Its ceiling still decorated with twinkling fiber-optic stars, the lobby of the recently closed Galaxy Cinema became a haven for bargain hunters and auction-goers alike Saturday morning.
With more than 50 people packed into the lobby of Galaxy Cinema, all but the windows were sold. Auction-goers bid on everything from film reels to mop buckets as the auctioneer’s voice continuously sent a spark of bid numbers into the air.
Karen Brown of York Properties managed the property Galaxy Cinema once called home.
“It’s business,” Brown said. “It’s sad when something like this happens but it’s by no means uncommon.”
The owner of Galaxy Cinema, Kirit Padia, had financial trouble and keeping the doors to the cinema open was simply no longer feasible.
“We thought it would be more beneficial to the area if we turned the property into a Harris Teeter,” Brown said.
Brown is no stranger to the intensity of closing auctions, but said the Galaxy sale tops her list of auction oddities.
“This is probably the strangest auction I’ve ever been to because we usually do restaurant auctions,” Brown said. “There’s just a lot of really random stuff that you wouldn’t think people want secondhand — but apparently they do.”
The items for sale at Saturday’s auction went to homeowners, theatre-owners and even N.C. State students.
“We’re able to give a lot of this stuff back to the community or to a business that can really use it,” Brown said. “It’s recycling at its very best.
Van and Elyse Jordan of Littleton, N.C., were among those in attendance. The couple owns Lakeland Theatre, a playhouse that hosts concerts, theatrical works and karaoke. The Jordans purchased the “starry night” fiber-optic ceiling system for only $30 and plans to install it in the new cabaret extension of their theatre.
“We were looking for anything really,” the Jordans said. “We saw a lot we could use but the ceiling would save us a lot of money.
Other items that found a good home included the theatre chairs for $2 apiece and 176 movie reels, both Bollywood and domestic, sold for a total of $80. Even a set of black, metal trashcans found itself in high demand.
With sporadic shouts from both buyers and the auctioneer, the now–gutted halls of Galaxy Cinema filled with barks of “We might not know what it is or if it works but we’ll sell it to you.” Whatever treasures buyers toted home at the end of the day it can be said that the theme of the auction was a uniquely bittersweet concoction.
