Demand brisk as RSA sells memories

The doors of the Rotorua RSA re-opened for the sale of its remaining memorabilia on Saturday.

Up to 100 people attended the sale, which had more than 500 items up for grabs. The RSA was forced to leave its Haupapa St building in July due to mounting debt and money from the sale was to help raise more funds for the association. The building is to be auctioned on October 29.

A loan will be paid back to the Rotorua Lakes Council and anything left over will go towards re-establishing the club elsewhere.

"There was a fair proportion of it gone, quite a lot of stuff went," Rotorua RSA acting president Larry Heiford said.

"We probably had 50 to 100 people through.

"There were a few collectors among them, a lot of people looking for memories," Mr Heiford said.

The doors were opened for RSA members at 9.30am, before it was opened to the public at 12.30pm.

Rotorua Collectors Centre owner Walter Dobbs purchased photographs, flags, plaques and a large world map at the sale for his Tutanekai St store.

"It was all right, it was never going to be treasures there, a lot of things had already gone, but I went down when it was opened to the public and made a few purchases."

Before the sale, the Rotorua Energy Charitable Trust bought about 3500 items that are now held at the Rotorua Museum.

Those items will be made available for loan to the Rotorua RSA in the future. All the uniforms, which mostly date from World War II, are to be auctioned in Wellington next year, and all the RSA's military weaponry has gone to Auckland to be auctioned in November.