Berlin – Donald A. Wagner, age 75, passed away on August 16, 2019 at Mercy Medical Center of Oshkosh surrounded by his family.
He was born in Berlin on January 27, 1944, the son of Anthony and Lucille (Winters) Wagner.
He graduated from Berlin High School in 1962 and attended college at UW-Platteville where he graduated with a degree in Agriculture Education in 1966.
In July of 1967, he was united in marriage to Sharon Rolph at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Omro, WI. They moved to Greenwood, WI where Don taught high school agriculture for six years. The family then moved back to the Berlin area and he taught agriculture at Moraine Park Technical College for eight years.
Col. Don Wagner called his first auction in 1973. He eventually started his own auctioneering and real estate business, Don Wagner’s Auction Service and Action Agency Real Estate, in Ripon, WI.
On April 12, 2007 he was united in marriage to Darlene Copeland.
As a devoted catholic, Don, was a member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church of Omro, WI and later All Saints Catholic Parish of Berlin, WI. Don was also a member of the Wisconsin Auctioneers’ Association, Wisconsin Realtor’s Association, the Berlin School Board and the Nepeuskun Town Board.
Don loved farming, selling real estate and auctioneering, where one would hear him introduce himself as “Don Wagner, Auctioneer, Real Estate Agent and All Around Good Guy”. He enjoyed hunting with his family, adored spending time with his grandchildren and “catching up” on the phone.
Don volunteered his time auctioneering at the Winnebago County Fair, Green Lake County Fair, Ducks Unlimited & Wings Over Wisconsin Fundraisers and any organization that would ask him. He would never turn down an opportunity to volunteer his time or donate to any charity or youth organization.
Don is survived by his wife, Darlene and four children; Steve (Amy) Wagner of Neshkoro, Scott (Jan) Wagner of Ripon, Lisa (Chris) Kurczek of Ripon, Shaun Wagner of Berlin; stepchildren, Jodie Ferguson and Darrin Ferguson; ten grandchildren, Justin, Jennifer, and Jacob (Mariah) Wagner, Brady and Mariah Wagner, Mackenzie, Christopher, Chase, Anna, and Callie Kurczek. He is further survived by siblings, Lila (Ray) Ellis, Ron (Diane) Wagner, Cindy (John) Mullowney; and many nieces and nephews.
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History of Auctioneering
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The most valuable diary in the world is a journal kept by Dr. Alexander Macklin, a surgeon on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s legendary Endurance adventure of 1914-1917, which was sold at Christie’s, London, UK on 25 September 2001 for £104,950 ($153,573).
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The highest price ever paid for a single piece of furniture is £19.045,250 ($36,662,106) at Christie’s, London, UK on 9 December 2004 for the 18th-century Italian Badminton cabinet purchased by Dr. Johan Kraeftner, Director of the Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna, Italy on behalf of Prinz Hans Adam II of Liechtenstein, to be exhibited in the museum.
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The most expensive musical instrument sold at auction is the ‘Lady Blunt’ Stradivarius violin and was sold at £9,808,000 ($15,875,800) by Tarisio Auctions (USA) in London, UK, on 20 June 2011. The auction was organised online on behalf of the Nippon Music Foundation and the proceeds went to the Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund.
The authenticity of the violin was certified by the firm W.E. Hill & Sons.
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The most expensive baseball jersey sold at auction was sold for $4,415,658 (£2,789,860), by SCP Auctions (USA) of Laguna Niguel, California, USA, on 20 May 2012.
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A near-complete skeleton of a dodo (Raphus cucullatus) sold for £346,300 ($404,192) with buyers’ premium at Summers Place Auctions in Billingshurst, West Sussex, UK, on 22 November 2016. It was bought by a private collector, who made the winning bid by telephone. Errol Fuller, Natural History curator at Summers Place, said that the piece was an “amazingly rare”, being the first “relatively complete” skeleton to have come up for auction since the 1920s.
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Most expensive hockey jersey sold at auction was sold for $1,275,707.91 (£860,975.26), by Classic Auctions Inc. (Canada) of Delson, Quebec, Canada, on 22 June 2010.
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The most expensive sweater or cardigan sold at auction is a grey mohair five-button cardigan once worn by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. On 26 October 2019, the cardigan sold for $334,000 (including buyer’s premium) at a Julien’s Auctions event at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York, USA.
This stained, saggy old cardigan became an unlikely fashion icon after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain wore it during the taping of his band’s acoustic special MTV Unplugged in November 1993.
The cardigan was made by the Manhattan Shirt Company – a mass-market apparel retailer and manufacturer – probably in the early 1960s. The fabric is a blend of acrylic, mohair and Lycra, and its original retail price was probably somewhere around $15 (equivalent to around $130 in 2019). Kurt Cobain likely bought it from a thrift store in Seattle, which was where the famously fashion-averse grunge star did most of his shopping.
During the last year or so of Cobain’s life, he reportedly wore this cardigan frequently, both in public and while at home. As a result, it is worn and damaged, with a missing button, cigarette burns and a mysterious crunchy brown stain around the right front pocket.
After Cobain’s death in 1994, his wife gave it to their daughter Frances’s nanny, Jackie Farry. Farry had intended to give it to Frances when she got older, but in 2014 she was forced to sell it to pay medical bills. When it first went up for auction, it fetched a price of $137,500 – more than double the expected value.
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The most expensive durian fruit sold at auction was 1.5 million Thai baht ($47,784; £37,635), and was achieved by Maliwan Han Chai Thai, Pa Toi Lung Mu farm and the King Of Durian festival (All Thailand) in Nonthaburi, Thailand on 7 June 2019.
The rare kanyao durian was handpicked just a day before it was sold from a nearby farm where the minimum price of the fruit is 20,000 baht.
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The most expensive pork carcass sold at auction is JPY 1,394,690 ($12,756, £9,964, €10,809) which was produced by Hitachi Farm Co., Ltd. (Japan) and sold at Tokyo Meat Market in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, on 25 August 2017.
The pork breed is Bunabuta (mixed breed of Landrace, Middle White, and Duroc) which is known for soft meat with white fat, resulting in sweet and pure taste. Hitachi Farm is located in Kuji, Ibaraki, Japan.
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