Jessica Klinkenberg
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, September 26, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - Denyse Kutlesa threw her hands in the air excitedly after the auctioneer named her the winning bid on a car Saturday.

For $1,700 she had a vehicle in her name, something that she was excited about.

Robert Bouchard, left, holds up a sign in front of the ambulance as it's auctioned off. "Buffalo Joe" McBryan stands next to it. McBryan purchased the ambulance, which will be turned into a delivery truck for Buffalo Airways. - Jessica Klinkenberg/NNSL photo

"My max was $1,000 but I really need a vehicle," she said.

The auction in Kam Lake Industrial Park was her first, and she said it was an intense experience.

"I screwed up the first time on some wheels," she admitted sheepishly.

She thought she had bid on wheels for a vehicle, but she said she realized that they were for a trailer.

She didn't mix it up when she bid on her car, however.

"It's exciting. The adrenaline rush as you bid is awesome," she said.

She didn't come to the auction blind though.

She came the night before to view the property, and found the car she wanted then.

She said that she was worried because of the speed of the bidding.

"He talks so fast," she said of the auctioneer.

Wally Schumann was the fast talker with the microphone at the event, and he even went to auctioneering school. To be an auctioneer in the territory you need a certificate, he said.

"At auction school they had us auction off a two dollar bill and whoever got the highest bid was the best auctioneer," he said.

He said one person managed to sell the bill for $10.

Some of the more unique items up for bid over the weekend were an ambulance, a pizza oven, and a motorhome.

"There's a different story everywhere you go," Schumann said.

The largest item he's ever auctioned off was a barge.

Most of their business comes from government property, said Robert Bouchard, owner of the auction company.

"Buffalo Joe" McBryan, owner of Buffalo Airways, came away with the pizza oven and the ambulance. He joked that he was going to sell pizzas and have the ambulance in case anyone got sick.

"I've bought (an ambulance) before," he said.

He guts the inside and repaints it, turning the vehicle into a delivery truck for Buffalo Airways.

"I give the stuff to the paramedics to use for training," he said of the medical instruments inside of the ambulance.