well, that was exciting…

While the last night’s Super Bowl had Broncos’ fans shaking their head, yesterday’s auction had a few bidders doing their best Peyton Manning impressions as they watched their bidding attempts get squashed by the competition.

There were some fantastic corkscrews as the auction came to a close, and while many corkscrew sold for a single bid, some garnered more than a few bids, and there were indeed a few bidding wars that erupted.

The Schlitz Henshall, in particular, was quite fascinating to watch.

I had emailed TWJ about this piece, and in response he gave his evaluation. And, I emailed Tommy to see what he might be going after, to compare notes. We both thought the Schlitz was a cool corkscrew, so I knew there would be a little competition.

I had been the first bidder, and knowing that there was something else I would be going after in the auction, I decided on my limit.

And, for a while, I thought that I was going to take it. Perhaps Tommy changed his mind.

Apparently not…

No, the Schlitz went way beyond my limit, and kept climbing. And, a bidding war between Tommy and Fotodeal. And, then Tommy and JGY, and then Tommy and Fotodeal had a few of us buzzing.

Tommy and I had discussed it possibly going to 250.

It went a bit higher…

One of the other pieces in which I was interested was the Lowenstein patent – hanging tag advertisement piece.

Again, I set a limit as I already have one, and there was something else in the auction that I would be going after. And, yet again, a bidding war ensued, with none other than Tommy doing battle with Fotodeal.

As with the first bidding war, Fotodeal was triumphant. As he was in other corkscrew lots where his competition put up valiant efforts!!!

It made for some entertaining corkscrew auction action (for some) and some frustrating corkscrew auction action (for others). Still, there were more corkscrews that I knew Tommy would be going after, and I was silently rooting for TC.

So, when the Byrn came up, and with no sign of TC, I threw a bid out. Only to be taken out early. And, with the Patent Wannabe piece, I simply watched, and again, there was no sign of Tommy.

I emailed him to see if he was okay. A few hours later he responded. I was getting a little worried that he spontaneously combusted after the Schlitz auction.

As for me, in the end, I got the one corkscrew in the auction that I was holding out for. It ended without a bid, and within seconds after it closed, I made an offer. The seller countered, and after thinking about it for a moment, I agreed.

A fantastic addition to the collection, and significant particularly to me, as the patentee was (at one point) connected to James Frary. And, it has been on my wish list for some time.

I finally got an Anton Trunk!

The next CollectorCorkscrews auction will be in April, I can hardly wait!!!