Back in town / Internet 'issues'

Got back yesterday -- long day as I woke up at 6AM to be able to inspect some items before the auction started. It was pure amateur hour - an older (10-15 years guessing) Enerpac hydraulic unit went for $750. New ones these days are quite pricey as they have become the "Cadillac" of power units but this puppy was worth a couple hundred if that. The cost of a half-horse electric motor, a steel box holding a gallon of hydraulic oil and an $80 pump are not worth $750. I did score a nice Dayton shop fan -- floor standing on a cast iron pedestal. These retail for around $250 and at $25, I was made a happy man. It was a lot of fun poking around the site -- they took raw logs in on one end and spat out finished sheets of plywood on the other. The whole site was about the size of a city block -- great urban exploration. It was very sad to hear that the patriarch, Jim Murphy had passed away last Sunday. He was not only a great auctioneer, he was also a great man and a pillar of the community. His son Tim took over day-to-day operations in 1990 but Jim continued to auction as late as April 2012. I really like Murphy Auctions as they run a clean show -- no shilling and pure theater...