A place for virtually everything
Online auctioneer Steve Yilit Jr. allows customers into his North Main Street shop in Washington to preview items available for bidding.
A Civil War veteran’s prosthetic leg, foreground, and accompanying crutch were in Steve Yilit’s shop last week.
An African Congo helmet, circa 1900, shown in the left foreground, and a leather football helmet were among items auctioned last week.
It seemed that the bidder had lost his marbles.
“I once sold a pint jar of marbles for $800,” said Steve Yilit Jr., amid his shop brimming with auction items in downtown Washington.
“Eight hundred! I said that was a lot of money, then he told me he could get $800 for one of the marbles.”
The bidder, obviously, was of sharp mind, a collector who – unintentionally – added to Yilit’s growing collection of intriguing anecdotes. And it is a collection that is as vast as the assemblage of goods inside 16 N. Main St.
Yilit is an auctioneer, primarily online, where he does about about 200 auctions annually and has more than 1,000 registered bidders. He stores and displays items, but doesn’t sell them, at his newly opened shop next to Popcorn Willy, and deals in virtually anything, from mainstream to bona fide bizarre.
His professional existence is sort of a cable convergence of “Pawn Stars” and “American Pickers,” but with no Rick, Big Hoss, Chumlee, Mike or Frank. He works by himself.
“You never know what’s coming in,” said Yilit, of North Franklin Township. “I’ve even had a skull auction – all animals and one human. You can auction human bones as long as they aren’t from Native Americans.
“Whatever a person brings to the store, I sell for what it brings. Everyone has stuff somewhere, and I swear it breeds.”
That seems to be the case inside the city building he bought, then opened two months ago. The company names – Yilit Auctions and Five Star Liquidations – are on the door, and items are displayed everyhere, in neat, orderly fashion, each tagged with an ID number on a card.
Last week’s collection included a tin man; a Civil War-era prosthetic leg and crutch; an African Congo helmet circa 1900; cigarette lighters; a self-defense weapon from a brothel; and a sugar cane knife as big and heavy as a bus. All were part of an auction that concluded at 8 p.m. Saturday.
It is a market for buyers as well as sellers. Yilit said people with collectibles call and arrange to either bring them into his shop or have him examine them.
“Some of it is not worth taking,” he said.
Yilit said he usually gets a percentage of the gross sale and the seller gets the remaining money.
His e-auctions operate this way: register at yilitauctions.com; select one of several auctions; click on “view items and bid”; make a bid.
During a specified period before bidding closes, customers may enter the shop to view items that interest them. Saturday’s preview, for example, was from 3 to 6 p.m. Winners go to North Main the next day to claim items and pay by cash, check or credit card.
“I’ll have the stuff ready,” Yilit said, “so you can be in and out in 10 minutes.”
There are no leftovers.
“Each item is listed and whatever it brings, it brings. The last hour is when a lot of items jump (in price).
“All of it is going to go. If it doesn’t, we donate it to the City Mission. Then it starts up again.”
Auctioneering hasn’t been a career-long vocation for Yilit. He was an insurance agent until 1990, when he made the transition. He has worked mainly in Washington County, where he grew up (Avella).
Online became Yilit’s specialty two years ago. He has done auto auctions and still does live auctions, including ones for real estate, estates and charities.
There isn’t much idle time, and plenty of drive time. In addition to maintaining his online presence, Yilit gets an estimated 40 to 60 calls a day from people with items they no longer want or who are seeking him as an auctioneer. He has done business in such far-flung venues as Erie, Evans City, Saxonburg and New Kensington, and he maintains a warehouse in Koppel, Beaver County.
Hey, the North Main site is reasonably spacious, but not that spacious.
The auction action continues unabated, and Yilit is prepared with a large stock of stuff that is guaranteed to expand. A toy auction is likely ahead, featuring 150 Barbie dolls.
Marbles always are a possibility. Yilit said he once had two tons of them. “They’re very popular.”
No, he hasn’t seen it all in this business – but may.
“At some point, everything will pass by me,” said Yilit, who is quite comfortable in this career. “It’s been such a fun business.”
For more information or to register for an auction, visit yilitauctions.com or call 724-288-7675.