Auction Report

From: Rae Plachecki

Hi all, with all the auction posts I've been reading, I thought I'd throw my $.02 worth in.

I arrived Friday morning, got checked in, and left messages for Lora and Megan that I had arrived. I met up with Lora and Megan and we sat in the bar to watch for others to show up. Arrangements had been made to go on the FK Toronto tour with Liz and Marg later in the afternoon, so we all just hung out at the bar watching. Throughout the afternoon more FKer's showed up. It was really a great experience meeting all these people I had seen on-line. It was
great finally having faces to go with names and ID's. A thrill for me was to meet Susan Garrett, the author of the FK book, "Intimations of Mortality". I had never met a real author before. Later that afternoon, Marg and Liz showed up and we went on the Toronto tour. I was one of the lucky nes to be in Liz's Cadillac convertible! Even though it was about 50 degrees, we toured TO with the top down. Besides FK sites, we did encounter one biker who shouted at us, "A bit nippy out eh girls?" We also encountered several strange looks and a few hoots of appreciation for Liz's car. Two young guys pulled up beside us and asked us, "Is that a 98?" They were screaming and hooting at us until we finally took a turn.

As I haven't watched all the episodes several times over, it was hard for me to identify different sites. That is until we got to Nick's loft. Everyone laughed when this strange sign of recognition popped out of my mouth! I am also proud to say I recognized the precinct building too! We got to see Schanke's house, the subway entrance used in BB2, and the battle field for the Crimean war. After that stop, everyone switched cars and Lora and I hopped into Marg's car. Marg took us down the main street used in the show when we see Nick cruising in the Caddy. Marg was teasing us by not telling us where we were going next, but she got it back in stereo when Lora and I both screamed, "It's the Coroner's Building"! After that, we swung by the Fluid Lounge a.k.a. the Raven. I tried to do the Vachon pose from "Trophy Girl" after Tracy left mad at him and he just kind of stands there. Someone told me they got a great picture of it, red eyes and all!

Once back at the hotel, people broke off to go plan auction strategy for a bit and then we met back in the bar. We got our registration stuff and hung out listening to ABBA while waiting for Illinois Jules to make the scene! I ended up going up to my room before she arrived. So, that was Friday for me. Stay tuned for Saturday!

***
Saturday morning I got up extra early so I could be first in line and get a front row seat at the auction. Needless to say, I was the only one running around at 6:30 that morning. I had the whole restaurant to myself. I met Jayne L'argent, vice president of Nigel Bennett's fan club Friday night and had a few short chats with her Saturday morning, in-between her running around. Quite a few La Femme Nikita people got in line behind me and it was fun talking with them about FK and LFN. I had worn my FK jacket that I had purchased through the GWDFC and was hoping to get it signed by NB. Sat. morning I ended up leaving it with some of the LCA coordinators who got it signed for me. Slowly people lined up and we got to watch Jon Casser and his two boys carry in auction items. There was one lady in line who had created a LFN board game and she happened to have one with her while standing in line. She showed me the cards and how the game was played. It inspired me to work on an FK board game. Maybe someday I'll have it all figured out and try to have it made. Jayne let us in the auction room and we all leisurely walked up to the front row to take our seats. It was interesting that somehow all the LFN people sat on one side of the room and the FK people all seemed to gather on the other. Saturday morning was the LFN panel and the stars were seated at a table up on a platform. I had never seen the show before, but the LFN people were very kind and funny! I have since seen the show twice and I intend to become a regular watcher.

During the LFN panel Nigel Bennett showed up. You could hear the murmer run through the crowd and when he started to approach the stage a huge cheer went up! I won't go into detail about the rest as the presentation to Jon Casser and Nigel's phone call have already been written about.

I'm going to jump ahead to the coke can part as I was a participant there. Jon Casser explained a little of what happened at BtK with NB's coke can and informed the LFN cast and crew that they each had to auction off one coke can. As has been said before, the actors got pretty creative. Because Nigel was with the panel, he decided to do his Pepsi can. I think the first bid was for $100, which I think shocked JC. We continued bidding until the can got up to $200. Illinois Jules told us that she was bidding for Kelly, the purchaser of the original "Sacred Coke Can" from BtK, so we all quit bidding so she would get it. I was sitting next to Jules when Nigel handed her the can and I said something like, "Would you please do another one? This one's for Kelly and we'd all like to have a chance to bid on one." Nigel went to the garbage can and pulled out another Pepsi can that he had finished earlier and bit down really hard on that one. So hard in fact that he got his lip caught in it. I got the can with a $300 bid and as Nigel handed it to me he said, "this one has my blood on it." I went up to ask him to sign the can and I asked him if he had hurt his tooth. He said, "No, but I nipped my lip. You do have my blood on that can." He was gracious and signed the can for me.

Another interesting event for me was when Paul Gross from "Due South" showed up. He brought with a mountie hat to auction. As soon as I saw it I had to have it. I'm a member of NA and I really wanted to get my RCMP a.k.a. Mountie Love merit badge. (I'll explain that some other time<G>) Anyhow, Paul had the hat up for bids and I started bidding on it. At $420 I thought I had it. It was "$420 going once, $420 going twice..." and then some girl bid $425! I felt defeated. It must have shown on my face because Nigel looked at me and said something like, "come on, you must have 5 more dollars." I just looked at him and shook my head. Nigel then proceeded to reach into his pocket and took out $5 in loonies and said "here!" So I took his money and said "$430". I don't know if the other girl quit bidding because Nigel gave me the money or what, but the next thing I know the word "sold" is said and I was the proud owner of an RCMP hat. I went up to take it from Paul. I remembered hearing somewhere that he had had some bad experiences with fans before so I didn't want to spook him. As he handed the hat to me I asked him if I could give him a hug. He proceeded to hug me and give me a little peck on the neck. It was sweet. He then said he should personalize the inscription so we walked over to the chairs set up for the guests and he personalized the hat for me. Prior to his appearance at the auction, Paul had already written, "Thank You Kindly, Paul Gross" on the brim of the hat. He now added, "Rae, A Fine Purchase" to it. He then proceeded to give me mountie hat-care tips i.e. "How to keep the brim flat" and placed the hat in a box for me. I got a few pictures taken with him and went off happily to pay for the hat. A little later, when I saw Nigel up by the auction items, I went up and handed him his $5 back. He laughed and said something like, "you can keep it". I said, "how about buying me a Heiniken tonight instead." He said "sure" and took the $5 back.

Another bit of excitement for me was the auctioning off of the LFN script of the episode Nigel appeared in. The script was auctioned off when Nigel said he had a surprise item...his own personal copy of the script. It had his lines highlighted and he had signed it. Needless to say, I bid and got that item too. I asked all of the LFN people to sign it. Don, who plays Walter on the show, addressed his signature to "Princess Rae of Hope". I thought that was mighty sweet. Turns out Don signed all of his stuff using the word "Princess".

I stepped outside to have a smoke and who should I see but Barclay Hope out there ahead of me. We chatted a bit and I noticed that Barclay was drinking a 7Up. I told him he should hang onto that can when he's finished so he wouldn't have to drink a Coke later. (I should mention here that Barclay wasn't feeling very well.) He asked me why and I explained the whole Coke can thing from Bridging the Knight. I told him about Nigel biting his two cans that morning and that Paul Gross even put his in his pants. I also told him how much the cans were going for. He couldn't believe it. We talked some more and Barclay said, "I bet you didn't know that I auditioned for the part of LaCroix, did you?" I asked him to tell me about it. (these aren't his exact words, but they will convey the meaning accurately) Barclay said. "I went to the audition, and there was this guy named Nigel Bennett sitting there waiting to go in. I thought to myself, 'Who's this guy? Never heard of him before. I think he just moved here from England.' Knowing that the one who auditions last is usually the favorite for the part, I was a little wary of him because I was the next one called in, which meant Nigel was the last to audition." Well, as we all know, Nigel got the part, but what a great bit of trivia to know Barclay auditioned for it too!

I do want to add that Barclay got int the spirit of things when one of the "goatee brothers" was auctioning off a prop from LFN. The bids were rather low and he was asking for higher bids. I yelled something like, "Hey, Eugene stripped for his bids!" We coaxed him out of his shirt at I think $150 and then he said the next shirt (his t-shirt) wouldn't go unless he heard $200. Barclay Hope yelled from the sidelines, "200" and a huge cheer went up! (we women were such animals! <G>) The prop ended up going to Lora but I can't remember for how much.

So, everyone retired to their rooms, or the bar <G>, to prepare for the evening party. I came down for the party and it was pretty nice seeing everyone dressed up. Everyone that is except Nigel in his Snoopy t-shirt. Hmmm...gives me an idea. Oh well, we all found our seats and proceeded to enjoy fresh veggies, chicken and beef on a stick (no this was not held at a state fair) and those scrumptious little egg roll thingies that Susan wrote about earlier. We sat around and gabbed about all the fun we had had during the first day of the auction. I convinced Lora to run up to her room and get her FK soundtrack CD so the DJ could play it while we were eating. I asked Jon Cassar to stop by our table so we could all get pictures taken with him. Jon was very gracious and stopped by our table. People were mingling around and I got to chat with Mic Jones, Stunt Coordinator for LFN. I also got to chat with Angelo Colavecchia, a Camera Operator from FK first and second season. Pretty soon Nigel showed up. I was up getting a drink and Nigel was great and bought me my first Heiniken of the night. Camera flashes were going off and everyone was having a great time. Pretty soon the dancing began and quite a few of us cut loose on the floor. Some more than others ;) (hi Jules!!) Crew from FK and LFN mixed right in on the dance floor with the fans. Lora, Megan and I decided to take a break and headed over to get a couple of drinks. We ran into Nigel and started chatting with him. He expressed how cool he thought it was that all of us FK fans instantly bond when we meet at Cons and the auction. He was about to say more when Angelo came up and told Nigel he had to head up a conga line. Nigel said "No, I don't dance", but Angelo wouldn't take no for an answer and literally grabbed Nigel and dragged him to the dance floor. (And people think Nigel gets it bad from his fans!!) Instead of joining the conga line, I ran to the table and grabbed my camera. I got a couple of pictures of the conga line, one that even has Jon Cassar carrying a candelabra. It was around 10:00 when I finally decided I had better pop in on the party I was hosting in my room. My own Room Cobra Julia was keeping everyone in line! Everyone was watching the "Can't Run Can't Hide" dailies that were auctioned off earlier that day. As I had a room to myself, I offered the use of my room for video viewing. People continued to trickle in from the party and we all got to have a few laughs watching the dailies. The only downside to the evening was a girl in my room who happened to have had too much to drink and was throwing up in my bathroom. But, on the up side, she was very neat and tidy and didn't leave a mess, so, it wasn't so bad. <G> At around 2:30, I attempted to crawl into bed to sleep, but told everyone they could stay. People were pretty tired and Julia rounded them up and sent them on their way. After everyone left, I moved the furniture back and got some packing done. Bedtime came at about 3:00 am and I set my alarm for 5:00 and happily drifted off to dreamland.

 

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This page last updated April 13, 1999