Bid accepted: Looking for deals at annual Pittsburgh airport auction
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated Nov. 1, 2022, to correct that all the items auctioned were abandoned or left behind at the airport.
MOON TWP. – The inside of the Pittsburgh International Airport maintenance facility off Cargo Road was part gambling hall, part rock concert, part down-home fun and all entertaining as the airport's annual abandoned items auction began recently.
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More than 800 people came Oct. 22 to make their bids or simply to watch the goings-on, said Alan Heldreth, general manager of Joe R. Pyle Complete Auction and Realty Service. It was a number typical for the annual event, with more than a few sharing that they were first-timers.
Over 450 registered for a bidders’ number, shared Matt Neistein, manager of public affairs for the Pittsburgh International Airport; another 200 to 300 participated online.
Those on the property walking into the hangar were first met with a disorienting cacophony of voices and an unusual visual. Cars and vehicles, from a snorkel truck to a golf-cart-like utility vehicle, with a number on them — the lot number for bidding — parked along both sides of the hangar, their hoods and cabins open for bidders’ inspection.
Boxes of coats, shoes, books and artwork were neatly lined on the floor next to toddler car seats and strollers. Behind a section separated by a rope, workers tilted up boxes of necklaces, cell phones, computers and e-readers, sunglasses and other higher-end items, when asked, so passersby could inspect — but not touch — what was inside them.
A bank of chairs for the audience, more vehicles on the sides, and people standing around or milling from lot to lot. A raised platform with one incredibly fast-talking man sharing his cadence with the crowd and a microphone, his voice reverberating off the nowhere-near-acoustically-perfect metal structure. A handful more “yeppers,” assistants working the crowd, periodically yelling out a resounding “yep” to help the auctioneer know where and when he had a bid, Heldreth said.
Listen hard. Hope your ears adjust quickly to the auctioneer’s cadence. Decide quickly, before it’s gone — or before you end up paying more than you anticipated for something you’re not sure you really wanted. Serious buyers study the online listings and make notes on the printed list of lot items and order that they will be put out for bid. And they plan trips to the restroom and the food trucks accordingly.
Some of the lower-end items sell quickly; one of the less desirable vehicles sold in about 11 seconds. Yes, 11 seconds. 1/18th of a minute. “There’s no wasting time at all,” observed Neistein. The auctioneers’ goal is to sell 100 lots in an hour, Heldreth said. More than 200 lots — over 8,000 items — flew out the door between 10 a.m and 1:30 p.m.
All that was left unsold were a few pieces of office furniture the airport added late in the game, Neistein said.
The top dollar item was a 2000 New Holland tractor, fetching about $23,000, Neistein said. “We were very pleased with the bidding for something added so late,” Heldreth said.
Overall, Heldreth noted,the auction saw “very aggressive bidders. They always like jewelry, iPads, cell phones and things like that.”
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Budding entrepreneur Chantell Jones, 16, of the Pittsburgh West End’s Elliott neighborhood, was among those willing to take a risk.
“I don’t know if they work,” she said, looking at the four iPhones she just spent $200 on. “If not, I’ll try to fix them myself. I gotta get that money back somehow!”
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This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Looking for deals at annual Pittsburgh International Airport abandoned items auction
