SUPERIOR AUCTION SELLS FIVE STORIES FOR
HAMILTON SCIENTIFIC
The Hamilton Scientific Public Auction, which was held in Two Rivers, WI on April 13th, was a huge success! Over 450 people attended and came from multiple states.
Bidding was fast and furious in the multiple auctions rings. For the majority of the day, there were two auction rings, with an occassional third ring for various areas of the gigantic, 100,000 sq ft. plus building.
Auctioneers Larry Schultz and Carol Miller sold three floors of merchandise, including the furniture and equipment from two floors of corporate offices, print rooms, warehouse areas and the executive parking garage. Their energy level was high, and they were also quite entertaining! It was amazing to watch this dynamic duo keep the pace after several hours of selling, and to watch the still sizable crowd laughing and still spending money!
Auctioneer Nellie Beland, who owns Superior Auction & Appraisal with her husband Gene, sold on two floors, including the third floor laboratory showrooms, Information Technology areas, and the antique furniture from the executive level.
Hamilton Scientific manufactures laboratory furniture and fume hoods for schools, forensics labs, hospitals, and others. Their showrooms were outstanding and included over 20 science labs and laboratory workstations, as well as a large quantity of fume hoods. Hamilton Scientific is a world-reknowned company in the science industry and their product is known for quality and endurance. Their corporate office has relocated to a state-of-the-art facility in DePere, WI after operating from the Two Rivers location for the past several decades.
This commercial auction, due to its size, both in square feet and amount of merchandise, required a huge amount of planning, marketing, and physical labor. Gene and Nellie made a second home in Two Rivers for several weeks! Several prep days included many of Superior Auction's staff members, who worked hard tearing offices apart, cleaning merchandise, and staging five floors of merchandise!
The auction attracted a variety of buyers including previous and current employees of Fisher Hamilton, Hamilton Scientific, & Thermo Scientific, bio-chemical companies, schools, laboratory furniture dealers, and the general public. We were very excited that several schools were able to upgrade their science labs, purchase additional school-related fixtures, etc. The showroom labs and fume hoods were like new, so it was a wonderful opportunity for everyone!
Superior Auction held three 'open houses' for schools and businesses and the people who attended were very grateful for having the opportunity to buy quality merchandise with no reserve bids! St. Thomas Aquinas Academy from Marinette, WI upgraded all of their laboratory furniture, which had been in place since the 1930's. Starting with the next school year, there will probably not be a more state-of-the-art science lab in any school for miles around! The Manitowoc Public School System, as well as a new charter school from Oconto also benefited greatly.
The doors opened at 8am on the day of the auction, and there was a long line ready to start their preview. Our office manager Jennifer, and her daughter Hannah, processed the computerized registration very fast and efficiently. Hannah is a business major in college and a very sharp young lady that we were happy to have onboard.
For this size of an auction, security was a major concern and we positioned personnel at each exit who checked invoices against the merchandise being removed. We would probably say that the security staff had the most stressful day, as they not only checked invoices, but directed the customers who had their purchases staged for use of the freight elevators and using the underground executive garage. GREAT job, Jenn, Jackie and Susan!
We are EXTREMELY grateful for our ENTIRE staff, who helped with prep work, spent an extremely long day on site the day of the auction, and provided exemplary customer service skills! Each person was a part of making this auction a success!
When we first started working at the Hamilton site, their corporate employees were still functioning from the Two Rivers site and offered help in many ways. Rick Johnson had the expertise and experience for all of the showroom merchandise, and shared his knowledge during the preparation and also on auction day. He was very helpful as he knew each lab workstation and fume hood inside and out! We were so impressed with the Hamilton Scientific employees overall, and they are a very hard-working group of people. We noticed right away that they always took the stairs throughout the five story building and did not use the passenger elevator so we were compelled to do the same - it's a very easy way to lose weight!
Gene only 'thought' he was retiring last year when he left Enstrom Helicopter after 42 years - he probably works more hours now for our company but I'm pretty sure that he is enjoying the auction work a bit more:) Thanks Gene for all that you did (and do), especially the time spent researching. Auctioneers Carol Miller and Larry (Bucky) Schultz also put a lot of hours and enthusiasm into this auction. They are a great 'tag team' and both have boundless energy and knowledge! I promised I would not share some of the 'after' photos but darn! - that would have been fun! I didn't get back to the hotel until 11:30 that night and by then, everyone was pretty whipped (except Bucky:) I know we all slept well that night.
We give a lot of credit to our office manager, Jennifer Nowack, for the huge 450 people-plus in attendance! Jennifer works for us full-time (the Buyer's Fee enables us to do that and other things like carry Workmen's Comp, etc) and is an expert at Internet Marketing!
It was interesting to see the eclectic group of bidders at this auction - some bidders wanted to buy the stainless steel base and upper cabinets for their kitchen, another wanted it for camp to clean their fish, a re-seller wanted it to make a profit, and several schools thought it would be a great addition to their high school science labs! That's a great testimonial to the auction method of competitive bidding!
Several of the science labs sold in the three to four thousand dollar range, as well as a few fume hoods. The MAX adjustable office systems were a steal as there were so many of them! The industrial equipment sold for good dollars, especially given the fact that most of it was outdated. Warehouse racking was a hot item and we had a lot of it! AND, if you were in need of binders, you could have bought a 'whole bag full' for as little as three dollars! Antique furniture prices from the executive level were quite strong, but the buyers got some pretty amazing pieces!
And speaking of 'eclectic,' that would be a good way to describe our company. Because of our rural location, we are often asked to conduct a variety of auctions, including estates, antiques, commercial equipment, real estate, and more! We learned many (19) years ago that it's important to fulfill the needs of our clients and we do that by surrounding ourselves with a group of good people with a variety of experience! AND, if we don't think we have an expert on board, we will refer you to another professional auction company.
Check out Superior Auction Company's upcoming auctions on our website at www.superiorauction.net. And check back frequently as we have quite a few interesting auctions - both estate, commercial, and real estate on the backburner!!
