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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Local Scene Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us February 13, 2006 ‘Going once, going twice’ for 42 years in Phoenix Auctioneer leads a crowd through a sea of auction items every Thursday By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings For about three hours every Thursday evening, auctioneer Dwayne Brood tries to instigate the crowd of about 50 people in the bleachers of his barn into paying a little more than the person before has offered to. A typical call goes as follows, “I’ve got five. Does anyone want to pay 7.50? Five ... I’ve got five ... does anyone want 7.50? 7.50! I’ve got 7.50; anyone want 10? 10! Anyone for 15? 15 ... do I hear 15? Going once ... Sold, you bought her for $10.” Bargain hunters look through merchandise up for auction at the Red Barn Auction House on Highway 99 in Phoenix before the bidding begins. Julie Munafo | For the Tidings Of course, Brood, an aging man who wears a cowboy hat for the festivities, announces these ever-escalating prices much quicker than can be transcribed into print. For 42 years, Brood and his wife ’Nita have run the Red Barn Auction House on Highway 99 in Phoenix, where there is a weekly auction every Thursday night from 7 until 10. A typical auction contains some consignment items, many estate items and even some repossessed cars. “We’ve sold everything imaginable,” Brood says before he commences the auction. As he spoke, the soon-to-be bidders peruse the items for auction on display in front of the bleachers. There is furniture, kitchen ware, bedding, a 1970s vintage record collection, books, knickknacks, garden tools and what can only be described as miscellaneous items. The items the auction house was advertising this week was a collection of more than 30 cookie jars, many of which sold for between $10 and $30, during the auction. Brood says the antiques and collectibles tend to be the most popular items. But, he added, you never can tell what will be hot and what will not. He said eBay has added a new element to the auction economy, but that his bread and butter are still the local second-hand dealers who buy things at the auction and then resell them in their own stores. Terry Rombach, who owns Goofy’s Furniture Company in Phoenix came to the auction on Thursday to do just that. “I do pretty good here,” he said. “Probably half of my inventory comes from auctions and estate sales.” He said he primarily deals in furniture but added, “I’ll buy anything if it’s salable.” At this week’s auction, refrigerators, for example, were not. Brood’s employees brought several out to the auction floor but when the customers weren’t bidding what Brood wanted to get, he chastised them in a joking sort of way. “Folks, you’re at an auction sale,” he said. “If you bid tomorrow, it’ll be too late.” But no one, still, wanted to pay $25 for a used freezer. “If you think I’m gonna back up on this one, folks, you’re wrong,” he said, and called for a $25 bid two more times before demanding that his staff, “Get it out of here,” implying that he was not willing to allow the freezer to be sold for anything less than $25. When the group was slow to offer what Brood thought was a fair price for an antique Monopoly game, he said, “Folks, you’re not treating that thing right.” Besides a 1999 Ford Taurus that sold for $1,100, the big item on Thursday evening was a painting of a desert scene. Though it looked, to the untrained eye, no more valuable than the picture of Clint Eastwood that sold for $15, the painting captured $800, and was one of the more contested items of the evening to be sold. The bidding started at $100 and quickly rose, in intervals of 100, to $600. The next $200 increased by $50 at a time. “600, I’ve got 600 ... who will give me 650?,” Brood asked, in auctionese. “650. I’ve got 650 on the floor, do I hear 7?. 7; I’ve got 7. Do I hear 750? 750! Do I hear 8? 8! Do I hear 850? I’ve got 8, do I hear 850? 850? 850? I’ve got 8, going once, going twice, sold, for $800, you bought her.” Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x 226 or [email protected]. DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Merchant Account Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams