🎙️ Bodnar’s Bids and Banter Podcast - Episode 7: 3 Generations, Big Bids & Auction Mayhem - Bodnars Bids and Banter

Episode Transcript
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We're doing an auction, a live auction ladies andgentlemen and even if you're not bidding on

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anything, it's so worth it to watch the amazingpipes of Joe Bodner. Give it up for Joe. Joe, Joe,
Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe Bodner! Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe,Joe, Joe Bodner! 334-339, 334-339, 334-339,
334-339, 334-339. Welcome back to Bodner's Bidsand Banter. I'm Maureen Bodner and I am

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outnumbered today because I am here with... JoeBodner! Joe Bodner! Joe Bodner! What the heck?
Holy shit, there's 3 Joe Bodners here! How did I getin the middle of this? I'm gonna say, how are you
gonna handle this one with 3 Joe Bodners? There'stoo many Joe Bodners. 3, 3, 3 Joe Bodners. I can only
handle 1. You can only handle 1. Yeah? Are you sureyou can handle 1? I can't, no I can't even handle 1.

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At any rate, we have the one and only my father, theoriginal Joe Bodner, and we have my son. You're
original too. Yeah, yeah. Yes, you are. You sayjunior, but really you're the third. You're the
third. Joseph Bodner, the third. Where we talkedabout having a fourth, is it coming? No. No! Well,

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not anytime soon. One day you might have the fourthand know before Joe Bodner's. Yeah, that'll be
crazy. It will be crazy, absolutely. My father hasbeen to every auction I ever ran, except for 2 that I
could think of, and exceptions to now that we'reonline, it's a little bit different. But you
haven't missed a sale ever. I was not at one salebecause I was in the hospital, I'll never forget

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it. And I was directing people on the stage how toput the supplies away from my hospital bed. Do you
remember that? Yeah, I do. And you realized whatwas happening and got so angry at them. You said,
leave my father alone. He's in the hospital, he'svery sick. He shouldn't be directing how to put the
supplies away. I'll never forget that. But youknow, so with that being said, you like a lot of

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control when it came to stuff like that. I'd justlike to be helpful. Well, you're always helpful.
Absolutely. You're definitely helpful. BecauseI was not controlling you, Joe. You were very
independent. I was thinking about that today, howindependent you are. Right. You've always been
that way. I'm in a stinker. A self-thinker. A deepthinker. Well, I guess you're right about that.

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But yes, you, but I would not necessarily control.You like things organized. Well, I felt very
responsible for it. I guess I just can't let go.You're right. Well, there's nothing wrong with
that. So for those of you who don't know, my fatherwould take care of all. He was like the roadie
almost. He took care of all the audio, all themicrophones, all the things. And we were just
talking about the other night, we were going abouthow it was at the first sale, he was able to put all

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our supplies just in the back of a suburban. That'sright. It was like two times. Oh God. Yeah,
exactly. Can you imagine that? I mean, because youworked at the auction and you took down and you
know, we used to fill a whole tractor trailer. Awhole tractor trailer. A whole tractor trailer.
Supplies. And I took it all home and carried it allinto the garage at like two in the morning. Yeah,
that's right. Lined it all up, had it allorganized, purchased things as you needed it, got

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things repaired. Don't forget it. Right. Littlething, get all up. And I think the first sale didn't
go to two in the morning. No, the first sale was notthat way. I was going to say, we grew into that two in
the morning next day. Three in the morning even. Iwas going to say, I'm jealous. I don't give
anything to have left the auction at two in themorning. Yeah, right? That's what I'm saying.
That's what I'm saying. We started with asuburban, all the supplies fit in a suburban.

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Right. And then at the, lately you can't fit it allinto five tractor trailers, right? Yeah. Well, if
you think about it, it used to be a handheld mic and aspeaker. And then in the heyday at the Ukraine
center, we were up to five auction rings. So we hadfive. That's five times two is 10. So 10 speakers.

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That's right. 10 mixers. Three microphones ateach base. Exactly. So 12 microphones. And you
used to literally lay out all the wire. That'scorrect. And pick it all up at two in the morning.
Pick it all up at two in the morning. Exactly. Andthen you started learning that when you said, so
you've been at every auction. We'll get back tosomebody older auctions that I did. But you

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started working for us when, well, obviously youworked for me my whole life. I made you do things at
two and three years old. You don't even remember. Imade you carry. No, I don't. No, I didn't. I'm just
teasing you. But I'm just saying you worked thechild labor department, I guess. I don't remember
this. But the first sale that you really came to andhelped out was when it was bring your child to work

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day. And I brought you to the to the Expo Center andhe came and he actually got on TV the first day he
worked. I did. Yes, I did. I remember the first timeI remember seeing him at the auction. Right. And I
let him hold a sword during one of the sales and mandid I catch flak for that. How old was he? Probably

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like eight, nine, nine or 10. I held a sword. Yeah,you don't remember. You were fascinated by it and
it came up and I said here and everybody was like,whoa. You were always a big help and always a hard
worker. Then you got into trains and I really gotbig into trains. That is true. But the first so the

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first sale you were there on the loose TV show wasthere and they and it's on YouTube. Yeah, it's
still on YouTube. You can Google right now. Yeah,it's so many. What? I got to watch this at the end.
Yeah, no, I was young. You were young and you wereembarrassed about it, but you were so great. Yeah,
no, I remember that. And you came and you and youhelp. That's what I remember the first sale where
he actually came all day and kind of help. That wasan all day because an all day thing was 24 hours.

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That was back. You came for like maybe five hoursand then left. Yeah. Yeah, but then there were
times where they'd be off from school and they'd bethere all day. Obviously, then we really got him
when he stayed the whole night and then he was like12 years old. Yeah. Yeah, you're not 12, I think at
that point. Yeah, I think so. 12 or 13. Matty's ageprobably right now. Yeah, Joey learned a valuable
lesson that night. He sure did. I did. Do not eat toomuch candy late at night. Don't do it. Don't do it.

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These two are the Cookie Monsters. They're boththe Cookie Monsters. Back in the day, you would eat
all the candy. All the chocolate, all the candy,everything else was packed in. That break room was
filled. He used to buy the candy at Costco. Thoseare bars, right? Hored about two, three of those in
your cases. That's absolutely right. We alwayshad a backup. That's right. Remember when we ran

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out, we opened another one. Exactly, exactly. Weused to stop at Boston Market on the way to the
auction and get a whole plate full of food and thencome and eat and hang out and do homework. I do
remember that. Oh, God, I remember those. I don'tmiss those days when you had homework. I do not miss
coming to Sitdown, switch from setting up theauction into homework mode with three kids. Yeah,

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it was tough. Oh, man. It was tough becausesometimes we wouldn't get out of there until 9, 10
o'clock and we're driving home and they need to getto bed and shower it up for the next day for school.
Well, you used to leave. Sometimes I used to leavebefore you. You used to leave on Tuesdays, take
them home, eat them dinner, go back and then comeback. Yes. And on Mondays, we'd have to drive in

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separately because you would leave with the kidsat some point and I would stay. Yeah, yeah, but you
would take them to school. I would take them toschool. I would end up at the building at 7 a.m. and
start setting up tables and stuff. You would takethem to school and then come back and then my dad
would pick them up from school. Take them to getsomething to eat, bring them to the auction and

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take it from there. And then they would work alittle bit and then that's that. And hang out and
then you'd leave early. Take them home. I'd staytill 11 o'clock, come home and have to get up in the
morning and take them to school. You guys were a lotof work. But then it was a lot. Yeah, no, it was. But
then he had his big moment where he could stay allnight. It was a Saturday night or it was a Saturday

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night sale. So Maddie and the other two went homewith you and he stayed and he ate like 20 bars of
chocolate or something. I kept learning them. Idid. I did. I ate bars of chocolate, chips, potato
chips. Like everything. I devoured that breakroom. I remember. Did you get sick? Did you get
sick? I threw up. I threw up in the garbage canoutside of the expo center. I'd find it a morning,

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four in the morning. He had a hangover from candy.Oh, it was bad. I really tried to warn him because
I've been there. There's where you're poundingthe, you know, something just to keep you awake,
the sugar or something. And then about two in themorning, man, you regret that decision. You're
like, I feel like I was bad. And I think when I gotback here, I threw up again. Probably. I'm pretty

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sure I threw up again. And yeah, it was terrible.And he said, you know what? I want more of that. I'm
going to come work for you. Oh, yeah. Because thenyears later, then you go into your junior year and
you got early release and then you were able tohelp. And then your senior year, you helped out
doing 20 hour weeks. And then for a year or two, youworked. Yeah. Right. Two years, I guess. It was
about two. Yeah. You made me cry when you left. Butyou went into better things, which is no problem

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with that. But I remember when you when you quit or Ishouldn't say you quit, he didn't really quit. He
moved on. I came in here and bawled my eyes out.Thank you. What? I appreciate that. You're
welcome. My sensitive. So he also got his eyes outwhen you took your trip across the country. Oh,
yeah. When you took your trip across the country, Ibawled my eyes out. I'm not to do that. What? To ball
his eyes out in front of you. Oh, yeah. Did I cry whenI dropped you off at the station? No, I didn't

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because I yelled at you. Don't you dare do that. Oh,my God, my son, he's going away. It was that was
tough. You went for you did a 30 day trip. Yep. At 18.Yep. Right. I guess you were 18 years old. Yeah. And
you went around the entire country on train. Yeah,it was awesome. It was awesome. Yeah, it was great.

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I'm glad you had a good time. It was one of the bestthings I've ever done ever. Right. It was
fantastic. You and your front Anthony. Jealous.Oh, it's fantastic. I wanted to go, but you know, it
was it was one of those things I couldn't go away for30 days. I'm not jealous because we Christian, I
just had a conversation about sleeping in strangeplaces like he can't sleep on a plane. This they

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didn't get sleeper cars. No, no, I slept in thedeclining chair. I slept in this. I couldn't do my
44 year old self could not handle that. Yeah, it wasat the end of the trip. My neck hurts so bad. Right.
It was it was terrible. I had constant pain in myneck and the first night back, I slept in my own bed
and I woke up and the pain was gone. But yeah, it'lltake. But you have to be young. Yes. To be able to do

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that. Yeah, no, I next time if I ever do a trip likethat again, I would get a sleeper room. I don't
blame you. No, I couldn't do it. But how impressiveis that, Joe? And you actually planned the trip
throughout the whole entire United States. Yeah.As a graduation present. Yeah. And you had it all
worked out before you went. You even knew where youwere going to stay. Anthony, Anthony did a lot of

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the planning. And I did contribute. But Anthonydid most of it because he's very good at that kind of
thing. Right. And you were going to go to Alaskatoo, right? But you changed your mind? I think I
wanted to go to Alaska. I was going to take the twoweek excursion to Alaska. We were going to pay for
them to go to Alaska. And then he said, well,actually, I'm very impressed. I had an idea. Yeah,

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originally we were going to send them to Alaska.Because you bought one ticket that allowed you to
travel on the train for a month. Yeah. Yeah, theAmtrak Rail Pass. You're just a genius, right?
Every generation is getting smarter. The ticketwas 500 bucks for the month and you basically chose
whatever train to go on. Right, right. Speaking oftickets, did you know, so when you used to buy a

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ticket to get on the train and if the conductordidn't come around and punch your ticket, it was
good for a year, right? Yeah. Not anymore. Notanymore. Well, he loves trains, right? Really,
not anymore. 24 hours. 24 hours to get expired.Stump bags. I know. My God. Since he was a child,
he's loved trains, right? Remember the time Ibuilt him a big train set? Yeah, the train set.
Right. You told him there was a big surprise and youbrought it to the house. Right. And he went down to

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the basement when he had this gigantic. Do youremember that? Yeah, no, I do remember that. And
then the power went out that night. That'scorrect. Yeah, the power went out. And everybody
just stood there waiting for it to go back on. Yeah,and then it came back on. And then we put a double
decker on it. We had two levels of trains. And thenyou built your own set. Yeah, it was in the garage.
You could charge your mission in the warehouse.Well, I built the one in the garage and then you get

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up there. Now you overtook it. I get mad when I go upthere. I came and walk and you bought everything.
But I'm the hoarder, though. I bought it all. Yeah,you bought it all. And then but you said it all. I
don't disagree. That's a very true statement. Ihoarded it all. You set it up. Well, you auctioned.
Yeah, the auction. You have more patience in me,but I don't know. I hear it's funny. He goes up there
and all you hear is, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. And I'mlike, what the hell? I'm in my hot tub. I can hear him

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screaming, fuck, you know. It's a pain in the neck.It is. When it comes to electronics and stuff like
that. It's a pain in the ass. It's a pain in the neck.I don't disagree, but the trains are wonderful.
And some of the cars you have. Yes, it is. Serpent.Were my original train when I was a child? Yeah,
yeah. That you have. One of the sets that we have washis when he was a kid and the lights still work. I was
going to say the spotlight on the car still works.We're now everything I buy. I have to change the

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battery every 30 days. But this car is 50 years oldand it's still running. That's how it goes. That is
how it goes. Nothing's built to last anymore.That's a little train set. No, but that's true
because you played with trains, got me intotrains. And then we used to play trains down in the
basement when I was a kid growing up. Yeah, we hadour own way of doing that. Yeah, you guys used to

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crash the wheels. We used to. We used to rushthrough each other. The engines. It just switched
the track so they wouldn't hit each other.Exactly. And then when they crashed, then that
would be the end of the game. Yes, they would. Andthen we did it. We shut the lights off, remember?
Yes. All you saw were these lights going. And thenwe'd do it in the dark. Until they crashed. It was a
lot of fun. Everybody wonders why trains are worthso much now. I guess so. Because when you find them

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not dented and scratched up. Yes, exactly. So weused to do that and we used to play. I used to put, we
had a big layout. Never a layout. This was the, Ifeel like it was the size of this room back in the
day. And it still was in the new house. Yeah. Iremember when we built it, the train set. I had you
painting, you were a little kid, you were paintingthe plywood. It's a, we got it all done. You were

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supposed to play with it, but you came up one daysaid, Dad, it's broken. And you had disconnected
some wires. Right. So that I would think it wasbroken. So I would come down and we would work on it
again. So what you enjoyed was the building of it,not the actual playing with it. You did the same
thing with blocks. You know, that's pretty much,you know, I don't disagree with that because I can

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see, I can see. So many things are making sense. Ican see where I can see where like, I would rather
built that than go upstairs and play with it. Andnow you want to build. Once it's done, the fun is
over. Just seeing them run is not, I don't getanything out of that. You know, he's still like
that to this day. I am still like that to this day.That's true. You're right. At the auction, he is
only interested in the acquisition. Yes. All hewants is the thrill of finding the next thing. Once

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he's got it. Yeah. It. OK, you guys take care of itnow. That is true. And he moves on to the next thing.
Well, he had a large set of building blocks that hewould build these gigantic castles and things in
it. And when it was all done, he'd stand back andthen he'd smash it all down. I would smash it. Like
it blew up. Yeah. Yeah. And then he'd startbuilding all over again. That is very true. I would
smash it down, have all the fire vehicles come andrescue the people and this and everything else.

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And then I would build it all up back. But this is alot about his personality. It does. It has to be
working on something. Don't I know it? I'm tiring.I know. Once it's done, he goes on to the next
project. I've tried to go on vacation with this mana lot. What happens? I don't want to go. I'm ready to
go back to work. I am ready to go back to work. I'mready to go back. No, lately in the beginning, I

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didn't want to go on vacation because I wanted to goto work. Yes. No, you're right. There comes by day
three. By the end, you're done. I'm done. You'reracing back. But listen, we compromise and now we
have a spot down in Cape May. Yes. And I got to work onmy vacations. No, we work for one day and it pays for
a vacation. Yeah, it's OK. Coming up will be twodays, but generally it's one day, but it pays for a

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vacation. So it's a lot of fun and we got to an outletto sell some stuff. You know, plus we all been to
Cape May now because of that. You've been to CapeMay. We got you on vacation. Who never takes a
vacation? Very unusual. Three days, I think itwas. Why don't you take it? It was a lot of fun. Thank
you. I enjoyed it. I grew up with no vacations as akid. I was I was I was I was I grew up in Cape May. I was

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deprived. He made me go to work every Sunday. Youknow what? Though, you see, I spent a lot of time in
church growing up to right as a kid and and going tochurch now, even though it's not the church I grew
up in, still brings back those fond memories.Yeah, but you weren't the preacher's kid. Well,
no, I know I had to be at my best behavior. That's whywhen we come out here, I lay it all out. I was raised

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Catholic. So if I was the preacher's kid, thatwould have been awkward. I was always respectful,
except for I think I told Ethel Tooth. I might havesaid something bad to her. You told her she's a
wonderful woman, right? I don't remember. I saidsomething though. And she went back and told you,
said, that's son of your son. No, that was MaryYourstone. Mary Yourstone was Mary Yourstone. I
made you apologize to her. I did apologize. Right.She came to me and said, what did I call her? A

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pinwheel or something, a pinwheel? No, she wantedto talk to you. And you had this saying that you
always said that get out of here, pinwheel. Yes, Isaid, get out of here. So you said to her, get out of
here, pinwheel. And she came and got me. I made youapologize. I was young too. We were probably, I
would have, I said, you did apologize. So that wasthe end of it. But it was funny. I have to admit. How
old was I? I was young. You were a little kid. I was, Iwas really young. I was probably like, six, not

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even seven, five, six. Right, right. Get out ofhere, pinwheel. You always said that. I did say
that. Get out. Maybe that should be my new slogan. Iwasn't sure what you- Get out of here, pinwheel.
And you always said, yeah, no, yeah, no, yeah, no. Idon't know what to mean. My auctioneering skills,
I was getting ready. Yeah, no, no, no, no, no, no,five and a five and a five and a nine and a nine and a
nine and a nine and a nine. You know. But I, I figuredI always used to say to you, but something in there I

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would go, you know, don't you know? And I think youthought I was saying, yeah, no. So when people ask
you a question, you go, yeah, no, yeah, no, yeah,no. I did say that. Get out of here, pinwheel. I, I
was, I was fucked up. You're messed up, man. But allthe people that say that to her, she was, she was
like the foundation of the church. She was like oneof the most important people in our church. And he
goes, get out of here, pinwheel. Hey. But I was, Iwas very reserved at church. I was, I had my

(19:01):
moments. You never did anything. I was ashamed ofyou. Wonderful young man. You know, I've heard of
stories about you kissing girls. Kissing, but mydad wasn't around. I didn't know about that. But,
but, but kissing girls. Well, kissing girls,that's a normal thing, you know? So where else are
you going to meet them? But at church, at leastI've, you know, you came from there. They were,

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they were wonderful girls. No, not your church.Not from my church, but you came from a church,
right? That's a good thing. Well, see, those arethe kind of girls I want to meet. But I'm not meeting
girls. I'm very happy. That was past show.Exactly. That was a no, no. The cat is judging you.
The cat's behind you. The cat is behind us. And withthat, we'll be right back. After these messages,

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we'll be right back. Hey, Joe Bodner here,Bodner's Auction. Remind you, our next regular
scheduled sale is next Thursday, March 27th,featuring artwork. We have loads and loads of
artwork from all spans and walks of life, spanningthe last 150 years. We have Victorian to
mid-century modern to brand new oil canvases,watercolors, prints and everything you can think

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of. Make sure you check it out. Bodner's Auctiondot com. Once again, Thursday, March 27th.
Decorate your walls. Thanks for joining us. Andnow back to the show. Welcome back to the show with
Joe Bodner, Joe Bodner, Joe Bodner and my lovelywife, Maureen. Thank you. All right. I like that
thing. One of these things is not like the others.Yeah. Well, there you go. I don't know at any rate.

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So you got me into auctions, basically, becauseyou went to an auction and then somehow I started
working for it was someone who was a member of thechurch. I believe it was Ed. Right. Ed Salts. Ed
Salts and his wife Anita. Now, you used to go to thesale. I used to go to the they were members of the
church, so I supported them by going to the auctionand you came and then you worked for him. Right. And

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then one day you said you're going to have your ownauction in Bambrook. Right. And you were young. I
think you were 17 or 18. In Bambrook, I was 19. 19.And then you asked them if you could use the parking
lot there by the trains, right? By the station.Yep. And on a Saturday or Sunday, it was a weekend.
You set it up and you had your own auction. It wasunbelievable. I guess I was young. At that young

(21:19):
age, I guess so. A real entrepreneur. Well, whatwas nice about that is the town approached me. They
were it was right after one of the floods downthere. Where am I been right before the flood
actually was probably before the big flood ofFloyd. I guess it was. Yeah, Floyd would have
flooded the city. Yeah. So at any rate, thetownship, they were looking to do something new
down there and do some kind of promotion in thetown. And one of the antique dealers there who's a

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part in Cape May. Quad. Quad, yes. Quad Mooneyrecommended that I come out and and do it run an
auction. So they gave me some money towardspromotion and gave me the parking lot to use. And I
had my first auction there and then we ran fivesales, six sales. And then I got rained on. The rain

(22:05):
was the nightmare. So it's because then you wentbroke that day. I was going to say, this is the story
of my life. It's always the snow or the rain. Thisused to be a store. But yeah, it seems like the story
of the auction profession. You go, you're way uphere and then you have a sale that sucks. And then.

(22:25):
That's very true. Fucking broke. And then. Hey, Imean, a lot of money today. Holy shit, I lost a lot of
money today. But that is true. That was the firstbrokenness. And that's that shows a lot about a
person's personality. A lot of people wouldn't beable to make the comeback. And you always were able
to make the comeback. We've made many come back.You're very determined and very assertive. You

(22:47):
always come come back standing on your feet. Youlike a cat. Yes, I guess I'm like, you always land on
your feet. I was a dog earlier, but now I'm a cat. So Iguess the analogy she next time I'm standing by the
door waiting for my producer, like a cat. Andthere's never a moment. Meow. Meow. I'm sorry, go
ahead. There's never a moment. And you overcomeany fears that you remember you were afraid. Used

(23:10):
to be afraid of heights. I think I still have thebalcony of the church and you were so nervous. I
would. I would. Now you go on every roller coasterthere is. I'm still scared to death. He's still
scared to death. And he still hates heights. I hateheights. What was it? The top of the first wheel
with me. Top of the rock scared to shit out of me,man. The top of the rock and he was like flat against
the wall the whole time. And I'm looking throughthe glass, you know, they had like a little spell

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like, look, you can see, you're going to get suckedin. I'm like, it's like an inch. What about when we
went to Gatlinburg and we're going up themountain? Gatlinburg. And I drove up there and
we're like, pull over so we can look at thisoverlooking picture and understand. I'm like,
you're going to fall off the mountain and get thefuck back in the truck. You want to let me go? I can't
take it. I was dying. I was such excited. We're like10, 15 feet away from the head. It looks like you're

(23:59):
a foot away, man. You don't know. You get someantelope, like push you off the edge. I don't know.
You know, there was antelopes out there. There'sno antelopes. It's an elk. Yeah. An elk. When he was
a kid, he made me take him on the log fume at seaside.I was afraid of it. I didn't want to go on it. Right.
There was only five or six years old. He begged me totake. So I gave in. I was scared to death. We're just

(24:21):
getting into the whatever it is, the car. I don'twant to go on it. Dad, I'm scared. So we're going to
go on it now. You're on. So he gets in and he's cryingthe whole time. And I'm comforting him. Yeah. I'm
scared to death. Right. Yes, this is true. And hecried after that for like a half. He was so
traumatized by it. Yeah. And now he'll go on thebiggest roller coaster at any amusement park.

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It's amazing. Oh, no, not any. Sounds veryfamiliar. The biggest one. Gatlinburg. What
about Gatlinburg? Did he go on it? Jurassic Parkride. A jur- Oh, I didn't go on the Jurassic Park
ride. No. No, I did. He said, Hun, you take Joey andLauren. Yeah, onto the Jurassic Park ride. Yes. So
that, you know, so we can see if it's safe forMatthew to go on. Right. The two of them were buried

(25:08):
in my lap the whole time. And I'm thinking, I hatestuff like this. Yes. I hate stuff like this. So
it's the same story, right? The same thing. You're50 years still doing it. He wouldn't even look. He
was, his head was down. He closed his eyes. And I'mgoing over the water. And it's log food, scared to
death. Yep. Comforting him. Don't worry. There'snothing to worry about, Joey. Yep. Yeah,

(25:30):
meanwhile, he's outside with Matt. We came out.He's not even there. He's gone. Yeah, well, we
ain't going on that. Yeah, you guys were, yeah,when you guys came out, you guys were all freaked
out. We said, well, we ain't going on that. No, youweren't even there. How are you with these things?
You're on the map. Oh, we left. We were in the trunk.You were hanging out in the trunk. He left us. I'm
not a roller coaster person. Good to knowsomething's never changed. The roller coaster at
Wildwood, I didn't even go on the ride. And I threwup about 20 minutes after we left. Well, that's

(25:55):
because, and thank goodness, we didn't. BecauseJoey was hesitating to go on, because someone was
pushing him to go on that roller coaster. Oh, Itruly believe you should overcome your fears. And
I said, I'll go with you. Right, right, right.Because I'm not as much of a pusher. Plenty of
people have their whole lives without going on.I'm a pusher. We're waiting to, yes. Yes. We're
waiting to go on. And Joey was hesitating. Wefinally get in line. Had we gotten in line two

(26:21):
minutes sooner, would have been us. So we'rewaiting to go online. We get through the turnstile
all the way. We're waiting. We're about to be on thenext car. Sorry, guys. The ride's shut down. Oh,
no. No, no. We come down. Thank goodness, becausehe did end up throwing up in the car on the way home.
He got so scared. It made me nervous. I went into thebathroom, because we're going to leave. So I go to

(26:48):
the bathroom, and this girl comes into thebathroom hysterically screaming. And I'm
thinking, why is she being so dramatic? I get out ofthe stall. I go, the poor girl is washing her hair in
the sink. Some kid on the ride in front of them threwup, and it got all over everybody behind him. And I
thought to myself, had he not hesitated to get onthat line? Yeah, I have that. It would have been us.
And that would have been the end of it, definitely.So thank you for hesitating. So I guess this is a

(27:14):
pattern. So I had five sales in Bound Brook, andthen bankrupt the last one. That's right. Then we
moved to the Elks Club. And then I had multipletimes there, I'm sure. I almost went. I could think
of literally, on the top of my head, at least four orfive times where I had to sell off everything I kind
of owned, and fucking continue on. I told you, I'vesold off everything I had twice. Yeah, that's

(27:38):
true. Next time, it's your trains. It's not me.It's our trains. Let's hope it never happens
again. It's my hoard, but you're going to have tosell it. Yeah. Not my stuff next time. It's always
up and down, but I think that's any kind ofbusiness. Any kind of business has their ups and
downs and everything else. Anybody can saywhatever they want. If you look out there in the
world, most places that open these smallbusinesses, they're in and out in two years, three

(28:02):
years, four years. Everywhere you look, whetherit's a new restaurant or a new this, I mean, fuck it.
Even the corporations, they bankrupt themselvesand then reconstruct themselves under a
different name. Realt themselves under a newname. It's such bullshit, really. It's a tough
business. It's a tough business. It's a wholeworld. It's a tough world. It's a lot of work. Yes.
You never know what the future is going to hold.Yes. But you've done very well with it. It's like a

(28:24):
Atlantic City. You've got to be the right kind ofperson. Get a lot of guts. Well, you can't have that
defeatist mentality, that's for sure. Becauseanytime we've been in a bad spot, I always look at
him and say, we'll figure it out. We always do.Yeah, that's great. And every time you have, we
always have. But this is what we were just talkingabout last episode. The same item, one day can
bring X and the next day can bring Y. Right. Andthat's the nature of the auction business. The

(28:47):
market is unpredictable. Did you talk about theentire living room? I was going to say, did you talk
about the time this entire living room was theauction itself? I think we did in their first
podcast. We did touch on that. I remember thepodcast we talked about that. What you're looking
at, the furniture did not exist. So us as businessowners and as a father, I was just trying to

(29:07):
survive. But what was your perspective of thehouse being turned into a fucking an auction? An
auction hall. Well, it was interesting because Iwould wake up and I'd come down here and this whole
room was filled with tables and merchandise was inthis room. Right. I remember you ran auctions in
the corner there on the computer. I don't think youdid the live. No, we were upstairs. We took our

(29:29):
photos over there. Oh, OK. Yeah. But I rememberyou. We were typing down here. Yeah, typing down
here. And then the shipping department was inthere. In the next room. And the trailer. Do you
remember at a time when we had like 100 packages tobe shipped that evening? Yeah, and it was in the
living room. Yeah, our whole house was theauction. It was crazy. But it means you do what you
have to do to survive. And not everybody is good atthat. You're very good at that. Right. You can

(29:53):
adjust and change things midstream and then makeit work. Right. And that's a wonderful
characteristic. You just keep going. There'salways a next opportunity for the next corner. It
sounds like St. Paul in the Bible, not the preach.Yo, he never gave up. Amen. Everything they did to
him, he never always got back up and kept his goal.Right. Right. Right. That's it. No, I get that. But

(30:17):
so that's it. And really, you had to transitiontoo, because you transition with the church, like
during the pandemic. We transitioned with ourauction business. But I always think like our
lives are similar, but totally different becauseyou're obviously your minister and you're, I want
to say you're saving souls, but you are. And you'rehelping people and you're having a

(30:40):
productionist. And the auction is somewhat thesame. We're helping people and selling people's
merchandise and going through troubled times,everything. But during the pandemic, we both had
to transition. I think that made us, I think we'reclose anyway. We've supported each other our
whole lives. We talk almost every other day. But inthat same sense, during the pandemic, it was, we

(31:03):
were both dealing with the same issues. That'strue. Because the church couldn't go on. No, it's
an in-person situation. Yeah, it was an in-personsituation. We did everything on Facebook.
Everything on Facebook. And nobody was there,just me and the technician. Margaret the
technician. Margaret the technician. Oh boy,she's not a technician. No music. No, we sang

(31:23):
acapella. We sang acapella. I used puppets to tryto be interesting. Yes, yes. And we talked for an
hour and that was a service. And we built it up to 300people last week. Actually, I think it wasn't the
first couple of times I had to preach or something,or is that when you did? You did, because we didn't
figure out how to do it. Yes. So you gave this, Ithink the second sermon. I did give a sermon. We
have future members. The first one, John came to myhouse. I did it in my living room. Right, right,

(31:47):
right, right. Yeah, but there was definitely oneservice I had. I did one or two service. You did one
down here. And Mary did one. I did do a couple. Yes, Idid a service. The first sermon was on. People all
can believe that out there. I did one service.Daniel, I remember that. Yeah. But we both had to go
through transitions in that moment. Well, one ofthe things that always been a lot to me when you tell
your people, your workers, this is not just a bunchof stuff. You have to remember this person died.

(32:13):
This is somebody's life. Right, this issomebody's life. How many times have you said that
to your employees? And that's so true. It's like asacred moment. And the family has given, trusts
you so much. They're giving you all thesememories. Yes. You've even said that to your
employees. You're selling memories. Yes. Andyou're right on the money. Well, that's it.

(32:34):
Because to us, it's easy to just look at his stuff.But in this house, I can tell you where we bought
everything. What stage of our lives we were at.Where we were. Everything is a memory. How old they
were and everything. And that's what they'rehanding off to you. People come into my house, I
tell them where I bought it, how much I paid for it,and what it's worth today. Exactly. And they're

(32:56):
like, how do you know all that? See, I'm not the onlyhoarder he hoards to. Yes. He hoards, he's got a
bigger hoard. You're all hoarders. We're allhoard, do you hoard? Yes. See, you're all three of
us. We were actually talking about you hoardLegos. Legos. Oh, yeah, you do. But you're so good
at it. You're a genius. You actually put the WhiteHouse together. I did, well, yeah, you bought me

(33:17):
the White House. When I bought it for him, theysaid, nobody could do this, it's too complicated.
He put it together like in what, a day? Probably.And you hoard, you hoard great deals at the
auction. I do. The ships. And when you owe me money,you give me things. And this is true. I have an
alabaster falcon in the living room that he gavebecause he owed me money. I needed some money.
People will say, where'd you get that? My son owedme money and he gave me that. That is very true. The

(33:41):
whole collection of that. There's a bigcollection of that. And I'll sit at the auction
when something good is, being sold, nobody wantsit. I buy it because I get it real inexpensively
unless it's herringed, then I pay too much. Right,right. Well, I think one of the memorable moments
that you bought, whatever, there was a pair ofthese Victorian tables that are in his living

(34:02):
room. And they came from a woman's mom's estate.The woman owned a forest here in Franklin
Township. And it was from his mom's estate. Andthere was a Victorian table and a matching table
was made by a company called the Brooks Company.And he loved them. I guess we both have a same
problem. We both love nice shit. Yeah, that'strue. It's always the stuff we want to bid on and own

(34:25):
and bring stupid money. So he gets in a bidding warwith the Amoradios and Bobby Selman. And he buys
two coffee tables for like four grand. I think hepaid them well. There was five. Five grand, see?
They're 1865, Civil War tables. They werewonderful. They were made by a company called the
Brooks Company. I believe it's out of New York. Ifnot, they're Philadelphia. That was crazy. I paid

(34:48):
5,000. Yeah, he paid five grand, man. I talked toyou in really good. That was a long time ago. It was a
long time. We're talking about a long time. I'velearned by less than now. That's like 30 years ago.
And they thought I was bidding them up. But I wasreally buying it. And so these furniture buyers,
they were like, Oh, man, I remember. They're likethe mafia. I remember. The furniture mafia coming
out, you know? And they were so pissed off that myfather was bidding. I think they gave a shit about

(35:14):
it. They were upset. Oh, they were mad. Becausethey were, back in the day, I think even now, if we
were to sell them, you'd probably still get 2,000for the big one and maybe 1,500 for the other. So
it's not a total loss. But you never know. It couldbring what you paid for. But that Victorian era
just isn't bringing what it was. But back then.What do you think? It was Civil War times. It's

(35:37):
unbelievable that you have something in yourhouse that was built, made during the Civil War.
And but it was made by a very good company. It's nodifferent from like we had at Bill K's Arsia with a
piece of furniture. We had a beautiful, beautifulEggers Town. Eggers Town, Eggers Town. Eggers. It
was a furniture maker in New Brunswick, NewJersey. And that piece brought 15,000 plus. And

(36:03):
it's really interesting because our producerasked us a question a couple of episodes ago. It was
like, whatever got saved and you were so happy itwas saved in that desk, what got saved from a flood.
Because we had, I'll never forget, this was part ofBill K's Arsia. We had our warehouse in the back and
we're going out on a pickup and we go to pull outempty tubs from the pickup. Oh, I'll never forget

(36:25):
this thing. And there's a puddle of fucking waterin the middle of the building. And I'm like, what
the hell? And we had. It's not like a little puddle.Not like a little puddle. A big puddle. Like when it
rains now and we're getting water, which tablepretty much alleviated that. But water came into
the building. It was seeping through the back baydoors. Well, I think we finally figured out
because we kind of made that all go away. Butanyway, we go and there's like three inches of

(36:48):
water. And his that desk is sitting in the fuckingwater. Right in the middle. And I looked at him and I
said, we're not going anywhere. This was Bill K'sArsia. Bill K's Arsia. What a story he is. All of his
furniture. Thank God he was passed away. Thispiece behind us here came from Bill K's Arsia. What
is? Oh, yeah. We did buy that from Bill K's Arsia. Hehad everything. His mother owned an antique shop

(37:12):
in New Brunswick. And New Brunswick, that is verytrue. And it burned down. It burned, yes. And I
think his mother died in the fire. Yes, she did.Yes, his mother. And that's why he was so into
antiques. He was a great guy. He was a Navy SEAL,that guy. He was a Navy SEAL. Because I tell him, I
want you to protect me. If anybody picks on me at theauction, I want him to beat him up. Right. He said, I
don't know how to beat people. But I just don't knowhow to kill people. What a man. He had such a great

(37:34):
choice in his underwear. Let's tell people that.You're staying right here by my side. But yeah, no.
All his furniture was in the middle of a thing. And Ilooked at him. He's a wonderful guy. So I said, you
cancel the house call. Yeah, we had to cancel thehouse call, clear it all out, get to the fires. And
we saved the furniture. The furniture was fine.All out, cleaned it all out. The day he died, he was

(37:56):
supposed to be at your auction working, right?Yes. He was going to come in. He was going to work on
him. Right. And somebody called the police. Icalled. And I asked him to do a well check. And they
found him that he died that day. Yeah, he died thatday. But he was a genius. The stuff he had was from
Civil War. Right. Before. He had the New Jerseyflag from Gettysburg. Yes. Oh, I thought he did.
No. He always talked it up. But it turns out it wasthe first Coast Guard flag post-Civil War. Bill,

(38:23):
if you're listening. Yeah. I finally figured itout. This happened always. It always like that.
That's how he was. But there was a lot of things hehad that, well, because the flag was confusing
because it had the New Jersey State sale on it. Andit said, New Jersey, first New Jersey volunteers,
militia. Wow. And I was like, now what in the heck?And that down a rabbit hole for about three weeks.

(38:45):
Do you remember when we saw that Civil War stuff?Oh, yeah. I was there. I was at the sale. You helped
at that auction? Yeah, you were there. I was there.The right auction. There's some stuff coming up in
the historical sale. That came. A refilter fromthat collection. The person who bought the stuff,
reconciled it. They never did anything with it.And it's in the upcoming sale. And I got to tell you,

(39:07):
though, they kept it in the same case from when theybought it originally. And I opened it up and I could
smell Bill K. Zarr's house. I tell them. And I said,oh, man. People have it. You know what's funny? I
actually contacted the cemetery where he'sburied to make sure to find out because he's in with
his parents and other family members. And I want tomake sure that his name's on the headstone. And

(39:29):
we're St. Peter's? Yeah. St. Peter's. And so theyjust emailed me back and said, OK, he's in this row
on this. Like they told me where to find him. And youhelped at that sale? I did. You were a runner, I
think. I was a runner and I worked the cameras. Ithat you had the camera set up on each item. And I
think I recorded to that day. You did a lot ofrecording. Yeah, I did a lot of recording that day.

(39:53):
What a great sale. That was fantastic.Everything. Everything. Nothing sold for cheap.
Everything. I'll never see anything like it.Yeah. It did. What a great sale. I don't like it in
the world exists at this point. I don't know. Whoknows? But I remember all the, I guess, the
companies that were reaching out in the media thatwas reaching out about all the, all these, you
know, historical artifacts and everything.Right. I remember that. Yeah, we probably did have

(40:16):
a lot of media press on that. Yeah. I sometimes Itake some of that for granted, but I forget. Yeah,
that was that was an important sale. Yeah. It was,it was my sale of a lifetime. Yeah. Unfortunately,
I did it early and now I'm like, now what? Right. Doyou still go to reenactments of Gettysburg? You
used to do that? Haven't been in what? Is thattornado came through in war? Remember Joe, you

(40:41):
went there as a general, everybody was salutingyou, right? Don't worry, we were on the right side
of the reenacting. We're in the union. Costumesand everything. Federates, just so you're aware.
The federal general's score. But yeah. Did youever do that, Joe? Did you ever go? No. Well, they,
you guys talked about it. We were going to go again.And it didn't materialize. The group that I
belonged to kind of, they were all getting older.You know, they were all in their 70s, 80s. So they

(41:02):
kind of disbanded, which is a real shame. Oh no, youdon't want to do that. You know what's crazy? They
were a great group of guys. The sacred ground downthere. You know what's great? We would go, we would
go away to get away, right? And of course we're downthere and someone goes, oh. Hey, this Joe
Morinbonder. This Joe Morinbonder. Hi, how areyou guys doing? You know, enough. Oh my God. I'm in
my garb, you know. I'm in my wool, my wool, my woolitchy stuff, which was hot as shit. You're the

(41:26):
general. I was a general. I was general, whatever.But yes, I was a general. They wanted me to play
general. And let's see if you can remember it.Swiber is what? Sedgwick. Sedgwick, Sedgwick,
Sedgwick. Because general Sedgwick got there toGettysburg on that day. He marched his troops in

(41:46):
like 72 hours straight, three days. They marchedstraight there. And I remember everybody in the
group is very knowledgeable. Yeah, they knowtheir stuff. These guys were true. Hey man, you
would swear that they were general green andgeneral, whatever. Yeah, Sherman and all them. So

(42:09):
they said, you're going to come up and talk withthem. They go, I don't know nothing about
anything. But just say, I just got here and I have noidea what's happened to me. Because that's what
swear, he came in. He came, marched 72 hours, hecame in and said, we don't know what's going on,
whatever. Because I have no idea what's happeningright now. So that's what I did. And that's all I
said. All I had to do was vote for something. Allthem guys said, you did a great job. You were

(42:31):
fantastic up there. You need to do this all thetime. And I'm like, all I said was, yes. That's all I
said. I had one fucking line in the whole thing.Yes, that was the game. You see, that's what's
great about the auction. It's a tie to the past.It's keeping history alive. Yes. It's a
connection. It's very educational andrespectful of the history. And that's what you're

(42:54):
doing. You're keeping these things. It's tough.Some of it's tough. Some of the stuff you sell that
we, you know. Some of the history is tough. Oh, anykind of history. And it's amazing what people
collect. I remember we were talking about thatonce. They collect it. You name it. Somebody
collected it. Somebody's collecting it. Yes. Ohyeah. No, I don't. It's unbelievable. But we've
seen it all. I mean, definitely. And you've been toevery sale. Like you said, you miss, I forgot that.

(43:17):
I was sick. You know, it's so funny. You mentionedthat you were in the hospital. I forgot all about
that. But I was thinking the sale that you missedwas a holy Thursday because it was. My church. You
had church on Monday, Thursday. That's right. AndI was sick. And back at 19, no, no. 20, 2004. 2004.
Oh, when you had cancer. That's when I bought mysuburban. That is when you bought your suburban.

(43:40):
That's very true. Yeah. So that was in the hospitalthen. So you talk about, so he has a brand new
suburban. He's only got like, no, brand. 40,000.What is it? Did I say it's a brand new suburban?
That's 20, 22 years. And it's got about 40,000miles on it. 40,000 miles on it. 40,000 miles on it.
2000 I personally put on. The Impala only has 6,000miles on it. On the car, the Impala that you have

(44:05):
6,000 miles. Oh, Hordes cars. Yeah, Hordes cars.Can you save them for when I retire? Yes. But you're
not. That day has never come. So I want to haveoutside as 200,000 miles on it. You did retire. Had
that work out? I supposedly retired. You workharder now than you did before. Except for you
don't have to work the auction and take all the. Butyou're right. I never missed an auction. No, never

(44:27):
missed an auction. Was always there taking it up,taking it down, and putting up thousands and
thousands of wires. It was great. I enjoyed everymoment of it. I remember I would encroach on his
area by putting some of the speakers. It was a greatbreak from what I normally do. That's why it was so
great. Right. Little by little, I was becoming thepastor to certain people there. Oh, at the

(44:52):
auction. Yeah, I wasn't incognito anymore. Thatis true. And they would be turning to me, would you
marry us? Would you do this? Would you? Okay, noproblem. Right, right. But that was a part of that
also. Right. Which was good. That was great.Right, right, right. And it was just crazy. Yep. It
was a great opportunity. So I'm grateful for theopportunity, really. Right, right. No, I get it.

(45:16):
And my doctors all tell me, keep working. Don'tstop. Keep working. That's the art of staying
young. Stay active. You have to stay active. Well,that's what I've heard. I don't disagree. But you,
and then you started learning how to set up what hewas doing. Oh, that's right. You were kind of
taking over. I remember that. You taught me how toset everything up, and that was more important.

(45:37):
And you were good. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah, he taughtme when we went to the Expo Center. That's when I
kind of learned how to set everything up whereeverything went. Right. I would put down wires,
and I remember taping everything down. And youwould help me. Yes. You would help me. And we'd set
up all the mixers, the microphone, everything.Yeah, then you got it. It was fun. You started
getting into that. Yeah, yeah. There were timeswhen he, I think you either had weddings or

(46:01):
funerals to do, and I went and set everything up. Ithink the best part about all that is it would
always be some kind of cross. Meaning you wouldstart to use a wireless mic, and it would be playing
over any other side instead of this side. Yeah,that's right. And then where you would go and do
this, and you would get this feedback. And then hewould do this. It was like troubleshooting. That
whole job was troubleshooting. That's true.That's what it was. You'd pick up the emergency

(46:23):
squad on the PA system. You'd be here talking ontheir walkie-talkies. Yes, yes, yes. And you had
to change the channels. This is where it gotcomplicated. Right, right, right. You had to
change the channel and the receiver and so on and soforth. Yeah. And it's so tiny you can hardly see
what the heck you're doing, right? But we worked itout. No, we definitely worked it out. But your
house, you're right, is pretty much filled frombuying things from the auction. My house looks

(46:49):
like an antique shop. Yes, it does. I should tageverything and sell it, right? No. Why not? I've
been saying that. I like that look. And I like thememories like you were saying. I like to be able to
look like I sit in a room and have hundreds ofmemories right just by sitting there. Yep. I think

(47:11):
for me, for us, actually flushing stuff. I mean,there's a few things we flushed. I wish I had that in
my bag. There's some things I regret, yeah. But Ithink flushing it and then restarting over and
then flushing it and then restarting over. It'sactually, I get the thrill of buying it, finding
and buying it. You think? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, butthat's one of the hard parts. If you miss

(47:33):
something. You don't regret it forever though. Ididn't buy that. There's really only one thing
I've gotten rid of that I regret. Right. And it wasthe ticket to the impeachment. Remember the
impeachment? Yeah, who were we impeaching? Iforget. It was, Jax was after Lincoln. Right. So
after Lincoln was me. And they were impeachinghim. And it was a ticket to his impeachment. What

(47:56):
did that so for? I don't remember. I'm going to saylike 600. Wow. We sold it after the pandemic. It
went up online. Bunch of things. A map I bought fromBill K. Zars collection. Bunch of things. I should
have taken the Elvis Presley statue. That's one ofmy big mistakes. Ha ha. I've been offered it to you
for a couple of times. Yeah. I had no place to put it.No, that was another time. Statue of Elvis

(48:18):
Presley. That was another time where we were like,Oh God, are we going to make it? Because the
pandemic hit. Everything shut down and we stillhad the same bills to pay. We sure did have the same
bills to pay. We had the same. Everybody's like,Oh, you must be saving money now that you don't have
that rent there. I'm like, Ha ha ha ha. That'sright. Nah, man. No. That was a rocky year, man. And

(48:39):
we still had the same truck payment and trailerpayments and workers comp payments and insurance
payments and everything else. We worked a wholeyear there and it was zero. Yeah. Well, we made
nothing that. Actually, no, we lost money. We lostmoney. That's talking about the pandemic. After
the pandemic. Oh, gosh. When a pandemic hit andbefore that entire year. I think we lost 20 grand or

(49:01):
something. It was like $20,000 loss for the year.Thank God we have money saved. The church was
renting to six churches. Plus we had people comingand that all ended with the pandemic. We had no
renters and nobody was in church. And then theydon't come back. And then we had to build
everything back up. We had to build it all back up.And we're still here. Right. Yeah, no, it's just
happens. But yeah, no, we. Well, that's to yourcredit that you were able to do that. Right. Well, I

(49:24):
appreciate that. Well, at the end of the day, it isnice to look at, but in reality, it's just stuff.
And I say it all the time. I've said it multipletimes in this podcast. I do the same thing. Can't
take it with me. I always remember when Jesus toldthe rich man, you got to give away everything you
have. So every so often I'll sit there and go, God,if you want me to get rid of everything, I will.
Right. Oh, good. I could keep it. I'm going to saythank God that they. Get in the same bed. They had a

(49:48):
set to you. They didn't tell me. Well, thank you. Icould keep it a few more years. Exactly. I do that
every so often. Seriously, do that. I know you do.You say that on the pulpit a lot. Yeah. You get that
up. Yes. And then I go, who should I give it to?Right. So I say, I'll get my family in there first.
They can take whatever they want. And then I guessI'll just give it away or something. No, no, no.

(50:10):
Don't give it away. Sell it. Sell it. We will sellit. And I think I'll use Bodner's auction to do
that. I think you should. I agree with you on that. Ithink that's the right approach right there. What
do you think? But you know, it's. I'll take someship models. Oh, there you go. You keep saying
that. Where are you putting them? Where are youputting the ship models? You have no room. I don't
know either. It's so funny because. So you likeship stuff. For storage. There you go. For many,

(50:35):
many, many, many years. And if we had thisconversation, I always said, oh, if you if you
passed, I would move in and keep everything. Andthis and that and everything else. And I know
recently we had this conversation. It's like,man, I don't know. I think there's only like five or
six things that I would really, really hold on tohis memory and sell the rest. Only because things

(50:55):
change. You get married and you have kids and youhave different memories and everything else. And
it's really difficult to think about like, well,what would I do with everything? You know, you said
you liked two particular figurines. You rememberthat? I do. And I said, you will take them. Yeah, you
probably did tell me that. There's no way you'regoing somewhere. Yeah, exactly. We did have that
conversation like a couple years ago. We'll giveus a couple figurines though. When we moved in here

(51:19):
and they're in the cabinet. Yeah, you said take itnow. I said, I didn't fucking take it. Now you're
out of your mind. I'm not doing that right now. Allright. Now, could I say that? And I would take all
your sermons because I think you have every sermonyou ever wrote in 50 years. I do actually. Yes, I
know that. There's a horde. See another horde. Ihave every piece of paper. Oh, I don't anymore. I
got rid of a lot of stuff, but see, he has every pieceof diary for the last 25 years. I write down the

(51:44):
sermon, what date and what it was about, and whereto find it in the mess. There's sometimes a church
where you have a sermon that's dated like 1980. Hecomes up and looks at my sermons. I come up and look
at the notes and there's some dates on there like1975, 1980. I'll use something that I used 20 years
ago. 1990, 2000. Let's take it that point from 75 tonow. I think you can reuse it. Great. Nobody

(52:06):
remembers. He gets a kick out of it. You should lookup March 8, 1974. See what that sermon was about
when I came out. He went, holy shit. His birthday.That would be an interesting sermon. That would be
an interesting sermon. Oh my God. Holy moly. Thenext time you're there. Oh boy. So I want to get
their perspective though. So every podcast wetalk about a memory from the auction, behind the

(52:29):
auction, something that happened. Yes. I thinkyou got, well, you didn't hear it, but I think you
might have heard mine from the last episode.Nobody flogged you, right? The flogging. You
didn't get flogged. You didn't get flogged. No.But I want to hear like, I have a good one. It's
unfortunately not about two of you, but it's aboutthe kids being at the auction. So real quick. So
we're talking about Joey learning to set all thisstuff up and he did a great job back at the auction.

(52:54):
And I remember the time that Maddie dumped thewhole table right off the stage. And the computer
just imploded. Oh my God. I do remember that. AndMatt just texts me today and said, I'm caught up on
all the episodes. So Matt, if you're watching thatone's for you, man. Did he say that really? Yeah. He
said he's caught up on it. He's so mad he's not heretoo. I know. He's so mad. I've worked for you too,

(53:14):
Dad. He was so little though. I mean, he was sixmaybe. And it was right before the home show. And
just, bam, the whole table went off. That was theend of it. So that's my memory behind the scenes of
the kids being at the auction. Right. What's yourmemory? Do you have a memory? What's your favorite
memory about the auction? Behind the scenes.Behind the scenes. I remember when we, I worked the

(53:42):
HO train sale. It was huge. It was the whole room, Ibelieve it was. There was a big HO. There was half
the main room, whatever it was. What was the mainroom called? The main room. The main room. Yeah,
the main room. The main room. Oh, it was the mainroom. The main ballroom. The main ballroom, yes.
The main ballroom. Myself and train Mike went andset everything up. There was a lot of HO trains

(54:05):
there. It was like two to three days. Yeah, therewere a lot of trains there. And then I was there for
the auction and we sold it all. And that was fun.Right. I had a good time doing that because
everything is all, you know, it's cool. And Mikegave you a lot of pointers. He did, yeah. He did. And
he like took you under his wing and was talkingabout certain things. He did. Mm-hmm. Yeah, he was
cool. There was a lot. That HO train set, if Iremember correctly, God, I think that came from a

(54:27):
Hungarian out in Union and it was her husband'scollection. There was a lot there. You're talking
about the... The crazy lady. I was not crazy. Oh,that's all the Hungarians. They're all not. She's
tough. She was tough. She was a tough Hungarian.Yeah. High strung. Very emotional. Exactly. That
runs in the Hungarian. And what's your memory? Idon't really think I have anything. Nothing big

(54:51):
that happened. I remember when you got in a fightwith a guy. I was going to say there were a couple...
I broke up a lot of fights. And I almost got in somefights. Yes. So it was kind of different than what I
normally do. I think so. But I remember... Do youremember the time at the Elks? The police came in?

(55:12):
Yes. Because this guy had consigned with you? Yes.We talked about that recently. And we found out
they were all stolen. Yes. And the cop comes up to meand goes, well, this is stolen. And we have to
confiscate it. Right. And you're auctioneering.And they're taking one piece at a time out of the
room. And then you said they had no place to put it.So they put it in a jail cell. Yes. Yes. That was

(55:35):
crazy. That is... Because what would happen?You'd be auctioneering and I'd be
troubleshooting for you. You'd do a lot oftroubleshooting. So that was one of the craziest
things. A lot of times you and you would try... Yourtroubleshooting was more nice. Where my
troubleshooting was like, get the fuck out ofhere. You fucking kidding me? Hey, I'm kidding.
No, I'm just saying. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Time, go ahead. He is.

(55:56):
Yes. But so my memories of Joey at the auction, thefirst time with the sword and me catching flak for
it, boy, my memory of this guy, I remember the firsttimes I really interacted with him. Right. And he
was yelling at a certain someone. Right. Who nolonger worked for you. I lost it. Right. I remember
that day. And I learned a very valuable lesson thatday. Not mess with Joe. Not. Yes, sir. Whatever you

(56:26):
say. Well, one time I got so, so mad at somebody, Icame into the office and said, lock the door and
don't let me out of here because I totally lost it.And I'm going to say a lot of things I don't want to
say. Do you remember that? Thank you. Somebody wastaking my stuff. I bought stuff. Yes. And they were
taking it and putting it in a box. I remember that.And when I realized what was happening, I said,
what the heck are you doing? She was a very goodcustomer. And boy did I lose it. Oh, man. Yeah. I

(56:47):
remember when I got worked out in the end. I forcedmyself to go in the office and be quiet. But we got it
worked out. So God is slowly changing me. We got itworked out in the end. Okay. No, wait. I got a better
story. This guy, this guy here, Chris is going tolike this story. So this guy comes in. Oh, and I
don't care if you know who you are, sir. Ah, fuckhim. Jerk. Yeah. Go up to his house. His brother had

(57:11):
died. Picked up the contents. Toys, toys, toys.Great stuff. Calls us back. He says, come get the
furniture. And we told him we should take thefurniture the first time. It's not going to do
nothing. This and that. Right. He startsextorting this one for money. You're going to know
who I'm talking about in a second. He calls up Joe onthe phone and I hear him. I can hear the guy through

(57:31):
the phone. You're the blue-eyed devil. You're notthe son of the Reverend. You're the son of the
devil. Wow. Oh, and all this. And I'm like, give methe phone. Give me the phone. Give me the phone
because I've said it before. And I'll say it again.Don't mess with people I care about. He shows up at
the auction to get a fur coat back. And I said toMonica, don't let me near him. Don't let me near
him. Just like you said, he said, don't. Here's thething. Just have him sign that he picked it up. I

(57:56):
don't want to talk to him. Great. And then you gotinvolved. So then, no, because he said, I want to
speak to Joe's father. Yeah, he wanted to speak toJoe. Oh, I remember that. Now you know who I'm
talking about. I want to speak to Joe's father. AndI go up and I'm like that. He's auctioneering that.
I was auctioneering when this happened. He's inthe break room with your dad right now. So I'm like,

(58:19):
you know what? I'm staying out of the break room.I'm not going in that break room. Well, a wonderful
customer who bid all the time had left an absenteebid on comics. And he came to pick them up. And he's
like, hey, more. Can you run in and grab my comicsfor me? And I'm like, shit. No. So I'm like, fine.
And I go in there and I hear him just spewing liesabout Joe. He was trying to extort him for money.

(58:46):
Yeah, he wanted to get money. Trying to extort himfor money. And I was so mad because I know my dad, he
would have gave him money to get him out. And I'mmuttering under my breath, lying son of a... And
finally, I can't take it anymore. I can't take itanymore. And I get this close to the guy's face. And
I'm screaming in his face. Right, right. And thisguy chest bumps me right out the door. This guy was

(59:12):
like, out, out. Chest bumps me right out the door.Get out. And so I go out. I remember the customer was
standing. And he's such a nice guy. And he'slooking at me. And I was like, here you go. Thank you
so much. Excuse me a second. And I go right back in.I'm like, I got another thing. And I'm just
screaming. And he's out, out, out. I was so stupid.It was about furniture. I didn't even want to take

(59:35):
it. I felt bad for the guy. And I took it anyway. Andit brought like 100 hours. And he thought it was
worth $1,000. And he felt we owed him $800. And he'strying to extort money out of him. And I was like,
I'm not paying you, man. I didn't even want to takeit. The favorite line of the day. And I don't know if
we can say it. And he kept saying, what would Jesusdo? What would Jesus do? He kept saying it to you.
And what did you do? And do you remember what yousaid back to him? No, I don't. I don't know.

(59:57):
Christian, if we need to edit this out, you'll editit out. And you said to him, you're Jewish. What do
you know about Jesus? And I was like, oh my God. Oh myGod. Oh my God. So that's- Well, that's good. Yeah,
exactly. He kept saying, what would Jesus tell youto do? Didn't I come back there and- Because I

(01:00:22):
remember that was going on. And you came and toldme, and I literally was auctioneering. And I
literally- You're stewing. I dropped the mic andran back there. Because I did not want to give him
money. I mean, I've had customers who were upset.And we would, I would make good money. Customers
that I said, that they wanted their money back. AndI said, I'll give you your money, but you never can
come back. And they said, fine. And I said, great,here's 10 bucks. This is what was hard. You're

(01:00:45):
trying to do your job. And all this bickering isgoing on at the same time. So you're handling all
these problems. Plus you're trying to run anauction. That's always how the auction was for me.
But that's what's so exciting about it. It'scrazy. It's like a life. Organized chaos. It's
just like a life. It's total craziness. Yep. Andyet it's organized. Organized chaos. And in the

(01:01:05):
end, it all works out. It all works out. But that'show almost all auctions were not to that extreme.
But I mean, that was an extreme case. And we learneda lot about ourselves from it. I do anyway. Right.
Because I would lose my temper. I did that three orfour times. Oh, and now I can say this that we're not
at the Expo Center anymore. My other memory of thisone was they took your ladder that you used to

(01:01:28):
auction your furniture on. Right. And fans set upall these boxes. And you know, I'm going with this.
And him and Matt and Lauren were like on the ladderand they're ramming the ladder into the boxes and
crashing them. Only they ram the ladder right intothe one of the pillars in the middle of the main
ballroom and knock all the molding right off. Oh, Ido remember that. There I am with my glue that I used

(01:01:53):
to keep. And my glue at holding it, holding it. Dancomes in the room. I'm leaning on it. And I'm like,
hey, how are you? Yeah, we were like in trouble fordamaging the building. I'm like, oh my God. I was
like, no more of that. We used to ride around on thedollies. Yeah, that we put furniture on. And then
we had the scooters. And the scooter fights. Andthen the hoverboards. We had the hoverboards. Oh,

(01:02:15):
yeah. Well, because the scooter fights. Becausesomebody used to steal Matthew's scooter all the
time. Yeah. I admit to that. Mean older brother. Itwas great because you had all that space. All the
space. Oh my God. Remember when Margaret got on theMatt's hoverboard at the auction? Oh, yeah.
Remember? Did you fall? She did. But then he hadthat seat that converted it into a little go cart.

(01:02:41):
And then she would go cart around. And she would gocart around the whole Exmo Center. The best way
about the Exmo Center, I mean, we had like 100,000square feet to do whatever you kind of wanted. I
mean, you had so much space to ride a bike or ride amotorcycle or whatever other kind of craziness
you can get involved with over there. Bikes was funin that building. It was. Yeah, it was. It was
amazing. You guys had a lot of fun in that building.Yeah, a lot of fun growing up about interesting

(01:03:03):
shit. Matt with his little pedal car. Do you guysremember? And that thing squeaked like crazy. He
used to drive the office staff insane. They werelike, please don't make him stop. I'm like, oh no,
this is the greatest thing. Because he was four orfive at the time. He found a little baby suitcase
and like a box lot one day. And he would put it and hetied it on. He did a little pedal car. And he'd pedal

(01:03:27):
all around. And the office staff would be like,make him stop. And I'm like, no, this is beautiful.
Because now I know where he is at all times. Yeah,because you hear. I know exactly where. Because
you heard that. Eer, eer, eer. Through thebuilding. I knew exactly where he was. Exactly. It
was beautiful. Well, it's been over an hour.Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us.
Joe Bodner, Joe Bodner, Joe Bodner. And Maureen.And Maureen Bodner. Thank you for joining. It was a

(01:03:50):
great pleasure having you. Thanks for having me.Thank you. You will be back. I promise we have more.
Oh, more memories. And more memories. We have a lotmore. We have a lot more. Coming back. Once again,
thank you for joining us. Bodner's Bid and Bantor.Check us out on the web at bodnersoction.com,
Facebook, Instagram. And all YouTube. And all thedifferent platforms. If you have a story, make

(01:04:11):
sure you join us. Or make sure you email us.Bodner's Bids and Bantor at gmail.com. Thank you
all. Go ahead and take care, guys. Goodbye. Bye.Take care. Thanks for watching Bodner's Bid and
Bantor. Remember, we're here every other weekwith new episodes, new stories, and wonderful,
wonderful times. Make sure you check us out.Bodnersoction.com, YouTube, Facebook, all the

(01:04:34):
different platforms where you watch this podcastor listen to this podcast now. Now, once again,
thanks and have a wonderful day.

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🎙️ Bodnar’s Bids and Banter Podcast - Episode 7: 3 Generations, Big Bids & Auction Mayhem

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}🎙️ Bodnar’s Bids and Banter Podcast - Episode 7: 3 Generations, Big Bids & Auction Mayhem