Ever wake up on a Saturday morning — a full day free of the weekday work routine — and kick yourself for not having planned in advance how to use it, time being the most valuable commodity?

It happened to my wife and me last Saturday. Mulling the conundrum over poached eggs and coffee, I recalled a work colleague’s story about an estate auction, the second and final day of which would be under way within a couple of hours.

Both giddy with visions of Antiques Roadshow, we decided to go along. Our border collie, disallowed in the Cultural Arts Center auction venue, looked unimpressed, our plans not including her.

We were totally unprepared for what we experienced. I’d been to auctions before, even reported on some, but this was on another scale.

Being parsimonious by nature, I had suggested we take the Taurus as opposed to the CRV, to guard against a larger haulage potential that might have incited random bids from my better half.

We hadn’t inspected any items, and, sitting in the old Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts auditorium, where the auction took place, the signal wasn’t strong enough on our cell phones to look anything up online.

So we sat there with our yellow bidder’s card kept firmly – by me – down and out of harm’s way. I made great pains to resist any urge to scratch my nose or tug an earlobe, and I suggested my wife do the same.

In the aftermath of the sale of the Viola “Billie” Annas estate, comprising the mansion at 204 Bank St. and its wonderful array of period contents, we both agreed that better prepared, we would probably have opened the check book and rented a U-Haul.

The house we moved into one year ago is still relatively sparsely furnished, and Saturday was a great — lost, it turns out — opportunity to fill it, for a reasonable amount of money, with some quality stuff.

“Don’t worry,” I had told my wife later that day. “These sales happen from time to time. Next time we’ll do our research and be better prepared.”

Unfortunately, that well-meant consolation, I learned after chatting Monday with Barry Cole from estate auctioneers A.B. Cole & Associates, may not have been entirely accurate.

“We were dealing with something that’s not typical to the time we’re in,” Cole said. “We’re probably not going to see it in a lifetime again.”

The point of this tale? Opportunities are rare. Sometimes recognizing them is even more rare. That’s about it.