The Enron auction is a great example of an over-hyped and over attended auction where prices get out of control and few deals are to be had.  These sort of “celebrity’ auctions bring out the Noobs in great numbers and the out of country, online bidders where it is always a mystery how they can overpay for sight unseen items and ship them to god knows where ….

 

Here is a link to some media on the sale-

six weirdest items at the sale

CNNMoney article

 

I attended the auction for two reasons, the chance to get some bargains and I have always been a hacker tourist.

The Enron auction was not to disappoint, I sat there amazed at the extreme high prices paid for items, many by online bidders such as Sanjeep and Mr Hui, who were bidding blind with no prior inspection and then relying on DoveBid to ship abroad. One very important insider note, when you are out of town, not on your known turf, find insiders who worked at the bankrupt company, they are a font of knowledge. In the case of Enron I befriended four guys who worked in the offices, not traders but tech guys so when the big Enron “E” sign went up for sale they were drop jawed amazed, not at just the price but at the fact that this was not “the” E !  “The” E was still in front of the building this was another “E”from the warehouse ! Some sorry Noob paid over 40 grand, oh well…..

 

I was able to, almost, cover my travel cost when the satellite uplink failed and for about 25 minutes the pricing was actually reasonable, I picked up several lots which were shipped to our Florida location It was worth it for the experience and education. An important lesson about auctions is patience and paying attention it may be a satellite glitch, or the other guy bidding stuff up just to be a turf marking asshole goes to lunch or the bathroom then you get IN!