5 days out and a small list starts to form around 4am Tuesday. 1) Beer/Wine 2) print lot sheets for clients 3) email page 16 change to catalog… etc. The list will likely hit in the mid 20s as their are a lot of small tasks to complete before Saturday… nothing we can’t handle. The phone bids are starting to roll in. Preview day is Friday ive invited some of my close friends just so its not lonely in case no one comes. Thats always a fear of an auction. NO ONE COMES. IMPOSSIBLE right? I thank so especially given there are close to 1,000 registered online bidders so even if their is one in the crowd they have a bit of competition. Lady at the local antique shop when I dropped my flyers off.. she asked “IS IT A REAL AUCTION?” I smiled and said… “you better believe it, everything in that room is really gonna be sold!” then she said “I mean like the good ole days is it that kind of auction.” this struck an interest cord with me because most likely I was only 8 during what she called “the good ole days” but I remember them well enough. So I put my elbows on the counter and leaned in… “please explain maam” – She went on to say how great auctions were back in the old days and after a few minutes of nostalgic antidotes I explained it to here like this: “Well maa’m I’ll tell it like this… I don’t think your going to walk in and find a box lot under the table with 3 Gibsonville Milk Bottles that sells at the end of the sale for $10 – (as I pointed to the showecase beside me to a beat up Gibsonville Milk Bottle they had priced $400!….) But I do admit I love an auction like that!” We both laughed and I left the flyers with her.
With that said… can you make some dough at the Ledbetter Folk Art & Americana Auction event… ask the dealer that paid $2300 plus premium for the decorated blanket chest back in dec. 2020 – he had it sold before he got out of the parking lot. Or the the man that paid $5200 for the African American dulcimer at our first event in June… he sent me a message when it arrived to him saying thank you for this, its a great piece… I won’t own it long but ill enjoy looking at it before its sold. Primarily we try to advertise to the end user. The one that puts it in their house and keeps it for 10 years or more… but its so much good folk art, outsider art, self taught art, and pottery that the end user gets filled up fast and a smart dealer can get in their and make some money. I would encourage any dealer to attend our sale especially for the pottery because its such an overflow their are some that falls under the radar. Anyone that likes a beer on a Saturday afternoon should attend because where else can you get FREE BEER!
I’d like to speak on the photo. Thats my 7 year old and his friend Mac. We let our kids run around folk art. They carry pottery and get to touch 90% of the items that come into the gallery. I ask once a week or so… whos your favorite potter? The other day Jax, my 9 year old looked at a drawing I had just created and said “wow dad, I like that – its very folky” and thats the future!