Mike Campbell stands behind the auctioneer’s podium looking out at a gaggle of people holding tickets. He’s surrounded by electronics equipment from motherboards to microscopes and audio mixers.
Campbell is auctioning items in a Miami University surplus auction at Campbell Auction House in Liberty, Indiana, something he says he does usually four times a year.
An employee carries over to Campbell a box containing a jumble of wires, switches and other electronic instruments. He peers inside, scrunches his face and looks up. He and the employee both shrug. Campbell turns to face the crowd.
“Well,” Campbell says. “I don’t know what it is, but I can sell it! Give me a $10 bill. Ten dollar bill?”
A man in the front row reaches a finger just above his shoulder, and Campbell points at him.
“There’s $10! This guy knows what it is.”
That’s all Campbell can eke out of the cluttered box of electronics. For only $10, auction goers get to play a version of “The Price is Right” or “Storage Wars.” For sale are hospital beds and elliptical machines, a self-refrigerated salad bar unit, a pizza oven, about 15 gaming chairs, loose airpods and a 2019 Miami football MAC Championship ring.
The streets around Campbell Auction House are lined with cars, and auction-goers are stuffed inside, chatting and pacing. Many are browsing eBay, and many are carrying a caffeinated beverage.
By 10:30 a.m. Edna Campbell, Mike’s mother, has already given out about 120 numbers. For nearly a month, the Campbells have been driving one of their trucks to Oxford three or four times a week, loading it up and hauling surplus goods — like air conditioner units, large (brand new) speakers and even a pipe bending machine — back to Liberty.
There are four generations of Campbells here today. Edna, the family matriarch, is handing out tickets. Harry Roland “Jake” Campbell started the family auction business back in 1963 and was a licensed auctioneer for over 50 years until his death in 2013.
Their son Mike is the auctioneer. Their two daughters are also in the house. Debbie is sitting next to Edna, and Rhonda is up front. Debbie’s daughter Delanna is sitting at a table keeping tabs on who bought what, while Delanna’s daughter Chloe is carrying paperwork between Delanna and the podium.
The Campbells are moving items from the floor to the podium and into the hands of customers at a break-neck pace. Hardly 10 seconds go by between an auction ending and the next one beginning.
Janice Sergent Wilson of Cornersville, Indiana, has been coming to these auctions for years. She buys things she thinks she can resell or that she or one of her friends could use. Last week, she bought a microscope for a friend at an art gallery for $5.
A bidder from Indiana paid $45 for a dozen classroom overhead projectors in two separate transactions. On eBay, used classroom projectors list for between about $42 and $225, depending on make and condition.
When the bidding closed on the second round of projectors, he turned to the man next to him:
“I guess I’m in the projector business now.”
