Nebraska MCC Sale

The 2010 Nebraska MCC Sale is in the books.

For those who don't know what the MCC Sale is, it is an annual auction for the Mennonite Central Committee in Nebraska.  This two day event has food, quilts, crafts, and much more for auction and for sale. 

This year $168,773.85 was raised for MCC. 

Over the past 31 years, the Nebraska MCC Sale has raised $4,059,746.82 for MCC, which is pretty amazing if you ask me. 

This sale is not a place to find a deal. Since the money is going to a good cause, the bidders will go very high for small objects like a bowl of ice cream, an afghan for haiti or two dozen verenika. 

I was able to check one item of my list during this years sale.

I had the chance to bid and purchased an item for the first time at this sale. I should say items because I did bid on and purchase more than one item, more on that in a bit. 

Bidding at an auction is intimidating for me. I worry that the ring men won't see that I want to bid and I'm also worried that I won't be able to understand the auctioneer, so I will end up paying too much for something. Luckily, Kelly Kliewer was the auctioneer for the particular items I was interested in, so I didn't have any problem understanding him.   

 Unfortunately the lighting wasn't great, so it is kind of hard to see the pictures, but Kelly is the auctioneer in the blue. 

Brian, my parents neighbor, was the ring man on my side of the room and I had no problem getting his attention. Like a good ring man, Brian encouraged me to keep bidding. 

Here are my purchases. 

A brown Polka dot apron, for me to wear while I'm making Mennonite Monday recipes.  This was the first item I bid on and I was determined to get it and so was the other bidder.  I ended up paying $90 for the apron, since I didn't have plan on how high I wanted to bid, which is something I will remember in the future. However, the money is going to a good cause, so the price didn't bother me so much. 

A bottle of Maple Syrup. We paid $250 for that bottle. I know its crazy.  However it was a steal, considering the bottle of syrup that sold before this one went for $500.  I was very nervous about bidding this high for syrup, but Mike encouraged me from across the room so I kept bidding. 

The final item I bought was a picnic basket, with plastic cups, plates, bowls, cloth napkins and a few serving plates. The guys will be eating in style in the field this year for harvest. I had a plan for bidding on this item.  I had decided that I would pay $50 for the picnic basket, which is all the higher I had to go. 

After all of that bidding, it was time to hit the verenika meal.

After my first bidding experience, I feel like bidding on items can be addictive. After a while you start to think, "Oh I could bid on that," which could get you into some trouble. However, it was really fun to take part in the auction and I'm excited to do it again.