PEOPLE OF INTEREST
87
Name: Nancy Kratzer
Age: 54
Occupation: Vero Beach Auction
owner and operator.
People
Family: daughter, Nicole
Wessels, Orlando; son, David,
Palm Beach Gardens.
Background: Director and
licensed agent, health and
property and casualty insurance; business owner.
What inspires me: “I love the job. It truly is like
going to a museum every day.”
Something most people don’t know about me: “I’m a
bowler. I have belonged to a women’s bowling league
for about five years.”
People
People
People
People
Master Certified Picture Framer
Excellent Customer Service
Established in 1979
(772) 567-7692
485 22nd Place, Vero Beach, Between Fresh Market & VB Book Center
Bidders gather at the Vero Beach Auction, 492 Old Dixie Highway, to view
and price items. The auction also attracts worldwide participation online or
over the phone.
silver centerpieces and dishes, antique oak pieces, modern
and mid-century furnishings, Chinese ivory, vintage dolls
and Royal Doulton figurines.
Kratzer found that consigners bring some unique relics to
the auction house. She enjoys the turn-of-the-century
miniature books, popular in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
A painting by 20th-century artist Henry Faulkner fetched
more than $14,000 at auction. A woolen Scottish patch
brought to the moon by Neil Armstrong when he walked on
the lunar surface sold for $10,000. Former Vero Beach resident
R. W. “Mac” Grady consigned the patch to the auction
house after Armstrong’s death in 2012. “That was awesome,”
Kratzer said, but she added that something amazing is listed
for auction every week, from Asian figurines to rare Russian
sterling silver pieces.
Kratzer has found that research and assessment have become
an exciting part of the job because she gets to examine
items “the average person doesn’t get to handle.”About 100
to 150 people turn out in person for the monthly auctions, but
thousands participate through online bidding. The international
attention attracts people from as far away as Poland,
Germany, Switzerland and Japan, who fly in and pick up
their purchased collectibles.
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