For potential buyers (or bidders), it all starts with an ad in the local paper a few weeks before the actual Offset Sale. Potential buyers spend considerable time agonizing over the desire to buy…balanced against their needs…and of course, available funds (or perhaps accessibility to funds?) and deep consideration is given to the distance to travel to attend, and/or how to transport potential purchases home…if successful.
But now the day has come, the investigation of comparable ‘new’ or almost new prices has been completed, and the maximum dollar price of goods/machinery/whatever desired has been decided. Consequently, decisions have been made about which vehicle to travel in: the comfortable sedan (if small size purchases are planned), via trailer, utility, truck, or perhaps the plan is to book ‘professional’ transportation for much larger items. .
As always, there will be much anxious searching for the agent’s signs at road junctions near Sale, and fear will develop of losing the place somehow; all surprisingly resolved at the turn of the road, or on the other side of a hill. Behold! There are a hundred or more vehicles of all kinds (and trailers and even horse floats)… lined up on each side of the road, and even more in a cleared paddock in great numbers, lined up in neat rows, with plenty of maneuvers. space between.
A quick perusal of the items for sale decides if it’s likely to be a ‘good ‘a’ gold has ‘fake’ (or waste of space). The next step is to find the sales agent’s temporary ‘office’, register with his name and a few details and receive a numbered ticket (about the size of a playing card). This will be your bidder number and all purchases and their prices will be recorded as the sale is made, with a final accounting and payment at the end, before the purchases are cleared. Of course, astute shoppers have arrived early enough to sift through all the items for sale, make a judgment call, and decide on an acceptable price range.
The first thing to sell will be the multitude of sundry boxes, usually stacked in the back of a truck or semi, and maybe a trestle table or two. These are the supreme delight of the handyman, the ‘wannabe’ mechanic and fixer of all things, and of immense value to the novice farmer, to start his precious stock of ‘stuff’ (those innumerable bits and pieces, odds and clods, which enter to N/A practical…some day!) You just can’t imagine how many of these ‘essentials’ will be picked up, examined in detail, maybe recognized and identified, maybe not! A LITTLE… you never know when you might need that…What is it’s name.
Somewhat reluctantly, the potential shopper goes on to begin his journey through the long lines of this other farmer’s “junk and treasure,” hoping against hope that there will be far less of the former and untold bargains on the latter. These rows will include items as varied as – stock management equipment; drinkers and feeders; fencing equipment; gates and fence posts; feed bags and seed bags for sowing; countless partial and full containers of herbicides, pesticides, etc. Maybe there will be a chicken shed or an aviary or a hutch, even a half old rainwater tank, used as a shelter for whatever.
The following is likely to be a line of numerous farm implements; spray tanks and the like, gradually getting bigger and more elaborate, until there are tractors, motorcycles, vans, trucks. There may be bales of hay, just a few to show the kind stored elsewhere in large sheds… and the auctioneer will give details of numbers available and ‘lots’ or how many can be bought at one time.
Sometimes there are cattle, most of the time sheep, but sometimes cattle, classified in pens by types… or ages… or stage of pregnancy… or if they are rams (castrated male sheep)… or rams.
All of these will have one thing in common: they are terrified, after weeks or months in the quiet of the meadow, suddenly surrounded by a mass of human bodies, and being poked apart to check length, and gaping mouths. to check the condition of the teeth for age. It’s not a good place to be.
Finally, there are the items for the home, usually starting with outdoor furniture; barbecues; tried; maybe a kennel or two, maybe an animal transport cage. There is likely to be a collection of furniture, perhaps the unwanted remnants of an adult family’s bedroom, or perhaps just older furniture… now worn… now replaced.
Numerous boxes will contain kitchen items; books and magazines; old records, maybe some CDs, maybe even a stereo or sound system to play them too; all sorts of well-used or ‘still in their manufacturers’ boxes’ electrical appliances and items. Screens and lamp feet will be interspersed on the kitchen tables with crockery and cutlery and glassware; lots of doyleys and tablecloths and cushions; on the ground and around, toys and strollers and costs; and then radiators… or a surfboard, or a motorcycle crash helmet – and almost always a fridge or two… and the obligatory old oversized freezer.
For now, it’s a good idea to check out the catering for a snack before the sale starts. Usually one of the sheds has a long table set up by the local ladies from the CWA (Country Women’s Association), or the female bowlers, or the Red Cross, containing a wide variety of their ‘culinary delights’ . Rows of tempting sandwiches with colorful fillings are tightly wrapped in plastic wrap for maximum freshness, as are countless varieties of cakes, cookies and slices. Sometimes small cardboard plates containing 3 or 4 varieties are offered, sometimes buns with butter, sometimes with jam. And always the choice of tea or coffee, black or white, sugar or not – the urn is boiling before they finish setting up.
Sometimes the local Lions branch, or maybe the football club, will have a “sizzling sausage” to go, and then it’s a fresh slice of bread on a paper towel with a couple of sausages on top and some Fried Onion Rings. And then you slip, you sink, you spill the sauce on yourself.
It’s a great way to prepare for the moment when 3 or 4 men, in matching shirts and jeans and RM Williams boots, all sporting their somber Akubra hats, suddenly jump into the back of that ‘sundry’ truck, and the auctioneer shouts –
“SALE-O…SALE-O…STARTING NOW! SALE-O…SALE-O…”
And another farm offset sale begins.
© 2011 Christine Larsen All rights reserved worldwide
