Sotheby's Kennedy Auction

The exhibition was surreal. Many of the things for sale were items just like you or I would try to unload at a tag sale: old magazines, old books, records (as in vinyl!) baskets (those ubiquitous tag sale staples, why do we all think that once we buy them, they will somehow serve a useful purpose besides collecting dust?) mismatched dishes, incomplete sets of glasses, Mason jars without lids and ratty old furniture. Except that all this stuff was once owned by the Kennedy family.
Sotheby's arranged the lots into "rooms," sort of a "see the items in their natural habitat!" kind of arrangement, and it was interesting to see that they accumumlated the same kind of crap we all have. I'm wondering what my castoffs might look like artfully arranged and beautifully lit in Sotheby's sun-flooded exhibition space.

So remember when I said that the estimates would be way off the mark? The old vinyl records? They were estimated at $50-$75. Sold for? $1,440.00!
The baskets? There were actually about five separate lots of baskets (someone in the Kennedy family is a sucker for baskets!), this one, which included a tissue-box cover, was estimated at $75 -$125. Sold for $960.00! (Note that some of them are soiled! Ack!)
The mismatched china? $3,300.00. The old magazines? Estimated at $100-200, they sold for a whopping $3,600. (Jackie had written "Onassis" on the covers, was she afraid someone was going to steal them? Or did she want to make sure that her children never wanted for anything, knowing that they could make a pretty penny selling off some old magazines?) I actually had the idea of bidding on the magazines, and using them to make collages. Ha! I'd love to know who bought them and what they'll do with them.

Barney's Warehouse Sale madness

Warehouse Sale
Originally uploaded by _Ingrid_.

It's that time of year again! I went yesterday, and it was a mob scene. Because I'm not working this year, and thanks to copious bargains obtained in other years, I didn't really need anything ... but I did get a nice pair of khakis, just for the sport of it. This was taken while standing in line, which wrapped around three times!