Amish Auction draws bigger crowd, makes more money
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ST. IGNATIUS — Beautiful quilts and warm weather enticed 1,200 people out to the 9th Annual Mission Valley Auction to bid on various consignment items and quilts.
According to Ed Beachy, the quilt auction alone brought in $49,000 and made about $2,000 more than it did last year. He said they gave out about 500 bidders numbers, about 100 more than last year. The total amount raised will not be know until later this week.
Claris Wittinger of Charlo was originally looking for a glider chair that she could put on her porch to rock back and forth on. Instead, she stepped into the quilt auction tent and left with a hand stitched white quilt for $350.
“It was kind of spontaneous,” Wittinger said. “I was here three or four years ago and quilts were going for $800 and up.”
She said she bought a quilt that looks like it could have gone for more money but the economy is keeping people from bidding higher.
“That’s a lot of work, the hand stitching,” she said. “If I did something like that I wouldn’t sell it.”
Wittinger said she came out to the auction to enjoy the beautiful day and she is still looking for a glider chair.
“I’m getting older, I’m not going to take my money with me,” she added.
Brenda Beachy, one of the quilt auction organizers, said many of the quilts were sold at really low prices, but because there were more quilts, they made more money.
The highest paid quilt was sold at around $700 and the lowest was $275.
Despite the low bidding, Brenda thought the crowd size was up from years past.
“The weather is fantastic and the crowd is bigger,” Brenda said. This year she estimated that they received and sold around 130 quilts.
“Overall the outcome was better than last year,” Ed said. “We even had a few people from Seattle and Canada come down. It’s because of word of mouth and people like to make a trip out of it and spend time in the area.”
Cynthie Preston of Ronan has been coming to the auction for years and has bought quilts, a glider and a lawnmower.
“It’s not like I need anything. I just love auctions,” Preston said. “They do a great job, it’s a fun day, and it’s an outing.”
