioned body with a waist that would fit ladies size 10 trousers, size 10 feet, medium sized hands, an XL sized torso and a medium sized head that is !!!).
Lots of household goods were also donated including kitchen ware, lamps, pictures, ornaments, electricals (TV's, video recorders (remember them ?!?!) and computer peripherals), lot's of smellies & beauty products, chocolates, clothing, books, CD's, DVD's, video's, exercise gear (ideal for the new years resolution !!!), multiple hand bags and purses, car accessories, battery chargers, tools, cuddly toys, and the list just goes on and on and on. Rally goers were also very well catered for with tents, sleeping bags, waterproofs and lots of other camping items.
We also had a number of hugely generous donations from local dealers and traders (see list below).
The auction started just after 8pm and lasted three hours with no breaks. There was particularly frenzied and competitive bidding for a good number of items, including a full size cardboard Elvis figure (don't ask !!).
The Draggin jeans due to their value had a reserve price put on them, and went for £40 in the end, so someone got an absolute bargain there.
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.
We managed to clear virtually the lot, with only a mere handful of items remaining unsold, which have since been taken to the local Wakefield Hospice Charity shop. Everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and most folks got multiple bargains.
The auction this year raised £460, which, bearing in mind the bidding on a lot of items started at 50p, is a staggering and truly impressive result !!!! This amount sets a new record for the Wakefield MAG Post Christmas Auction, beating the previous best by £35. Awesome !!!
We voted to round the amount raised up to £510, so that it split nicely into 3 (we advertised a split of the proceeds of 2/3 to MAG and 1/3 to a charitable cause). This year our auction donation to the MAG fighting fund was £340 !!!!. The charities which have benfitted this year are:
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.
We will be holding our 8th Post Christmas Auction in January next year so, hope to see you there.
