2nd Time Around: Antique Store Auction

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For years one of the best places to shop for antiques was this store in Whynot, Mississippi. Mr. Booker owned this shop which included this building and several others.

I may have written about this experience before, so if you’ve heard this just skip over this part. When my daughter moved into her first home after getting married, she and I loved shopping for bargain antiques for her home. One day we were at Booker’s Antiques, and my daughter and son had crossed the road and were telling me to ‘hurry up’ as I came out the door. I was carrying Connor, and looked down, and a huge black snake slithered right in front of my foot!

From that point on, I would only go out there in cold weather! I still would buy things occasionally, but would always tell Mr. Booker about my snake sighting, and have him check drawers etc. to make sure there were not any snakes hibernating in the piece! He would laugh and say his pet snakes kept the place free of rats and mice!

As years went by, we would shop there less frequently, and Mr. Booker was often not there when we would go. I would still see him at estate sales and sometimes garage sales, but he always said to call first…he didn’t keep the shop open very much.

A couple of years ago, Mr. Booker passed away, and much of his finer antique pieces that were in his home were shipped to New Orleans to be auctioned off. I thought about going to the auction just for the fun of it, but did not go.

Recently, an auction was held near his store to auction the contents of his store. When we drove up, we saw car tags from many states and lots of antique dealers, so that was a pretty sure sign that bargains would be hard to come by.

I had my camera, and snapped a few pictures of things that caught my eye. This cabinet was in his store and wasn’t for sale. The auctioneer told us that many of the items in the store had signs on them that said “Not for sale.”

I loved this planter, and started out bidding on it, but dropped out when it went over $50. I think it ended up going for $65.

This beautiful stained glass would have looked good in my bathroom, but it ended up going for $275.

I can’t remember how much this clock went for, but it was more than I wanted to pay!

I loved this silver tray and the silver trimmed sugar and creamer, but ended up leaving before these were auctioned off.

There were so many items to be auctioned that it took all day. I left for awhile and ended up going back right before it was over. I did ‘win’ a bid on a diamond cut glass ice bucket. It looks pretty in my china cabinet, and reminds me of all the trips to his antique shop. I also bought an oil painting which I’ll probably put in my booth.

There were lots of surprises in the auction-for example this piece of tin advertisement which is also a string holder went for $1,400! A little bit out of my price range. I later heard some antique dealers discussing this and saying that the piece was valued at around $9,000!

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I did start out bidding on this Victorian bird cage, but dropped out when it went over $200. It ended up bringing over $500!

More pictures of the auction can be viewed at www.cookauction.com

Anyway, there will be several more of these auctions. I’m not sure if I will go to all of them or not-too many big spenders were at the first one!

Thanks for stopping by!