OK, how's about another review?
Harrah Auction. Held at the Harrah Lumber and Feed. Just a bit of the main drag.
Started outside with a few goats (at 5:00pm). They then sold some misc merchandise, though not too much. A few feeders, some barbless wire, and a dinette set. I went inside to stake out a chair. Since there appeared to be only about 60 chairs, I expected they would fill quickly. There were probably another 20 or so standing in the back.
Prices on merchandise was low. I bought a hovabator forced air model 1590 fpr $25. There was a little giant that only made it to $20, and the owner wanted $25. The buyer agreed and the deal was made. There were some farm-related items sold, horse harness, guns, chainsaw, and a few toys.
Then they sold Eggs. Eating eggs brough $3 for 18 count. Buyer took all 12. He only got 11 since one of the pit men dropped a dozen! Hatching eggs went for $2.75 for a dozen RIR.
Then they sold quail, guinnies, and chickens. Adult roosters brought $2-4. Trios and quads of Black autralorps brought $19.50 per bird. Often the cage was sold seperately for just a couple of dollars.
Adult hens seemed high, but given it was first of spring, folks were probably anxious to get production going.
Not many pure birds. A good sized group of Buff Orps (sorry I missed the price). The only special birds were Carla's Spitzhaubens. Since she's a forum member, I'll withhold the price they sold for, but I did buy the last 2 of her six.
Auction was run well. Clean, and honest. No apparent shill bidders, and there were only a couple of times the auctioneer mixed up who was winning bidder, but it may have been the pit man's fault too.
Permanent bidder numbers were offered. Always nice to not have to re-register each time. There was 1 porta-potty provided, and it was clean (for a porta-potty).
Overall impression was very good. Would like to have seen more birds, but that can fluctuate outside of auctioneer's control. They started on time. Terms were clear (are you buying all for 1 money, or x times the price, etc..)
I will definately come back. It's a little down the road for me, but if I can make it happen I will. We were out the door around 7:30.
JimD
Edit to add:
Their phone number is 405-454-1188
Map
Edit again with update on 4/26/08
Looks like I will have to change my opinion on the Harrah auction. They are now biweekly, which is fine. But now non-poultry items are getting to the point that I don't really care to go. This evening they started at 5, and it was 7:20 when they started selling eggs. There were lawnmowers, washing machines, microwaves, tools, tons of home decore, and things I would have personally just thrown in the trash. I was tired of waiting and went home. Which is unfortunate because there were birds I wanted to bid on. Specifically Carla's silkies. So since I went home, she likely got less for her birds.
I watched a couple of debates over which bidder was actually the winner, a few times, they had to stop and ask who bought something, because they wrote down the wrong bidder number. To me that should NEVER happen. Granted most of the time I'm at auctions, it's a 4 digit number before the decimal, but the principle is that mistakes shouldn't happen. Their professionalism has been overtaken by what looks like amaturism. Do people attend auctions before they try to run them?
Sad to say this auction went from very promising to disappointing in just a few months. At least I got to meet a couple of forum members before I stopped attending.
JImD