What a great day at the auction! We’ve been wanting to change our dining room table for years. We inherited my Mother-in-law’s Ercol dining room set, which may well be a design classic, but isn’t very functional. When we have friends or family round, we have to put an old fire door on top, which makes it a bit too high for comfort and seems too big and yet somehow not big enough at the same time.

I saw a perfect table at the auction rooms yesterday, took a photo and convinced Mrs Rayner that I should have a go for it. Okay, so it’s repro, but I’m not proud. It’s a very good quality repro in perfect showroom condidtion. The original catalogue came with it telling me it was made in 1983 of solid wood and veneer, no chipboard in sight and originally cost £350! How much would it cost now?

I knew that similar things might come up in 7harity shops for £75-100 and set my limit at £100. There’s 12.5% buyer’s premium plus VAT on top of that, which comes to about £130. The old pine table, the lot before, went for £150 so I wondered if I should set my level a bit higher.

I waited to see where the other bidders came in. “Come, on!” said the auctioneer. “Someone start me at £5.” I flashed my card. Some one else flashed theirs for £8. I flashed mine again for £10… and that was it! £10 for perfect regency mahogany repro – I couldn’t believe it.

I was so pleased that I bought the lovely little pine writing desk that I had admired too. It sat in a dusty corner and was referred to as a school desk. It’s much posher than that. I got it for £12 brought it home, cleaned it up and gave it a dose of beeswax. Now it’s looking beautiful.

My friend, Andy came with me in his estate car to fetch it home. He’d not been to the auction before and was fascinated by the way the worlds of agriculture and home furnishings collide in such a place. We turned it into a day out by having a fry-up in the canteen – chips and all.

So why so cheap? For one thing, no one sits down to eat anymore. People eat standing up or from a tray on their lap. We sit down as a family every night and have a roast on Sundays. How do you get the family gossip if everyone is watching the telly? So who needs a dining table? And who needs a repro? The pine kitchen table was obviously going to a old house, to traditional, farmhouse-kitchen kind of people – so there is a demand for tables like that. But not for repro dining room tables. That’s why they usually end up being given to charity shops.

As for the writing desk. Well, who writes anymore? Who needs a sloped desk? We all take the supper trays off our laps and replace them with laptop computers now. That’s why so cheap. Supply and demand. There just ain’t no demand anymore.

Incidentally, my best bargain was the sideboard behind the table in the photo. It cost me £20. When I got home I found an envelope hidden under a drawer that contained 2 £10 notes. I got it for free!