The Time My Old Desk Was Auctioned Off
As I have mentioned many times, I used to work for Taylor Gifts. When I left this company I had my own office and desk. It used to be the office of No Fun Ben. When he moved on, I snagged it before anyone else could. When I say I snagged it, I showed up an hour before anyone else did, moved everything into the office, and then said “Hey, this is my office now.” I highly suggest trying that when you want to take someone’s office. Here’s a video of me at my desk.
I left Taylor Gifts about 3 weeks before they went belly up and declared bankruptcy. I actually visited the day before they stopped operations. I won’t go into too much detail, but the entire situation on that day was very surreal. Maybe I’ll write about it on the anniversary of my visit. Before it became the property of Collections Ect, they had a bankruptcy auction. I was between jobs so I had plenty of time to swing by and check it out. It was a little strange showing up the early morning of Tuesday, June 21st 2016.
Everything was on the chopping block. Desks, chairs, computers, mini fridges, and everything that was in the warehouse was available to buy. Stuff in the front office were auctioned off separately while everything in the Warehouse was wrapped up into a single lot to buy for around a million dollars. The very capable Barry S. Slosberg handled the auction. I’ve dropped by their weekly auctions and they run a very professional outfit. I believe Barry himself was there and they did a really great job with the auction overall.
The building opened up about an hour before the auction and everything was free to explore. While I worked there for a couple of years with Duke of the Warehouse, Hungry Steve, the Lovely Liza, Laura My Camerawoman, No Fun Ben, and Roger The Warehouse Monster, there were parts of the building I didn’t visit. Now that everything was open and ready to be auctioned off, I checked out the entire building.
Here is a snapshot I took of warehouse where only weeks before I filmed my goodbye video.
My goodbye video for comparison.
It was equal parts creepy and sad. I really did enjoy my work at Taylor Gifts and if they hadn’t gone belly up I would quite likely still be working there filming product demos. At the auction there were some old faces. People were curious about how it would go down and some folks wanted to buy their old desks for a good price. I tried to get my hands on some computers, but they were too rich for my blood. There was some high-grade camera equipment that went for a good price there also. Just about everything went for more than I was willing to pay for. I was unemployed after all.
But I didn’t leave completely empty handed. For an incredibly good price I snatched some great office chairs and a couple of mini fridges. There was some nice office furniture at an incredibly cheap price but I didn’t have anywhere to put it nor a way to transport it.
At the end of the day, someone bought my desk and my old computer. In the last moments in my office I looked through the desk. It didn’t look like they did much with it in the time I left to when they closed up shop. When I left Taylor Gifts I put this note on the computer:
Hello, I must be going. I cannot stay, I came to say I must be going. I'm glad I came but just the same I must be going.
That note was still on my desk when I left Taylor Gifts for the last time. Whoever bought it I imagine wouldn’t get the reference, but I certainly hope everything found a good home. Those mini fridges sure did.
