Kathryn Crosby, wearing a tailored pink suit and serving orange juice to fans who came to bid on her husband's possessions, said she was pleased to see a lot of people arrive.
"A lot of friends have come to help make it a wonderful party. That's what it's going to be," she said.
Mrs. Crosby said she decided to sell off some of the pipes, hats, scripts, movie posters, awards and other things Bing held dear to free up the Hillsborough home they once shared.
Our attic was overflowing. I was storing dining room furniture in the upstairs hallway. The basement was so full of records and photos, you couldn't get to the wine," she said. "We decided an auction would be the happiest thing."
The 26 pipes offered for sale included some a foot long and others that were hooked with huge ceramic bowls. Some had ivory mouth pieces, others were briarwood.
"I gave up all the pipes," Mrs. Crosby said. "There might be some in drawers and some in Mexico that I haven't brought back yet."
Auctioneers sold some of the late singer's paintings earlier in the week. Butterfield's auctioneers refused to disclose the exact amount the paintings were sold for, but each had a minimum bid price that would have brought in a total in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Friday's sale offered items more commonly associated with the singer: scripts and posters from Going My Way and Blue Skies; 78rpm discs of His Master's Voice and Mississippi Mud; the hats he wore hunting, golfing and boating; ashtrays, humidors, tobacco pouches and the pipes.
The 16 movie posters were the first items auctioned. Holiday Inn sold for $275, Road to Zanzibar went for $250 and Going My Way brought $200.
Mrs. Crosby said there was still of lot of material left in her home that could have been auctioned.
"I found four boxes last night. There's still quite a lot to be done. I'm a really bad housekeeper," she said.
Asked whether she had sold all of her husbands sporting goods, Mrs. Crosby said, "Nathaniel was in charge of the golf clubs." Nathaniel, her youngest son, is a U.S. amateur golfing champion.
In all, 1,107 items were for sale.
The bidders included bargain hunting antique dealers and life-long Crosby fans. One of the most enthusiastic buyers was Adele Granite, 40, of Sacramento, who paid $80 for a folder of photos of Bing with other celebrities.
"From the day I was born, I was in love with Bing Crosby," she said. "I've lived him and breathed him every day of my life. I've slept with his picture under my pillow ... I wasn't going to go home empty-handed."
"I cry when I listen to him," she added. "When he died, I thought there would never be another White Christmas."
Commodities broker Greg Martin said he just wanted something as a souvenir. He paid $350 for a leather trash can with "Bing" carved on its side.