University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, April 21, 1987
7
'Who'll give a dollar '
Above: Arbene Simmons, Albert Paslay and George Simmons, all of Lecompton, take a lunch break. Below: Ken Hornberger, auctioneer, points at a bidder during a sale.
Local weekend auctions provide obscure bargains
ECOMPTON - Eddie McClain picked out a wood-framed windshield and a rusted door handle from the strewn-out car parts to be sold at an auction Saturday
McClain, 76, of Topeka, said the parts
were from a 1921 Ford truck, the same kind McClain had driven through the Pottawatomie Indian reservation burial shes he was much younger.
McClain would pick up and sell old bones that he had reserved for the reservation
Anderson said the Studebaker Lark VI had been in a shed for nine years but was "pretty well broken in" with 46,000 miles on the odometer.
"I made a lot of money off that truck," he said.
Old car parts were just part of this auction, which included among its 400 items five television sets, four combines, three refrigerators, two old cars and a tennis racket with a bird-size hole in it.
Yates filled the back of his truck with $30 worth of purchases, “wasstubts, some crocks.” As he strapped a table on the cab in his truck, he said, “I almost forgot my tablet.
Bunten said she and her husband attended an auction almost every week. "I guess
Auctioneer Ken Hornberger of Lawrence stood on a wagon talking up boxes of parts.
The sale Saturday of a Loompton farming couple's *state* was billed as a two-genera
Ruby Bunten of Topeka had her lawn-chair parked near a 1960 Studebaker that Jack Anderson had just purchased.
Items were moving slow Saturday. They're going awful, awful cheap. "Bunny."
Bill Yates of Topeka agreed. "There was nobody here that wanted anything."
Hornberger had a mobile amplifier strapped across his chest, a microphone in one hand and a cigarette in the other. His 3-inch "KEN" belt buckle held his blue jeans up over cowboy boots.
chain saws and other merchant-ware, that's why a good shopkeeper told the crowd.
One of Hornberger's assistants held up a chain saw.
Hornberger often packaged non-selling boxes of merchandise with other items. Many items were selling for a dollar or two.
"Don't start it now," the auctioneer said, "just sell them the way you see them. You can fire them up later."
He said he had been an auctioneer for 20 years and learned by "just deciding to do it."
Hornberger said some auctioneers had rhythm, some just talk. He said that he didn't have a particular style but that he did have rhythm.
The auctioneer described a box of old license plates. "Ain't but a couple years missed, maybe just one."
A man from the crowd said, "1929 is missing. That was the year of the crash, he probably couldn't afford to buy a license plate that year."
Above: Hornberger auctions miscellaneous hand tools and machine parts from a fully loaded flatbed trailer.
Photos by Darcy Chang
Story by Laura Bostrom
Above: Dave Warriner, Perry, in cap, bids on a 1947 flatbed truck, which he lost to Gary Burch, Lawrence resident, middle, for $500. Right: Jack Corcoran, 2, Lawrence resident, finds a resting place while her parents watch a sale.