If you were looking for memorabilia at the Astrodome “yard” sale, there wasn’t much available except for leftovers. It was as if the items that have been available since the building was closed (ten years?) were picked clean with some pieces left to look like someone actually cared about a public auction. I wasn’t impressed.

The best of the day was the Astrodome seats. By 6:30 there were thousands in line for 500 pairs of seats for $200. That was a deal if you enjoyed standing in line for 6 hours just to find out they had sold out. Why it took 6 hours to sell 500 pairs is beyond me. The line was incredibly slow.

The concession items went for near nothing, but what did they expect to get for hotdog warmers that collected dust for 10 years? The faded on-deck circles for various teams were auctioned for $2300 each. Again these were leftovers. The circles for the New York Mets or any other major team were not available.Stained glass panels with a traditional pattern in dark glass, some broken, went for $400 each.

The items that I thought were interesting went for an outrageous amount of $1300 each. These were the “astronaut” helmets used by the groundskeepers who raked the fields during the 7th inning stretch back in the 60’s. The buyer took all 9 that were available. There were sideline benches, some autographed posters, and some Astrotuff with the word “Astrodome” available. And some idiot paid $1500 for an ugly autographed locker made out of press board. It wasn’t much to brag about. Turnstiles went for $4200.

Besides the seats I wasn’t impressed with the auction.

I believe most of Harris County Commissioners are not interested in saving the Astrodome, but are interested in saving face by acting like they are interested in saving the Astrodome. As a perfect example take the horrible ad they created to encourage voters to vote for the $217 Million referendum to save the Astrodome from being demolished:

Well shit! I can’t even find the damn commercial that some ill funded PAC, endorsed by Judge Ed Emmitt, produced. Hell if a blogger can’t find a video to make fun of, then it probably can’t be found by anyone wanting to make fun of it. It’s not that I haven’t seen it. I have, and it sucks. It relies on people’s sentimental value of the Dome and not much else especially what we will get for $217 Million!

Living in Clear Lake I have not seen commercials advocating for the Astrodome. I haven’t seen the Facebook ads. I haven’t seen a tweet calling to SAVE THE DOME! I haven’t seen the multi-colored door hanger. If the County Commissioners were really that interested in saving the Astrodome they would have done something substantial to do so. They didn’t.

And there is now no place for Dome. Mission accomplished. Face saved. Dome gone.