CMW Annual Auction

The fourth Annual Auction for Carolina Mountain Woodturners was another out - standing success. Each year one would think it can not get any better and each year surpasses the previous one. President John Hill, our seasoned auctioneer, implemented new procedures for tracking the inventory, sales, sellers and buyers. The new procedures made it much easier to quickly audit the sales and to be able check people out at the end of the day. His team of volunteers did an outstanding job and the success of the day was a result of their combined efforts.

Larry Hasiak, Dave Hout, Elvie Jackson, Alan Lacer, Mike Lee, Dennis Liggett, Pat Matranga, Bin Pho, Chris Ramsey, Gary Sanders, Al Stirt and our own Warren Carpenter were most generous in giving CMW outstanding pieces for the event. Their generosity created very competitive bidding by members who wanted the pleasure of having a fine piece of work in their personal collections. Their offerings and those of members of the club, generated sales netting $6,203. This income goes in the budget to pay for next year's demonstrators.

Chase Ambler designed and produced a motorized turning table that was used to display each individual piece as it was being presented for bidding. This was not only an outstanding way to show the piece but it also made it possible to video the piece for viewing on the monitors. A great addition to the event.

The usual assortment of great deals on hand tools, lathes, woodturning equipment, a shop-vac, assorted small machines and CMW shirts were up for sale. The wood that was presented was far from the usual assortment. It was an amazing amount of domestic as well as exotic wood that made woodturners act like guys in a toy store that featured toys for big boys! There were 414 lots (wood and everything else) to be auctioned. John Hill started the bidding at 10:00 and ended the bidding at 3:00. This translates to one lot closed every 44 seconds. (I think that this is some sort of a speed record.) Additional stats are: 55 successful buyers, 16 sellers plus CMW which generated gross receipts of $13,583. Commission from sales for the club $1,099, sales from donations $6,203 which translates to net income from the event for CMW a total of $7,302.65. Carolina Mountain Woodturners should congratulate itself and should loudly applaud the sterling performance by John Hill, President/Auctioneer extraordinaire.

By Pat McPhail