Black Friday is for bidders, too.

A number of post-Thanksgiving sales catering to holiday shoppers are in the works, notably in the Pennsylvania suburbs.

In Hatfield, the Alderfer Auction Co. will conduct an uncataloged sale beginning at 9 a.m. next Friday that will feature hundreds of collectibles including Byers' Choice figures, Longaberger baskets, coin-operated slot machines, and sports cards and collectibles, as well as antiques and tribal art, notably a Zulu witch doctor/medicine man bag and Masai beaded belts.

Preview is from noon to 3 p.m. Wednesday at the gallery at 501 Fairgrounds Rd. For more information, call 215-393-3023.

In Spring City, Maurer's Auctions will conduct its longtime two-day annual Thanksgiving weekend sale of toys and trains beginning at 10 a.m. next Friday and Nov. 28 at the Ridge Fire Company, 480 Ridge Rd. It will feature the collections of Dick Moyer at the first session and Charles Emerson Urion at the second focusing on Lionel and American Flyer from the mid-20th century.

Previews are from noon to 9 p.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. to sale time the day of the auction. For more information, call 610-970-7588 or go to www.maurerail.com.

Rarities at Wiederseim's. The most distinctive post-Thanksgiving sale will be Nov. 28 when Wiederseim Associates will conduct its annual catalog event, beginning at 9 a.m. at Ludwig's Corner firehouse on Route 100, Glenmoore. The nearly 600 lots include items that will appeal to some unusual tastes.

Like other auctions, it will feature railroad items, but real ones, not just models. The dozen lots come from a collector in the West Chester area, according to Ted Wiederseim, and so far "have been getting a good response."

They have presale estimates ranging from $100 to $200 for a framed and matted hand-colored photograph of a 150-car freight train on the Pennsylvania Railroad's famed Horseshoe Curve near Altoona to $1,000 to $1,500 for a freight and passenger train agent's oak ticket booth from Lancaster County that is 7 feet high, 9 feet wide, and 20 inches deep.

Other railroad items include a brass passenger coach chandelier from the Virginia & Truckee Railroad that has been converted to electricity ($200 to $300); an ice cream parlor booth that once stood near the old Broad Street station here and an oval cast railroad crossing sign (both $200 to $300); and an oak-framed poster of a streamlined New York Central locomotive by Leslie Ragan that was later copied as a U.S. postage stamp ($400 to $600).

Know somebody looking for andirons? The sale features three in unusual shapes: a large custom blacksmith-wrought pair in the form of spar anchors ($250 to $350); another pair in the form of Christmas trees; and a third pair with a Boy Scout motif that includes "Be Prepared" and the Boy Scout seal in bronze (marshmallows not included). They each have presale estimates of $50 to $100.

The auction also offers folk art, tramp art, and some Black Forest pieces, including a signed carved stag-head plaque made in 1918 ($200 to $300); an arts and crafts casket-form ballot box, also probably German ($75 to $100); a rare American folk art carved horse head made around 1850 ($200 to $400); and a carved pine tramp art pyramid-form chest made in the late 19th century ($600 to $800).

Another unusual piece of woodwork is a rare American mahogany-cased traveling apothecary set with original bottles and labels and a secret compartment ($1,000 to $1,500).

Serious stuff. To be sure, the auction has its serious side. Furniture includes an 18th-century Pennsylvania pine architectural corner cabinet ($2,000 to $3,000) and an 81-inch-high 20th-century two-part pine pewter cupboard with black paint decoration ($1,000 to $1,500).

Paintings include sporting art, notably a 19th-century oil-on-canvas scene of Scottish game hunters ($4,000 to $5,000) and a continental oil-on-canvas of a top-hatted gentleman at a gate with a dog and stream titled Mr. Coke of Holkram ($2,000 to $2,500); two 15-by-27-inch maritime watercolors by George Essig (each $300 to $400); and an oil-on-masonite by Walter E. Baum of Huff's Church, Pennsylvania. It has a presale estimate of $1,000 to $1,500, less than commanded by most Baum works, Wiederseim noted this week, but then at 5¾ by 7½ inches also smaller than most Baums.

The auction also has a rare piece of Civil War memorabilia: a mounted woven cotton Confederate flag with 13 painted stars that Wiederseim describes as a classic of the Army of Northern Virginia; it came from a New England consigner and has a presale estimate of $3,000 to $4,000.

Previews are from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. next Friday and 7 a.m. to sale time Nov. 28 at the sale site, just north of the intersection of Routes 100 and 401. For more information, call 610-827-1910; to see the catalog online go to www.wiederseim.com.

Contact David Iams at daiams@comcast.net.