GLKS Kite Auction 031304

GLKS Annual Kite Auction
March 13, 2004

This was a first time trip for many Canadian visitors. The GLKS auction lived up to it's advertising! Everything we have ever heard about this truly fun event was true! Dennis Ische and Ed Hummel are pictured having a closer look at the first auction win of the night. Ed and Marilyn Monroe should have many happy times together! Ed also picked up a nice Cody box kite Variant made by Dan Flintjer. Dennis went home with some nice items including A 10 ft Cody by Dan Flintjer and a 6 foot Buffalo Box Kite. Prices were very reasonable!

Gary Mark and Merv Cooper trying to stir up some commotion in the sometimes wild bidding wars. These two guys are auction veterans. They went home with many great items and really livened up the whole bidding process! Merv got the winning bid on a very unusual Mike Decker creation. Merv's bid won him an inflatable gaggle of cubes. This kit even came with a pump. You pump up the cubes, stake them to the ground and simply watch as they bounce around on the field
It was truly a pleasure to meet up with Dru and Donna Nelissen again. Donna had to work till five but they still got to the auction in plenty of time for the fun. I did not see Dru buy anything but he sure was in the best spirits I can ever remember. He may have been cracking more jokes out there than even the "Mighty Merv". Watch out gang as Dru talked to me extensively about his future hopes of getting out and flying his revs again. I am convinced Dru is going to make this happen some day. Jennifer Hindson pictured on the very right went home with Mike's 252 Sutton Flowform. The sky is going to busy in Port Colborne this year!
It's Ted Shaw and his magic fingers flying across that keyboard! Ted had the time consuming role of posting all the auction sales to the computer. He was so busy he could not participate in all the auction items being bid on. Somehow Ted still managed to sucessfully bid on a bird kite or two. see I also learned that you really need to pay attention and fill out your auction slips properly. If you don't, no one knows what you are selling or for what price. I really appreciated the patience everybody showed us rookies during the auction.
Todd Sweet was the auctioner. You can see Ellen Reen helping out in the background. Tom's voice survived the whole night. He even managed to crack up the crowd several times during those oh, so stressful bidding war moments!
Russ Kelly as always was having a hoot. He is pictured here selling off the last few tickets for the 50/50 draw. It seemed Merv Cooper and Russ were always in the middle of a bidding war with each other. Beware, when Russ really wants an item price does not stop him. :-) You can also just make out Jerry Lewithan sittiing behind Russ
Gary Mark taking some spy shots of the opposition. Gary went home with some great stuff including a Rev kite, a Joel Sholz Jaws stunt kite and one of his huge 20ft Raptors as well. The auction was very well attended. I would estimate that over 60 people made their way to the Polish Falcons Hall. The Great Lakes Kite Club certainly has a very strong and supportive membership
As many of you know, former GLKS Pres. Mike Decker passed away last year. Many of his personal kites were sold. I was proud to pick up Mike's 8 ft Premier Kites inflatable Teddy Bear! I was also lucky enough to outbid Gary Mark on a Vampire Bat quad kite(pictured) that Joel Sholz personally signed for Mike! Many of the Mike Decker's vast Buffalo Box Kite collection also sold very quickly. Do any of you remember way back to 1989 when Martin Lester was making the Icarus character you can partially see hanging on the wall? It's in the picture on the left and in the shot above as well Merv Cooper was lucky enough to win the Icarus kite.
It seemed many of the kites, bags or other items that had any connection to Mike were snapped up quickly. As in past years most of the other kites were brought in by those that attended. The idea is to sell the items that you no longer fly and go home with something new to play with. It works out well for anyone that attends!
Dennis Brylinski, in the red shirt helping Todd Sweet auction off more goodies. Many thanks to all the people from the Great Lakes Club that put this event together! There are two very positive things that happen during this annual event. The GLKS club gets a little money from the sales and the social interaction of the kiting community is pure fun! As advertised bidding started promptly at 7pm. Many started to cash out and leave by 10:30pm. I am sure the auction went on for at least another hour or so. On the drive home Ed, Dennis and myself talked about all the fun we had that day and good deals we saw. We even started to get psyched about finishing some new winter kite projects.
- Carlos Simoes