| One more Yellow Brick Road |
[Aug. 8th, 2005|02:15 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  numb | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Cock Robin | ] |
I have been off to see the wizard. Every year,the first weekend in August, the International Wizard of Oz club holds their local meeting for the east coast. The meeting/ convention for east coast Oz fans is called The Munchkin Convention. The eastern side of Oz being the place where Dorothy's house fell, where she was immediately welcomed by the Munchkins who lived there. There is a west coast meeting too,The Winkees, if the north had one it would be the Gilikins and the south would be the Quadlings, Emerald City is where they meet in the middle. The Munchkins however is the meeting I have attended for the last 28 years in a row, and 33 times in the last forty years. The last 24 years I have helped put on the meetings big event,the auction,and for the last ten years I have been the auctioneer.
I had to go back and read that, while writing it I felt like I was doubling up to much,but I think thats enough background.
The auction is a full daytime event in two sessions on Saturday. Two and a half hours in the morning and the same in the afternoon. For the time being this is my responsibility, I schedule the five hours into categories of collectibles, and then try to mush as many fun items and facts as I can into the alloted time. The time periods also help people who collect only one item to show up when their favorite thing or things are most likely to be introduced. It leaves them time to do other thing when items they dont want are auctioned.
I however am required to be there,talking,wheedling,cajoling every once in a while entertaining for the full five hours. The entertainment I assure you is most often unintentional,but I except credit for it like I mapped every moment. If I havent made it sound like fun too then let me add that right now,this is a whole lot of fun, a pleasure and a privilege to be part of. In my regular business I occasionally get the opportunity to help someone find that one item that has alluded them for most of their collecting life,and for this one weekend I get to help around 100 people find a few items that will fill that collector fix they have until they expand their list and we get together again. Books,movies,records, toys, dolls ,figures,original art-both animation cells and book illustrations,comics, and just about anything Oz that has been sent our way,and as much as I think I might know about any one thing, there is always some new story,or new detail that one of the meeting members can pass forward as we wade thru this "addiction" that is collecting and distributing.
My favorite moment this weekend was when I got to talk to a guest of one of the regular attendees. He had a lot of fun during his first weekend with us,and explained that being a really big fan(read fanatic) of professional wrestling, he really related to the way the people at this meeting felt about Oz. "This meeting" being the one where librarians get together with "friends of Dorothy",and academics(the wizard of oz is often called the first american fairy tale and is the subject of a lot very heavy academic study because of that)mix with toy collectors,very few of which seem to be the wrestling type,and yet no one who heard him offered the slightest argument to that comparison. Its the fanatic part,the commitment that people have to things they love that makes these kind of things so easy to compare without reproach. It also gave me a moment with the thought that ,that kind of fanaticism is my life,when I'm not working my store(collectibles),I'm out gathering bigger and better toys that I NEED to have. A prouder moment few experience!
If your more inclined to the cold hard cash aspect of this kind of thing, we got 510 for an author signed book, 825 for a one of a kind doll, 270 for a toy set, and 110 for a record set. There were no bids for the 42 year old marshmallows that could double as hammers,hard enough to drive in any nail thru any surface. |
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