SALVAGE SALE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 20, 25 January 1939, Page 12

SALVAGE SALE.

DAMAGED CARGO. A WATERFRONT AUCTION. WINTER GARMENTS IN DEMAND. A salvage sale on behalf of the underwriters of goods damaged by the fire on the Rimutaka in the course of her recent voyage from London to New Zealand attracted an attendance of about 300 buyers to shed 17 on the Queen's wharf to-day. The occasion was one of the rare opportunities afforded small shop-keep-ers and dealers to acquire possible bargains outside the ordinary channels of business, and they turned up in force, to benefit to the extent of their financial resources. Business acumen, keen scrutiny of the samples displayed and of the smoked or damp cases, and a tendency to gamble to a conservative extent were the chief characteristics of those who took active part in the sale. Shy to open the bidding on a lot by any but the most modest offering, with always a possible hope of "getting away with it." the interested dealers quickly responded to competition, and in a manner indicating that they were not making any blind bid. "I don't know what it is worth; it might be anything," declared the auctioneer in putting up a lot described as a case of ladies' coats. "There you are," as the packer lifted out and displayed a couple of the articles first to hand. "Fur-trimmed coats. How much! Say £100. "Say £90—£80—£60!" he implored. Nobody wanted a case of ladies' coats at £60, it seemed. But someone said £5, and then the fun Btarted. In £5 bids they got in a minute to £40, stuck a while, and £1 calls carried the price to £60. This looked the limit of the gamble in next winter's goods, but a shift to 10/ bids lifted the final selling price to £67 10/. And no one spoke when the auctioneer offered the lot st £60 in the first place! Competition ia the life of a salvage sale, and well-laid plans of dealers sometimes go agley. Snappy as a Wool Sale. So it went on. Another case of winter coats and cardigans for women, which evoked silence at the auctioneer's offer of £30, started at £5 and went off at £36. Women's winter hats brought animated competition from £5 to £10 and went off at £12 for one lot and £19 for another. Fancy poods, too. seemed to hold an element of gamble that appealed "enerallv and quickly ran the price up. There wag a deal of knitting wool on the catalogue, and a surprising discrimination whs shown in the bidding for this which was as snappy, for a time, as the farmers' woql sale. Fashionable colours appeared to be the deciding factor in running one lot up to £4.">. whereas three other lots went at half that. He Took the Lot. There were, however, goods such as children's shoes about which the buyers were very cautious, while, on the other hand, children's coats were keenly competed for. To the lay mind the question of hbw much a .bargain the various purchases represented at the figures was a mystery for the most part. But when it came to 50 cases of matches, put up in five-case lots, sufficient information was gleaned to indicate that the buyer of the first lot had a prospect of a handsome dividend. Apparently he thought so, too, for when asked to exercise his option of how many more lots he would take he promptly said— "The whole lot." So any who might have been waiting for a sag in prices on a later portion of the fifty cases were disappointed. Of course, like the rest, he was taking the chance of smoke, fire and water damage being greater than he had assessed. There was, in addition to the softgoods, a large quantity of hardware. rubber and motor accessories for which the bidding was keen, within limits, but not sought after nearly so widely.