Going, going, GONE!

I attended an auction a couple of weeks ago. The items being sold were from a competing surveying company that closed it's doors (presumably from lack of work). Going into the auction, I was excited to possibly pick up some equipment at a good price.

However, once I got there I certainly didn't have a good feeling knowing that another surveyor had been forced to sell all his equipment, vehicles, office furniture, supplies, etc. I only stayed long enough to see most of the high-end equipment being sold. Due to the tough economic times everyone is facing, most of these items were going for probably 25 to 35 percent of their real value. I had an idea of buying a lot of this stuff and putting it on E-bay but didn't since I wanted to see the equipment stay in the hands of local surveyors.

I'm still a little torn as to how I should have felt coming out of the auction. Scared because survey companies are going out of business? Relieved that we're still in business? Regardless, it certainly gave me the motivation to work hard to establish new relationships and continue our old ones to insure that work would continue coming in the door.

I guess the whole moral to the story is what we've always heard. Be grateful for what you have now because it may not be there tomorrow.