Auction Date...Fulton Style

Last Saturday, we went to the annual Oswego County Delinquent Tax Property auction.  A parcel of property next to Todd's business was up....it's a corner lot that he owns either side of that his Dad sold many years ago, so we went for that.  Usually, this auction is at the BOCES building in Mexico and done by a local auction company.  This year, an auctioneer out of New York City got the bid and it was held in ....Fulton.  Yeah, the War Memorial where I hadn't set foot since my high school graduation. 

When we got there, the line was long.  Looooong.  Apparently, they were doing a metal detector and pat downs.  In Fulton.  At the Oswego County tax auction.  Gossip moved up and down that line for the 45 minutes or so we stood in it.  People talking about....but not talking about the properties they want...wanting to chat but not show their hand.  The woman in front of confided to me that her husband's moving company needed one of the warehouses in Hannibal. (Unfortunately, they did not get it.)  My favorite moment was one the family that owns The Won-Ton House cut in line near the front with a local slumlord.  A guy in the back yelled out to the them and when the guy said We're Together, the angry citizen said YOU BETTER BE GETTING ONE NUMBER.  He lied and said yes, while his wife held their small child and pretended she didn't speak English.

We finally get through security and then we register, both of us, just in case.  Todd is talking to people left and right, apparently this is an event for many local entrepreneurs.  It began late, over an hour late, after eleven.  There were 117 properties.

We kept our eye on a few things, including a house that was once in Bethany's family, but it went way too high.  Todd had an employee and our sister-in-law were both nearby, trying to get a home for his family and she a rental, for income.  They both got what they needed.  I was VERY excited for the guy...he was raising his three kids and a grandkid and was so excited over the trailer he bid on.

The auctioneer was fast.  It was hard to tell when he was saying the most recent bid and trying to up the ante.  It was hot and stuffy and fairly full.

 The moment of the day was when another one of Todd's employees, sitting across from us got the winning bid of $50,000 on one of the nicest properties there, a fairly new home.  His wife burst into tears, first because she thought she lost and then because she thought she won.  Half the gym was looking at her, feeling her emotion.  Even Todd got teary.  They have baby twins which she spent most of her pregnancy on bed rest with.  I had met her when I was in the hospital having Abbey and she was there, a few months along.  I walked across the room to congratulate her, moved by her obvious excitement at having a home for her children.

And some guy bought five parcels of land in Amboy that totaled FIVE HUNDRED acres for $226,000.  He was from Connecticut and told locals he was a bird watcher.  The people we spoke to were wary because he drove...a Volvo.  The believe he will log it and dump it.  But in Connecticut, that is a STEAL for property.

It finally got to our property and a MOTORCYCLE club was bidding on it!  Todd had heard that they wanted a clubhouse there.  We got it, more than we had thought between the club and another guy, but we did.  We talked to the MC guys in line...they had no idea it was too small to build a clubhouse on or that Todd would want it.  We stood in THAT line...the buyer line...for a long time, making more friends.

This was Todd's third year.  I had gone two years before.  We were there until after 4pm.  I'm kind of getting hooked on auctions.