Fountain City Auction to host 19th Annual Advertisement Sale
By Ken Lay
It’s a new year and Fountain City Auction will kick off 2024 with its 19th annual Advertisement Sale and Country Store Auction on Saturday, January 6, at 2 p.m.
The event is online only and the preview will be held Jan. 4-5 from 9 a.m.-2 p.m.
“It is online only, so people will need to go online and register,” Fountain City Auction Co-Owner Greg Lawson said.
The event is held annually in January and is one of the company’s biggest events of the year. It always takes place after Christmas, but it is year-round in the making.
“We have regular customers who come in and bring us stuff all the time,” Lawson said. “And sometimes, we take that stuff and hold it back for this auction. We do a lot of prep work and a lot of advertisement for this one.
“We have regular auctions every Friday night, but this is a specialty auction and we have those once a month,” Lawson said. “It brings out advertising signs, vintage toys, memorabilia, cap guns, clocks, oil bottles, a pie safe and collectibles. You have toys and you also have items that you’ll find in a general store.”
Jewelry, gas pumps, thermometers and vintage drink glasses may also be available.
Vintage gasoline, drink and beer signs are regular items at the first auction of the year. In 2024, a Coca-Cola dinette set and baker’s rack will be up for auction.
This year (2024) marks the 20th anniversary of Fountain City Auction. The Advertisement Sale and General Store auction began as a live event and then became a live and online sale. The COVID-19 pandemic changed everything and the event is now held exclusively online.
“I miss the public aspect of it, but with COVID, we had to do it all online,” Lawson said. “We used to have about 300-plus people (in attendance) and we had to find a way to get them all in here, and now, we have about 10,000 views.”
Potential bidders can register and preview merchandise at fountaincityauction.com. The company’s e-mail address is fountaincityauction@yahoo.com.
