Harrisburg Auction Nets $2.57 Million for City of Harrisburg.
Monday July 22, 2013 at 2:04 pm
By Jamie Serra

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Mayor Thompson press event on the Harrisburg Auction. "The City of Harrisburg does pay it's debts".

For the third time in two day's the city and Guerney's lower the final sale totals of the Harrisburg Auction.

Mayor Linda D. Thompson - Total sales $3, 143,795.

Net amount to the City of Harrisburg $2,577,911.

"We're talking about making this a part of the global victory of our recovery."

The first round of Harrisburg's Artifact auction has ended with a second round on the horizon within the next two months. Nobody knew what the sale of these artifacts would bring for the city including the President of Guernsey's, Arlan Ettinger.

Contrary to Mayor Thompson's claims, Guernsey's Auctions confirmed total sales at $3.9 million yesterday. As discussed on WITF smart talk, this figured was revised by Guernsey's on July 23, 2013 to $3.2 million. This means the city can expect to keep approximately $2,720,001. Here's the Receiver of Harrisburg describing Judge Collins' order that mandates the use of auction proceeds to repay existing debt.

The contract between Guernsey's and the City of Harrisburg provides a sliding scale for the auctioneer's commission based on total sales. Guernsey's will receive Eighteen percent of the first million, 15% on the second $999,999, and 12.5% on anything over $2 million dollars.

Based on the final revenue estimate provided by Guernsey's and their agreement with the city, the auction house will keep approximately $479,999 dollars.

Breakdown for the $479,999 commission paid by the city as follows:

18% of first $1,000,000 = $180,000.

15% of following $999,999 = $149,999.85.

12.5% of remaining $1,200,001 = 150,000.12.

In addition to the amounts paid by the city, Guernsey's charged buyers an additional 22% on top of final sale price of each item. Premium charges totaled $704,000, netting Guernsey's a total of approximately $1.183 million dollars. Arlan Ettinger thanks Mayor Thompson and Robert Philbin for the award of the artifact contract in March of 2012.

Out of the thousands of items that were sold, the following items fetched the most for the City.

1. Theodore Roosevelt Cased Gun Set sold for: $95,000.00. Video of the Case and Gun..:

2. Doc Holliday's Frock Coat sold for: $55,000.00. Watch the bidding.

3. Signed Wyatt & Mattie Earp Document sold for: $55,000.00.

4. Doc Holliday Pistol in Case sold for: $50,000.00. Watch the bidding.

5. Doc Holliday Dental Chair sold for: $40,000.00. Watch the bidding.

6. Detective Badge of Allan Pinkerton old for: $37,500.00.

7. Wyatt Earp Pistol sold for: $35,000.00. Watch the bidding.

8. Le Pages Freres Dueling Pistols sold for: $32,500.00.

9. W. H. Bonney Billy the Kid Signed Letter sold for: $32,500.00.

10. Wild Bill Hickok's Boot Knife sold for: $32,000.00.

The article has been updated several times to lower the gross and net amounts of auction receipts provided by the City of Harrisburg and Guerney's auction house.

 
Tags: Artifacts, Auction, Contract, Guernesys, Harrisburg, Harrisburg Auction, Hattisburg Artifacts, Linda Thompson