Sale of skeletons, coffins draws buyers

‘There’s a collector for everything,’ the auctioneer observed.

LIMA, Ohio (AP) — Jim Shaffer looked over a glass-covered coffin housing a human skeleton strung together with wire and pins.

But before deciding whether to make a bid, he first wondered if his wife would let him store the coffin in their living room.

“It’s some weird stuff,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s weird, but it would be kind of cool to have.”

A collection of coffins, skeletons and bones was up for auction Wednesday. There also were stands that corpses and coffins rest on before burial and antique funeral lamps.

Auctioneer Don Sargent said the collection had belonged to a Lima man who bought most of the items out of trade magazines in the 1950s and ’60s.

The auction drew interest from antique shop owners along with collectors from across the country, including ones from Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Illinois, Sargent said. “There’s a collector for everything,” he said. “That proves it.”

Mike Goff was looking for authentic adornments for his business, Harold’s Haunted Cornfield.

Another bidder looked over a stack of old funeral home catalogs and a heavy wooden crate that once housed embalming fluid. “This is really a great collection. For collectors, this is a gold mine,” said Ben Warrick.

Sargent said he didn’t want to reveal the collection’s owner, who stored it all at his home.

“I’ve known the guy for years,” Sargent said. “I had no idea he had it.”

The auctioneer checked with authorities to make sure it was OK to sell skeletons.

Allen County Prosecutor Jurgen Waldick said it was legal because the bones, believed to be from the 18th and 19th centuries, were so old.

He said the question of selling old skeletons hasn’t come up in his office before. “All I can say is that if they do go for sale, they’ll cost an arm and a leg,” Waldick said.

The skeletons sold for $300-$800, Sargent said.

“I knew there was demand, but I didn’t know how much,” he said. “It all sold.”