New Yorkers attend auction for old subway signs, seats

New York’s subway is known for being dirty, noisy and sometimes flooded, but that does not stop people from flocking to grab a seat, sign or other memorabilia at a unique annual auction.

In south Brooklyn, shoppers hoping to get a slice of the city’s transit service waited for hours to trawl through an open-air market organized by city authorities. Each person gets a maximum of 45 minutes to search, allowing others to come in after them.

Nori Juba, 61, found what he was looking for: a large sign bearing the name of Grand Central station, along with the numbers of the subway lines he takes every day.

A man stands next to a sign from New York City’s transportation system during NYC Transit’s annual pop-up sale in New York on Friday. The sale features items collected from subway stations being rehabilitated or renovated.

Photo: AFP

The train system is “old and creaky and it’s outdated,” he said. “But I think that’s what makes it interesting. And this piece of metal is dirty. It smells like a subway station, but there’s something about it that makes it real New York, one of a kind in the world.”

The prices are not cheap: a medium-sized sign cost about US$500, while larger ones can run past US$1,000.

The iconic orange plastic seats from the New York subway go for about US$900 each.

Celebrities are sometimes spotted at the market, and this month, filmmaker Spike Lee was stopping for pictures with fellow shoppers.

He showed off the metal sign he just bought, marked “Penn Station,” the subway stop for Madison Square Garden — the arena where his beloved Knicks basketball team plays.

New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority has always resold its signs to collectors, but more recently opened up sales to the public, said Paul Dvoskin, the director in charge of the program.

“Five years ago, an idea was born to hold a garage sale of sorts, and to let people just come in and purchase these items” in person, he said. “We called it a grab-and-go back then, and it just ended up being significantly more popular than we ever thought it would be.”

Officials do not disclose how much the two-day sale brings in, but it draws about 4,000 people each year.

The plastic seats, sold only since last year, are the most popular items.

So are the MetroCards, the small yellow magnetic cards emblematic of the city, which have recently been retired from use. They sell for US$6.