We can’t wait to get to Glasgow
Join us for our Scottish Sporting Memorabilia Auction at The Robert Adam Room, The Trades Hall, Glasgow from 10.00am on the 10th April.
Covid, it has to be said, changed the world forever, and the world of auctioneering is a perfect example of just that. Prior to the world and indeed life going into a state of suspended animation for what seemed an eternity, any auction house on viewing days and of course the sale itself, crackled with a unique life all of its own. There is nothing quite like the buzz in the room when auction proceedings commence. The auctioneer takes the podium, that special lot number on your shopping list draws closer, the competition intensifies between you and others vying for the same item, and the exhilaration when you secure your bid. It’s an intoxicating blend, unmatched elsewhere. The chase is everything!
Post Covid so many do their bidding online or by booking a phone, and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s fascinating when handling internet bids to see just where the buyers are coming from. If anything, in our working lives, the world has become a much smaller place, and the reach of Graham Budd Auctions stretches out to a database of over 30,000 customers and makes it now a truly global business. But, like everyone else, we want to see people back in the room. It’s how it should be. Its tradition.
At the end of last year we finally stepped out into the big, wide world with our Horse Racing sale in Newmarket - the perfect venue. Just to meet people again, have them browse the lots and ultimately take a seat in front of our founder, Graham Budd himself and Head of Sporting Consignment’s David Convery as they shared handling the sale just felt so right. It was a great day. It genuinely felt that we had come home at last to doing things the way we always did.
We are a tight unit as a team, and Glasgow for David is a special place. It's where he was born, where he started his career in the industry nearly 40 years ago and where his sporting loves lie, so for him it's realising a vision that he has had now for quite a while.
For me, it's almost like a home coming. Although a born and bred Yorkshireman, my late father ran away from home just before the War and ended up working in Scotland. He tried to join up, was sent back to his town of domicile to enlist and then promptly given to the Kings Own Scottish Borderers to serve the country. He was promptly sent back to Edinburgh to train in locations such as Glenn Coe for the battles he later fought in Holland, Belgium and finally Germany itself as the Battalion crossed the Rhine. Many of the lads he spent six years or so of his life with were from Govern, Easterhouse and other places that I came to know as second nature when the regiment reunions took place! Many years later over a beer, I discovered that former Ranger, Motherwell Manager and Scottish International Stuart McCall’s dad Andy, was with him more or less for the whole campaign. Incredibly small world as I have said before.
I was the only Sheffield lad who fetched his Dad a Sunday Post once a week until he died, and possibly the only one who got a Broons Annual for Christmas and had he not met my Mum and married, he would have stayed in Glasgow after demob.
I love Glasgow, and its going to be a great week. Many of the team are travelling to Scotland for the sale, so it’s another great chance to get out there and do what we have always done best. There are some truly wonderful sporting items from Scotland in our catalogue, which you can now view online. This includes shirts, caps, medals and many other wonderful pieces from the wonderful sporting history of Scotland. Don’t forget that we also have a viewing day prior to the actual event, and that’s a great chance to examine that item that you are wanting and also to meet our specialists to get the story, provenance and anything else you may need to tick off just right before you make that purchase.
We really hope that you join us for the journey that is Graham Budd Auctions out on the road. This is the first of several planned for this year. We're taking the auction back to the customer for a true sale spectacle that you should be at in person or, of course, by registering for an online or telephone bid if you are not able to be around.
