Going once, going twice, sold!

The Sixth Annual Consignment Auction was held recently at the Big Creek Grange in Franklin Township to benefit the Carbon County Lion/Lioness Fair Association.

“This is one of our biggest fundraisers,” said Malinda Fox, president of the Fair Association. “It gets bigger and better each year.”

This year, the auction was so big, they had to stop taking items to sell several days before the sale.

In this consignment auction, people bring items to sell, and the Carbon County Fair gets a percentage of each sale. Auctioneer Dean R. Arner donated his services for the sale.

“If they need something we try to help that local community,” Arner said. “For this sale, there’s some good antiques here, and there’s some good equipment.”

Arner also wanted to thank Tom and Linda Flamini from New Ringgold, who donated their time to help with the auction.

Leroy Wentzel, a director at the fair, is in charge of the arena area.

Wentzel, who works with Arner, explained the importance of the consignment sale.

“The fair is always trying to raise money because we’re a nonprofit,” Wentzel said. “The Consignment Auction, I can come up to ask if you have items that you don’t need anymore to sell for a price.

“We collect these items, they have to be farm-related or home garden, antique. We try to have a quality auction and get the most money we can get for the seller.”

Wentzel added that the 15% commission that the auctioneer normally gets, Arner donates to the fair.

“All his workers like me, we volunteer our time to help make the sale go,” said Wentzel, who added there are a lot of consignment sales around the area. “I try to keep ours to a minimum (because) we only have so much room at the grange.”

Wentzel noted that they had to cut it off Saturday at the Grange, because they had run out of room.

He said they collect items on the Wednesday through Friday leading up to that Saturday.

“This year, we had 42 consignors; that’s a lot,” Wentzel said. “Every year, it gets bigger and bigger.”

This year will mark the 25th anniversary of the Carbon County Fair at its current location on Little Gap Road, just east of Palmerton.

This year’s Carbon County Fair will be held Aug. 5-10.

James Logue Jr. contributed to this report