the holy grail is here!!

After a long time looking, two deals that fell through becasue family members won't drive a few miles for me, and one day spent at an auction only to watch it go out of my price range on the second bid, I finally own a card catalog.  Huzzah!!

I was very lucky.  MU Surplus posted a link to the GovDeals auction on their Facebook, and Facebook's algorithms are sort of hit or miss as to whether I see things.  But I saw this post, and checked out the GovDeals page.  Two large catalogs, and just down the road, so getting one home wouldn't be a totally crazy idea.  So, I put in a bid on one, and hoped that the other one wouldn't go cheap while the one I bid on went sky high.  Then sat at the computer for the last 20 minutes, refreshing non-stop and trying to  breathe.

Score!  Got it for under my price limit of $500 (and I probably would have upped that limit another hundred or so if needed.

Got the brother-in-law to come over with the truck and we went to get it a week later.  Hauled it home, and just as we got in the driveway, a lovely torrential rain opened up.  So we took all the drawers out and brought them in through the garage, and waited around for 45 minutes or so for the rain to let up.  It never stopped, so we threw a tarp over it and brought it through the front door on the furniture dolly.

 And then I got to put all the drawers back in.  One did come apart at the front joints, but a little wood glue fixed it right up.  I do need to look at the photos and make sure the drawers are back in the right spots.

So there it is.  One vintage Brodart 72-drawer card catalog.  Complete with all the rods and handles, about half the drawer labels, three pull-out writing supports, and a Property of MU metal tag. It's not modular, though, which would have made it a lot easier to get home.  The bottom is just wood.  I've seen some with legs, or with two big drawers at the base, but this one is just an empty case. 

Now I just need to wash it down, and decide what to do with it.  I'm thinking all the fabric remnants can go in the lower drawers, and my postcard collection in the top row.

Aside from the one I was talking about in January, there was one in March that popped up on Facebook, about 5 miles from my sister's house.  Gorgeous wood, modular so it would be easy to fit in the car, and I think only $25.  And my sister, after leading me to think she was going to get it, decided not to.  And didn't tell me.  So those hours of texting back and forth with her and the seller was a waste. 

The ongoing hunt for a card catalog

For some reason that I can't fully explain, I want (really, really WANT) an old wooden card catalog from a library.  It's sort of like the joke about asking a dog what it will do with the car it's chasing if it catches the car.  Where will I put it? What will I use it for? No clue.  But I want one.

The problem?  They are wicked expensive.  Also, hard to find.

The university had a nice one in a surplus auction a couple of years back.  Unfortunately, I had a dentist appointment that day.

I was this close to having one last month.  One popped up on Craigslist not far from my sister in Colorado, at the make-me-faint price of $125.  But someone else emailed first, and anyway, my sister kept finding excuses for not being able to drive 20 minutes to get it.  Oh well.

A week later, three were on the government-surplus auction site, in Champaign Illinois.  Nice ones, with a leg/base section, three 15-drawer sections, and pull-out shelves.  Just the kind I'm wanting.  They were under $200 when I started watching, and I was looking into ways to get them here (Greyhound takes small freight.  Who knew??).  And then in the last half hour, the three shot up to about $650 each, plus whatever it would cost to get them here.  

The surplus auction had another one pop up this month, although it wasn't quite a library catalog.  The drawers were 3 different sizes, and the labels were very un-library-like - things like anthrax, cholera, Legionnaire's disease, and chick embryos.  Had a legged base, pull-outs, and it looked sectional.  Hmmmmmm.  But, I went on Tuesday to the viewing hours and had a good look at it.  It would have been workable, although the drawer bottoms weren't solid - they were all missing a strip down the middle for the metal card holder (I'm sure there's an official name for that thingy). 

And today I sucked it up and went to the auction.  Signed up for a bidder number, and stood around an unheated, cold building for 3 and a half hours before they finally got the the cabinet.  It blew past my upper limit ($150ish) by the third bid, and ended at a whopping $1,000.  Plus tax. 

I was not the only person there interested in it, just based on the other three people who left right after the bidding ended on it. 

And then I skipped my other two errands, because it was 1:00, and came home for a lunch of PB&J on week-old bread, because I somehow botched the grocery shopping over the holidays, and the bread is off-schedule.