A marathon auction session for more than 900 pieces of equipment at the Wheeler’s window and door plants in Rome was considered a success by Wheeler’s owners Mark Manis and his brother Jim Manis.

“In these times it helps to have low expectations because if you don’t have low expectations you’re bound to be disappointed,” said Mark Manis.

Manis said he was not sure what the final dollar figure for the Thursday sale was, but he was certain that it was well more than $500,000.

“In a good market it would have been worth twice that much, but this isn’t a good market,” Manis said. “We sold everything; we had 965 lots.”

The auction started at 10 a.m. and lasted past 7 p.m.

“We were pleased with how well it went considering how weak the market is,” Manis said. “Some of the higher-end stuff didn’t do as well as we would have liked.”

One of the items that sold was a 1949 vintage band saw that was an original piece of equipment. It sold for $275.

“That was probably more than we paid for it,” Manis said.

The auction did not involve either of the pieces of real estate, the door plant on Riverside Industrial Park Drive, or the window plant at 15 Old Airport Road, formerly the old Integrated plant 7, which includes about 140,000 square feet.

“We at one time had 150 employees at the window plant. When we got down to four working part-time we decided that it was time to exit,” he said.

The property on Old Airport Road is actually owned by a Manis sister, Ann Manis Tabor.

The door plant sits adjacent to the Wheeler’s truss plant in the old Celanese complex, which is still in production.

Manis said he was not sure at this time what the future holds for either the door or window plant properties.

The Capital Recovery Group conducted the auction at the Old Airport road property.