Auction Hunters: Season 2, Episode 25: “Early Bird Special.”
Haff-Ton team drove to Stanton, California very early in the morning. Ton fell asleep in the truck.
Rise and Shine!
Auction time!
Fact: Some mammals like lions and koalas sleep over 20 hours a day.
Bright side? There were doughnuts and coffee at the auction. Um, can I come too?
Fact: Stanton is a major auto and aerospace manufacturing center in Orange County.
Company Unit
Popcorn maker, old milk cans, plastic containers, and boxes. Duo won the locker for $300.
They found an antique mantle with mirror. The guys also discovered a bike.
Ton lugged a ring toss game out of the unit.
Fact: Poor citizens in ancient Greece played ring toss with bent horseshoes.
Allen found boxes within boxes. Ton unpacked a leather shoulder holster. He also discovered a toy water gun. Shoot! No fun on the gun range with that.
Fact: Shoulder holsters gained popularity among Wild West gunmen in the mid 1800’s.
Allen found some real gun bags. But the guns inside were BB guns made to look like Thompson submachine guns.
Fact: 2.7 million Thompson submachine guns were produced for WWII
Haff-Ton team realized the guns were part of a vintage carnival shooting gallery. The rest of the 
pieces to the game where inside the unit.
They put the game together together, touched it up, and found a buyer.
Duo had to do some repair work before they put ad up online. The guys were soon contacted by Leamon, a collector.
Duo brought the game out to display. Leamon had a thick accent. Allen could barely make out a word he said. But one thing was clear; this shooting gallery could be worth a pretty penny if the guns still worked.
Fact: The 1893 Chicago World’s fair inspired the modern traveling carnival in the U.S.
Allen shot the BB guns at the targets. Guns worked but Allen missed by a mile.
He dared Ton to do better.
Bad move! This is TON we’re talking about here.
Ton hit the target right on the bull’s-eye.
Allen might not be a winner at target practice; but both of were winners when Leamon paid them $4,500 for the game.
Shrink Wrap Unit
Front end of a sports car, chairs, golf club case, boxes, and lots of items in shrink wrap. Duo took the unit for $500.
They found several pieces of “ground effect” car parts. Sides and exhaust cut out.
Fact: Some ground effects improve a car’s aerodynamics, while others are cosmetic.
Haff-Ton team also discovered an industrial cooking fan. Ton found a wooden dining set.
Ton unpacked fighting pads for MMA – mixed martial arts.
Fact: MMA contests were introduced to the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC.
Allen jumped like a scared little girl when he spotted a body in the back of the unit!
He’s not dead. Just a fighting dummy. Allen tried out a couple of his moves on it.
Fact: This dummy features a skeleton made of steel cable that can hold up to 4,100 lbs.
There was a ton of fighting gear in the unit, including a MMA training cage.
Duo took the cage and dummy to Ted, an owner of a mixed martial arts training facility.
Fact: It only takes 7 pounds of pressure to break an elbow joint.
Ted told them that MMA training cages were octagons. This cage definitely had missing pieces. It just wasn’t something Ted was interested in as-is.
The fighting dummy however, was a different story. That particular fighting dummy had originally been used by the military for bayonet training. It was very high quality and currently use for MMA training.
Ted bought the dummy and the pieces of the cage for $2,400.
The early birds caught the worm and made a healthy profit.
Auction Total:
Paid $800
Sold: $8,430
Profit: $7,630
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