We held our 9th Post Christmas Auction on Wednesday 30th January at the Grey Horse and what a cracking auction it was !!!
We were happy to welcome along members of Colne Valley, Barnsley and Leeds 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 !!!). A few thought we had less in attendance than previous years but I'm not so sure we did, it's just not everyone was there at bang on 8:00pm, and it was standing room only after a short while.
As per usual, we had an immense amount of stuff donated to the auction, 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 donated, with lots of opportunities to kit yourself out with a complete full range of riding gear. We also had a number of hugely generous donations from local dealers and traders (see list below).
The auction started at 8:10pm and we finally called it a day at 11:00pm, with only a short 10 minute break in-between. 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.
Our auctioneers Chas & Martin did a most splendid job, as they both have done for several years on the trot now. It's certainly not easy auctioneering solidly at a tremendous pace for well over an hour and a half each.
We managed to clear the vast majority of items. Lorna volunteered to take the remaining items to a car boot sale so MAG can still benefit financially from the donations. Toby's old racing leathers didn't get sold again (but only because they didn't fit a bidder who wanted them). These will get offered to MAG members via the Road magazine, and then eBay failing that, so someone will still bag a bargain, with MAG benefiting from the proceeds.
Everyone who attended seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves and most folks got multiple bargains.
We didn't quite break our previous best but the auction this year still raised a most impressive £383 !!! We also held a raffle, and after the £10 prize was deducted, this raised £42, taking the evenings total to £425. Given we are in a triple dip recession, this wasn't exactly an austerity auction and is a staggering and truly impressive result !!!!
We will take a vote at our next branch meeting whether to round up the amount raised, but an additional £25 would take the total to £425, which splits rather nicely into 3, meaning the MAG fighting fund receiving £300 (2/3 of the proceeds), with the remaining 1/3 going to charitable causes as we advertised, and which guarantees the continued goodwill of the non-biking attendees.
A special thanks has to go to Liz Ward who kept track of all the bids all evening with the tallying skills of a seasoned accountant (turf, not financial ;-) ... Seriously though, splendid effort Liz !!!
Particular thanks have to go out to the following local dealers and traders for their most generous donations:
They are all heroes for supporting MAG and thoroughly deserve your business.
We will be holding our 10th Post Christmas Auction in January next year so, being the 10th anniversary, it will be a special one !!! Hope to see you there.