On most Saturday mornings at 7 a.m., crowds flock to the Hillsdale County Fairgrounds. Some attend with a vision. Others enjoy the thrill of a good browse.
The miscellaneous merchandise available at the Hillsdale Auction and Flea Market ranges from chickens to lumber to tractors to trucks. Two hours later, four auctioneers take the stage to sell the miscellaneous items followed by an auction for livestock and hay.
The flea market sets up in the stalls of a long barn. Vendors drape collections of T-shirts, pocket knives, medieval-style swords, Airsoft guns, and posters on the walls. Tables stretch the length of the barn, hidden underneath displays of DVDs, video games, candy, and rare coins.
The four auctioneers sell different items simultaneously, each one surrounded by a cluster of potential buyers. Encircling the clusters, a large clump of merchandise patiently awaits.
“We’re an auction that’ll try to sell anything,” said Auction Manager Guy Russell.
Founded in 1913, the auction continues to flourish. Farmers from Indiana, Ohio, and other parts of Michigan market their goods regularly at the auction. Chris McCullough, owner of Pine Tree Acres, a sizeable tree farm 45 minutes away, sells his trees at the auction every Saturday in the fall and early spring.
“There’s not a whole lot of other trees around here for sale,” he said. “There’s only a couple of nurseries around.”
Russell, explained that oftentimes, buyers improve or fix used items and then return to sell them again for a higher price, or, the buyer waits for an opportune moment to resell it. In this way, the auction functions as a mode of recycling used goods. Similar practices appear in the buying and selling of animals, Russell said.
The communal aspect of the auction is a weekly occurrence.
“There’s always groups of people that like to stand around together and talk,” said Mike Balcom, a veteran buyer at the auction.
Balcom meets his dad and brothers most Saturdays for breakfast at the auction, where he sees friends and meets new people.
“There’s something here for everybody,” Russell said. “You never know what you’ll see out here.”