Local Auctions

When many doll collectors envision obtaining dolls at auctions, they envision doll specialty auctions--relatively sedate auctions, with paddles raised quietly and relatively expensive dolls taken home by collectors and dealers. If you are a denizen of your local auction circuit, however, what you envision may include rooting through dusty boxes, and crowded, fast, noisy auctions where the offerings whiz by so fast, you can miss the item you are interested in by stopping to retrieve a dropped pen!

Local auctions take place everywhere--small towns, rural farms, and cities. Many (but not all) of these auctions are estate auctions, where items are sold after the death of their owner. Other auctions take place because of bankruptcy, or grandma and grandpa moving to a smaller retirement home. In many communities, auctions are held weekly (in my small town, there is an auction about 3 times a month, with many additional farm auctions in the surrounding, even smaller communities).

What You Can Find At These Auctions

Dolls are often sold at these auctions, as are a multitude of items useful for dollmakers and doll costumers. Dolls can range from valuable antiques to modern and vintage vinyl play dolls (very common!) to ethnic travel dolls (also common) and recent collectible dolls from manufacturers such as Ashton Drake and Franklin Mint. Of course, not every one of these auctions will have dolls for sale. As for dollmakers, there is even a greater possibility of finding useful items --fabric, laces, sewing machines and sewing accessories, old magazines, old buttons, patterns, and even occasionally dollmaking parts, molds, and accessories.

My Finds

Some of my finds at local auctions have included dollmaking molds ($40 for an entire BOX of them) sewing items galore (usually in mixed, unsorted boxes--I have found things like wonderful silk thread and even a gold thimble once--boxes usually go for about $5 to $25, depending what people have spotted in them!) fabric, trims and laces of all sorts, and dollmaking patterns and magazines. One recent estate auction I attended was from a dollmaker's estate, and I think the most valuable item I purchased was a hand-cart full of boxes of old patterns and doll magazines for $25! I also purchased an incredible, working Singer Featherweight sewing machine from 1936 (pictured) including its carrying case and a box of original accessories for $275--about $150 cheaper than a machine in this condition with all accessories would have cost me on eBay. And--in a separate box of miscellaneous sewing items I picked up the manual for the machine as well (for $5!). All doll costumers marvel at the wonderful, small straight stitches that you can get from these machines, and I use it for almost ALL of my antique doll costuming, even though I have a top-of-the-line Viking machine as well.

How These Auctions Work

Usually these auctions are advertised in the classified advertisements section of your local newspaper. More and more of the small auction houses, (like the Chico Auction Gallery) are including schedules and items for sale on web sites. You can usually get a basic idea of what items are being sold at the auctions from the ads or web sites, but remember that in many sales where entire contents of a house are sold, dolls or sewing items may be up for sale but not mentioned in the ads. Most of the auctions hold previews, either a day or two before the auction, or the day of the auction, where you can check out the items for sale. It is imperative that you go to a preview before attending the actual auction (see Pay Attention!, below!) and that you carefully look the items over, especially the box lots. The box lots are often VERY unsorted, and you SHOULD dig through them. Another way to use the previews is to attend previews to see if dolls or sewing items are included in an auction that were not mentioned in the ads. Take your time at the previews--remember, you will NOT have time to look at an item again during the auction (you will barely have time to figure out how much you want to bid) since items whiz by at amazing speeds. Make your preview count, and TAKE NOTES on what the items are and what your top bids will be.

Then, you get an auction number if you are interested in bidding, either at the preview or prior to the auction. At the actual auction, there is usually a main auctioneer as well as several assistants who bring the items up, and who spot bids in the crowd. 100 items an hour or more is the usual pace at my local auctions. And, the auctions can be fun! They are a social event in my town, people even bring the kids (who love the trains roaring by on the train tracks right next to our biggest local auction house!) Even snacks are sold--great entertainment even if you don't bid on anything! Prices start low--$1 in some cases can be a winning final bid. I got a box of unsorted, old leather gloves (for making doll shoes!) for $1 once.

Pay Attention!

Here is a cautionary tale for you about WHY it is important to check every item carefully before the auction if there is an auction preview. At the aforementioned local auction from a dollmaker's estate, I had decided not to buy any of the dolls made by the dollmaker. I had looked at about 10, and they just weren't my "cup of tea"--very synthetic fabrics and trims, and painting not to my liking, so I didn't look at the rest, about 50 dolls in all (the dolls DID sell well at the auction, most in the $15 to $45 range, so several other people really liked them). I also passed up boxes and boxes of doll parts not yet made into dolls.

Well, at the auction, I am sitting with a dollmaking/collecting acquaintance. One of the dolls I hadn't even looked at comes up for bid--and the bid goes to $125! I turn to my friend and ask if she had looked at the doll (no, she hadn't either--it had been up on a shelf, in a VERY purple polyester dress). After the auction I asked the lady who purchased the doll about it--turns out that the doll was a very nice Kestner on a composition body, NOT a reproduction at all! And, as for the boxes of doll parts--UNDERNEATH the parts were several pairs of lovely glass eyes (I learned this later from the lady who won those). SO, look at everything, assume nothing, and DIG in those boxes!

Links to various resources for Local Estate Auctions:

--AntiquesWorld; The events page of this Northern California antiques super-site!

--Roumillat's Auctions: South Carolina

--Chico Auction Gallery; Great example of a small estate auction house. Northern California.

--Antiques and The Arts Weekly: Don't miss their east-coast online auction calendar!

--Master's Auction Service: Idaho

--Estate Sales Unlimited: Oregon

--GW Auction: Oregon

--Compass Rose Auctions: Massachusetts

--Green Valley Auctions: Virginia

--Antique Auction Calendar: For New England

Do you enjoy obtaining dolls at local auctions? Share your experiences in the Dolls Forum!

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