Chapter 14

The auctioneer was scanning the crowd closely, looking for the first bidder who could match his suggested opening bid on lot 171A. Matti was also watching closely, and what he was seeing was that there was no apparent interest amongst the other prospective bidders. It didn’t appear that anyone else was interested in the two lots of diamond drilling equipment that had brought him to this auction so far from home.

The two lots, designated 171A and 171B were identical, each a series of pallets containing an entire diamond drilling rig, in pieces and strapped to the pallets. When Matti had returned from Dawn’s brother’s home to the auction site, he discovered the rigs he was interested in were halfway down the long list of equipment up for auction. It gave him more time to appraise the two lots, and from what he could see, they were worth at least as much as the highest value he had assigned to them, sight unseen. He had begun to wonder if they would go for a price outside of his financial capability. Even though he had $20,000 in traveler’s checks and cash in his briefcase, plus his line of credit, there was a limit that he was not willing to go over.

After scanning the crowd the auctioneer said, “I’ll tell you what, men. We’ll amalgamate lots 171A and 171B into one lot, but we’ll stick with my suggested opening bid. Who’s going to make the first bid?”

Matti could see that the auctioneer’s offer, essentially a 2 for 1 sale, didn’t seem to be of interest to any of the other bidders, so after waiting for a few seconds Matti bid. His bid was made strongly, and was for barely a quarter of the suggested opening bid. He raised his bidder’s card high above his head, trying to appear somewhat aggressive and very interested. He wanted the other bidders to know he would go higher to get the lot, if they tried to outbid him.

His bid didn’t initiate another bid by anyone else, and after a few seconds of hopeful scanning of the crowd the auctioneer said, “Come on, men! This equipment had barely 6 months of use!” After a few more seconds of visually searching the crowd for any sign of interest, he went through the familiar sequence of, “Going once ... going twice ... sold!”

Matti could hardly believe his ears. He’d been able to buy both of the drilling rigs for a fraction of what he thought their minimum value would be. Within seconds the auctioneer was off to the next lot, a rather worn out forklift. Matti was headed in the opposite direction to the auctioneer’s office, anxious to pay for his newly acquired equipment. Behind him he could hear a steadily rising series of bids. A lot of people must need forklifts, he thought to himself.

Matti had almost finished arranging for shipment of his equipment to Thunder Bay when his satellite phone rang. He was happy to hear it was Dawn, and by the obvious excitement in her voice he knew that her reunion with her family had been going well.

“My parents would like you to come to their house in Uxbridge for dinner. My brother and his family will be there too. We are all going to drive over there now, and we want you to meet us there.”

“Of course I will, Dawn. Obviously you have had success with getting back to your family. I really am happy about that. I’ve got a little bit of work left here, arranging for the shipping of the equipment I bought, but if you can give me their address in Uxbridge, I should be able to leave here in about half an hour or so.”

Matti got back to the task of labeling and checking the pallets that would be on a truck headed for Thunder Bay sometime Monday morning. He was having it all shipped to the fenced storage yard of one of his main suppliers, an arrangement he had confirmed before their flight to Toronto. While he was looking after the task of verifying everything was labeled and secure for shipment, he had made a discovery that really made his day. One of the pallets in each lot contained a wooden box with multiple brand-new diamond core bits. The price he had paid for the entire lot would probably not have quite covered the price of buying those diamond core bits. A great day had turned out even better.

During his drive to Uxbridge, Matti had time to reflect on the events of the day. While he had started out with some fear about how things would work out when Dawn came face-to-face with her family, it seemed as though that meeting couldn’t have gone any better. Likewise, he felt really confident that he had made a really good deal at the auction. It was always possible that the equipment was damaged in ways that couldn’t be seen on the outside, but he decided that it was highly unlikely.

The clerk who had accepted his payment, made with all of his traveler’s checks, $2000 in cash, and a check drawn against his business’ line of credit, had mentioned to him that the drilling rigs were repossessed by a bank from a small startup firm that had gone into receivership. As he was listening to this explanation from the clerk, Matti was left wondering how close he had been to having his own equipment auctioned off. If he hadn’t been fortunate to be in the right place, and at the right time, his own bank might have been the one doing the repossessing. While he still felt pangs of guilt over taking the money, and had some concern that another armed member of the Wolverines might show up one day, it was beginning to get much easier to live with his actions.