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By TOM OBRZUT JR.; Times Leader Staff Writer
Sunday, June 19, 1994     Page: 3A QUICK WORDS: LEFTOVERS FROM WVIA
AUCTION EVEN BETTER BARGAINS TODAY

JENKINS TWP. — She wanted an ice cream maker. Instead Geri Doyle of
Dunmore bought a pressure cooker.
   
By the time Doyle arrived at the WVIA-TV flea market at about 4 p.m.
Saturday, all the ice cream makers were sold.
    Each year, the flea market is held the week after the public television
station’s auction. Leftovers or items that were bought during the auction’s 9
days but not paid for or picked up are for sale at the flea market.
   
Some items are marked down by as much as 50 percent, said Judy Sedlak, the
station’s acting vice president of development.
   
This year’s auction raised about $228,000, she said. The goal was $200,000.
In 1993, the auction raised $180,000.
   
Items sold during the auction were donated by 1,500 area businesses. The
money raised is used to buy programming.
   
“It was packed this morning,” Sedlak said. “Everyone was trying to get a
bargain.”
   
Today’s sun shoppers will get an ever better deal. Prices will be marked
down an additional 50 percent with some prices negotiable. The flea market
runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. today.
   
For example, a pair of season tickets to the Atlantic Basketball
Association’s Scranton Miners cost $60 during the auction. Saturday, the price
was cut to $30. Today, you can get those same season tickets for $15.
   
The goal of the flea market is to clear the warehouse of all leftover
items. Several thousand dollars is raised each year during the two-day event.
   
“We need the cash, not the merchandise,” Sedlak said.
   
Judy Woods of Luzerne also wanted an ice cream maker, but left with
fireplace logs that cost $1 each.
   
“I wanted to see what was left,” she said.
   
Earlier Saturday, Sedlak sold 50 bags of charcoal for $2 a bag. By 4 p.m.
Saturday, she made a list of items she needed for a party at her house.
   
Surprisingly, she said, “Now I have to go buy charcoal.”
   
WVIA-TV, Channel 44 public television, serves more than 550,000 households
in 22 northeastern and north-central Pennsylvania counties.