I am glad to hear you had a good time, buying something later regretted often spoils the enjoyment :)

Would you believe it, I never have been to an auction! Just as well, I know I would have come home with things I really don't need. Would have liked the drive though.

I used to attend every week. Outfitted my first apartment mostly from low bids on good quality stuff. Now the closest auction house specializes in "antiques" with mostly correspondingly high prices.

Many years ago, when I was working in DC, I passed a large auction house every day on my way to/from the parking lot. Often I went in one door, meandered around the floor and out another door, just to see what was there. One day, I saw a set of dishes on the floor and simply fell in love with them. Place settings for 20, incomplete: a couple saucers and cups were missing. I estimated that they might go for as much as $200, simply because of the large number of settings. Because they were to be offered at a time that I had to be at work, I asked a friend to bid for me (with a monetary limit of $500 that was more than a month's salary - I really WANTED those dishes). After the bidding closed, she came to my office, laughing and shaking her head. Crossing my fingers, I asked how much they went for. That's when she told me the opening bid had been $1000 (yep, one thousand dollars). It turned out that they were some rare and rarely available pattern, and they were yellow, an uncommon color in porcelain.
The final bid was over $28,000.

My SIL collects marbles, if she had attended every one of those jars would have gone home with her. Once she showed me a couple marbles (honestly, nothing special to look at) and said they were each worth $50 or more.

Oh gads,those auctioners talk fast. They seem to have a certain cadence and I can't keep up with them. However, DH's grandfather understood the auction process and made a lot of money in that field.