The Winter Auction will be held on Saturday, January 4th at our Cole Court venue; help us make this a highlight of the year! The Auction is a very entertaining meeting with lots of banter, enjoyed by all. It is also a good reason for getting out on, what can be, a cold and, otherwise, uninspiring day. For those who are new to this, here are a few notes on how the Auction works:
The doors will open for the meeting at 1.00 pm; plants arriving for auctioning will be registered and allocated a number. Members can bring up to 8 lots, and joint members up to 12. The plants are then placed on the auction tables.
Members who come to buy, rather than to sell, will register and be handed a personal number; any plants they buy will be assigned to that number.
The Auction will start at 2.00 pm with the plants being auctioned at random. Each plant will be held up for all to see and have a little information given about it; also, a very reasonable starting price suggested. After the sale of the final plant, a lot of arithmetic will be carried out to total up each purchaser’s spend and to ascertain each seller’s takings, not forgetting that 10% of each plant sale goes to the O.S.G.B.
The sellers expect to go home with their takings, so we try to run a cash auction as far as possible; please visit a cash point if you can before you come to the Auction. However, we will also be able to take credit/debit card payments by Zettle if you have been unable to get hold of any cash, or have brought insufficient with you!
The Auction is a fantastic means for O.S.G.B. members to ‘swap’ plants.
If you can’t grow an orchid as well as it should be grown, bring it to the Auction; you can bet that someone else would like to give it a go.
If you come to the Auction, you are sure to pick up a bargain or two; lot prices can start as low as £5.
Many of the plants auctioned in 2024 would have cost over £20 to purchase commercially, some of them much more. Also, several of the orchids seen in the 2024 Auction are now not commercially available; so, coming to the Auction gives you the chance to pick up a rarity that you may not otherwise be able to obtain.
We look forward to seeing you on the 4th!
