| Louisville eclipses million-dollar milestone in surplus sales
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Mayor Jerry Abramson today announced that the city has "unloaded" more than a million dollars worth of surplus government vehicles, equipment and other items through online auctions. Metro Government sells obsolete and other surplus items through its website, LouisvilleKy.gov, and GovDeals.com, an online service similar to eBay. The $3,760 sale of a Case International 585 tractor to a bidder in Cookeville, Tenn., recently brought the total funds generated through the online auctions to more than $1 million. "The online auctions are a creative way this government is operating efficiently and effectively for our citizens," Abramson said. "We're unloading items that have outlived their useful life for government, and in doing so creating a revenue stream and reducing warehouse space." Abramson said the online auctions often generate more money than traditional auction-house auctions because items are up for bids around the clock and the online auctions allow more people - virtually from anywhere - to participate.
Wright's Barnyard Auction
It was a bitter-sweet party atmosphere in Lansing, Illinois, this week as Norton Auctioneers of Michigan auctioned off the rides, games and equipment from Wright's Barnyard. The amusement and fun park had been operated by the same family since it began in 1956.A favorite playtime destination for suburban Chicago families and children for over half a century, Wright's was also the host to countless area teens on their first date as well as numerous weddings.Attractions at Wright's included a kiddie carousel, a frog hopper, two miniature golf courses, a go-cart track, batting cages, an arcade, a restaurant and the home of Burt and Millie Wright on the five-acre site. The late Burt Wright started the park in the mid-1950s when he spent $300 to build a miniature golf course in the back yard of his home on Bernice Road. In the case of the ever popular Wright's Barnyard, (more recently known as Wright's Hollywood Park), it was not dwindling crowds or revenue that led to the closure, but the loss of land to the adjacent Interstate highways.According to Luke Brenner of Norton Auctioneers, the auction was a big success. "There was a great crowd and people kept coming in throughout the auction," said Brenner. "Maybe the biggest surprise was the go-carts," he added, "we were offering them individually but someone stepped up and bought the whole lot." The multi-player Pac-Man, obviously a local favorite, sold very well as did most all of the park's items. Brenner reported that the park's owner, Chris Paglia was very pleased with the auction. Paglia, grandson of the park's founder, even treated everyone in attendance to a picnic lunch.
Retiring superintendent auctions ties
Mickey Mouse, The Beatles, Tabasco bottles, Santa Claus, Toto from the Wizard of Oz and King Kong don't have much in common. Except they are all characters on one of Winton Elementary School District Superintendent Mike Crass' close to 70 ties. "When you are in education, you get a lot of ties as gifts," said Crass, who will retire at the end of the school year. "I just kept getting more." Crass is auctioning off his ties to raise money for library books at the district's newest school -- Winfield Elementary -- which will open in the fall. He calls the event S.T.A.C. -- superintendent's ties auctioned for cash. "This is your opportunity to own one of those special ties that you smiled at, moaned at, laughed at or booed," reads the S.T.A.C. flier posted in the Winton district office.
Art Porn for $12 Million: How Sotheby's Sets Auction Prices
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Sotheby's will offer a Gerhard Richter painting of naked prostitutes at more than twice the artist's auction record next month in New York. A Mark Rothko picture owned by David Rockefeller is also being pitched at double the painter's previous peak. The No. 2 auction house said the prices reflect what buyers paid for similar works in private transactions. It shows how auctioneers are taking their cue from a few wealthy collectors outside the public salerooms, and increasingly depend on a group of billionaires to keep values escalating and their commissions mounting. Richter, whose collectors include Ronald Lauder and the Guggenheim Museum, used pornographic photographs to create his 1967 black-and-white painting, ``Zwei Spanische Akte (Osterakte),'' now on show at Sotheby's in London.
The Goldbrick Club
It has now become painfully clear to the country, as well as laughingly clear to the world, that the main requirement for selection to the Bush administration is that one possesses the morals and ethics of a goat. It's as if the administration is patterned in the image of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee - No concern about gold medal achievement, just gold idol worship. The only people winning any medals are the GOP criminal defense attorneys. Gold coin, and gold defense attorney collector, Tom Noe, athletically surfed the overflowing waves of the clogged sewer, known as Ohio politics, all the way to downtown Washington. Noe's journey was aided by rules changes in legislation creating the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. This legislation came out of the House Financial Services Committee which was chaired by fellow Ohioian Mike Oxley and signed by President Goldbrick in April of 2003.
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