For the past several years, Tina Ford and her wife Charlotte have traveled to other cities and states as part of their hobby of attending various auctions, sometimes driving an hour and a half or more to get to those locations.
Eventually, they settled on the idea of cutting out that travel and bringing an auction house to their hometown of Petal, when they opened C & T Auction in May at 9066 Mississippi 42 Suite A, near the Forrest and Perry county line.
“I came down sick (recently), and that cut our travel down,” Ford said. “We still liked doing it, so we decided to do one here and bring it to Petal – they didn’t have one here.
“We wanted to offer the same thrill we were getting (at other auctions) to this community. And we named it C & T, for Charlotte and Tina.”
C & T Auction, which is open to the public, opens its doors at 4 p.m. every Saturday, with the auctions following at 6 p.m. Anyone interested in selling at an auction can contact the business to be placed on a seller’s list, at which point the seller can participate in two “one-shots,” during which they can display up to 10 items.
“It does not have to be consecutive, and if we have a big spot available then you can slide into that, which is 30 minutes,” Ford said.
Buyers can find a plethora of items including furniture, cookware, toys, remote-control drones, electronics, tools, antiques and housewares such as lamps.
“It’s general, regular stuff,” Ford said. “We don’t do ‘end of the yard sale’ items – no junk.
“We make sure it’s not dinky stuff, and our lowest bid is five dollars. We have a concession (stand) out there where we make hot food each week, and other than that it’s typical snacks like drinks and things like that.”
Ford said since opening the business in May, the reaction from the public has been overwhelmingly positive.
“We’ve had standing ovations many, many nights,” she said. “We’ve put in church pews (for additional seating) and that was not enough, so we went and got chairs and stuff, and we still have people come in and bring chairs because we’re still out of seating.”
C & T Auction will hold its second – and final – Christmas sale of the year beginning at 4 p.m. December 16. Santa Claus will be on hand from 4:30-5:30 p.m. to give out gifts and take pictures with children at no charge, and the actual auction will begin at 6 p.m.
The event will also feature opportunities for Toys for Tots and Be a Santa To a Senior, an initiative from Home Instead that allows participants to give gifts to senior citizens.
“Everything (at that event will be) brand new, from newborns to adults – anything from bedding, tools, toys, bikes, appliances, hunting equipment, fishing,” Ford said.
Given the success the business has experienced throughout the last six months, Ford said she has every reason to believe it will continue to thrive and expand at its current location.
“I’m looking for us, in due time, to probably have to get a bigger building,” she said. “We’ve already discussed that, because we’ve had nights in there where it’s just packed out, and we have no place for anybody to sit.
“But we have our runners that run your stuff, so you don’t have to stand up there waiting on it.”
For more information on C & T Auction, visit the business’s Facebook page or call (601) 550-9715.
