Twilight Auction Records and general info

Last year on 19 and 20 November 2016 the Prop Store held a live auction of Twilight costumes and props in Hollywood. There were 900 lots. This year there was a second and last auction on line only that ran from 16 to 19 November 2017. There were about 636 lots this time. Last year I had very little extra to spend on bidding, most of my extra money went to the trip to attend in person. Both auctions were very interesting and unique experience. This year having sold my condo for more than expected I had some extra money to bid on items.

Once the catalog was available I looked over the items and picked out initially 44 lots to watch. As bidding started items were deleted. I checked with Jack Morrissey and Lissy Andros on interest in the books available. I checked with a couple of other people on their possible interests. No one else was interested in the books.  One (1) copy of Wurthering Heights was listed. One (1) copy of Robert Frost poems and Bella’s notebook was listed. And multiple copies of Romeo & Juliet and Merchant of Venice were available.

Besides the books there were three (3) lots of vinyl LP records from Edward’s collection. I knew someone who would be interested in that. There was a model of the Swan home that I was really interested in. Shipping that was really expensive and then add in cost of protective case to display, I let it go. There were some boxes/trunks, one especially, that were of interest. There was a camera of great interest. There were some blankets that were of minor interest initially.

By the day before final day, I had list of about 20 items that I was interested in. The model, camera, and all but one blanket went away. The remaining blanket kept drawing me. My living room décor has red as an accent color. It also reminded me of  Windchymes’ stories with a blanket. So by the night before, I was down to five (5) different items with about 15 lots.

The first items of interest were the lots of records. My friend Anna Buttram was interested and bidding on the second set. She has helped me downsize by accepting my turntable/cassette/CD unit and some of my LP’s and 45’s. She was outbid on her lot. Some comments were made on the Facebook thread. I was contacted by the winner of the third lot, Elke Van der Sctricht. We reached an agreement. Anna will get the third lot. All three of us win and contribute.

I had placed a max bid on one of the trunks. I started hoping I would be outbid. Priorities were shifting to the books and red blanket. The blanket would cost less to ship and really add to my new home. Fortunately I was outbid on the trunk.

Friday dawned and got set up with both computers and phone charged and ready. The new Dell one drives me nuts with Windows 10 and just the way it responds to the pad. It was set up on the main page to monitor the whole items. The old Lenovo was set up on just my watch list and the one I used to bid. I had snack and easy food to eat.

The records were good practice. I started shaking with the R&J books and especially when I won. I took a break and went for a walk and ate. I checked in with Jan off/on and her bid remained high one on the Merchant of Venice. Then came my bidding on clean copy of Merchant of Venice and finally the red blanket.  Details of the wins are in their own posts. 

This is posted without prereader review, please be kind in reporting errors. 

Twilight Auction Romeo & Juliet books

The first lot, #88, I won was a set of eight (8) copies of Romeo and Juliet from New Moon film. I don’t remember how many copies were in the auction last year. This year there were four (4) lots, two (2) had eight (8) copies and two (2) had seven (7) copies.  I wanted to win at least one set to be able to gift copies to some friends that are fans but not so interested to bid in the auction and some that tried and did not win anything. I was hoping to win two (2) lots to spread the joy a little further, but with other items later of greater personal interest I was outbid on the three (3) other lots.

This was the first of the four (4) lots and second or third item I bid on. The practice on the first two helped me win this lot. There was not much of a battle over this. So far five of the eight (5 of 8) copies are claimed. I am making sure that they are going to people who did not win anything, who like / love books, and who will appreciate the association to Twilight Saga books and movies.

Update 21 Nov: six (6) copies are now claimed. I am NOT selling any of them. They are gifts to special people. If one of the two (2) remaining copies are offered to people not interested in them, I have back up people. Contact the other winners to see if they are interested in selling. 

 This is posted without prereader review, please be kind in pointing out errors.

Twilight Auction Merchant of Venice

The copy of Merchant of Venice (MoV) with Alice’s torn out note, lot #590, was my second win. I love books. I really like the Twilight books a lot more than the movies. There is already a copy of Romeo and Juliet from New Moon in the Forks Twilight Collection. It needs the company of Merchant of Venice, Wurthering Heights, and Robert Frost.

Shortly after the catalog for this auction was available, I asked Lissy Andros and Jack Morrissey if they were going after any of the books. They said that they weren’t but would make nice addition to the Collection. So my plotting began.

I should mention that there were available several copies of MoV books. Most were nice and clean copies with torn out note. There was one slightly burned with note inside, but not the torn out one. There was a mostly burned copy as well. I debated between the slightly burned one and a nice clean copy with the torn out note.

A couple days before end of auction, Jack contacted me that someone else, Jan Pool, was asking about donating to the Collection a copy of MoV. I contacted Jan and she was interested in the slightly burned copy. I decided to go for one of the clean copies with torn out note. The slight burned copy with the torn out note is the ideal companion to Romeo and Juliet book. I could donate just the note if they don’t want the clean copy.

It was the fifth copy of the book that I was finally able to win at a reasonable price. Jan won her lot also. I did battle up to a point on two other copies. One was already out of my range and somehow missed one earlier copy. Those battles got me ready for my red blanket battle.

This is posted without a prereader review, please be kind with corrections. 

Twilight Auction Red Blanket

The red blanket, lot #606, from Swan house in Breaking Dawn 2 was my last item to bid on. I am starting this short series of posts on the auction with this item because it is the one I am keeping for myself.

During the online auction, people were posting on a Facebook thread about wins, losses, battles. I noted that my bid for the red blanket had been outbid. I raised mine, outbid shortly after. This happened while the auction was still about 200 items away. I then posted that there was a battle going on over it. I mentioned that I wanted it for my new home in Sequim and my accent color was red.

I started watching it more closely, but waited to raise my bid. As closing item time got closer, the biding back and forth continued. Then messenger on my phone beeped at me. Jack Morrissey at first scared me to death. His phrasing had me thinking that I was bidding against him. Then second message, not that, he asked what my max bid was and if reached beyond that he would take over and make sure I got the blanket. That is when I really started shaking. Nerves at the bidding on it and overwhelmed at his generosity.  As it turned out, my last winning bid was under my max. I think there was some minor computer drama on the one I was using to bid with that happened too, but no lasting impact. Thank you Jack for having my back like a big brother or favorite uncle even if younger than I am and all the advice going into the auctions.

I wanted the blanket for reason given, but also one of my favorite fan fiction author, Windchymes, puts a cashmere blanket in her stories. Bella or Edward use it. I reread her stories more than the original because the characters are a little more mature, they usually communicate much better than in the original. There is still drama and some angst, but not of the teenage variety. For me they are more realistic and more relatable; which considering we are talking about vampires and shapeshifters really shouldn’t matter much.

Now I have a piece of the Twilight movies to own and use or will have come January 2018. Something from the last movie won at the last auction as I am preparing to move from my home for past 30 years. It connects the past and the future. It will remind me of favorite stories both the original Twilight Saga and favorite fan fiction stories. Hopefully I can wrap myself up in it as read new stories from Windchymes.

This is posted without benefit of prereader, please be kind in reporting any errors.