Seattle auction computes for high-tech buyers
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, July 26, 2001
By Elizabeth Murtaugh
Associated Press
SEATTLE — At the front of a carpeted ballroom packed with more than 200 people, a white-haired auctioneer leans into a microphone and gets down to business.
Lot 110 — two 15-inch computer monitors — pops up on a screen behind him.
"Can I hear 20 bucks?" he shouts. "Twenty, can I hear 30? Forty, can I hear 50? Fifty, can I hear 60? … "
Some people bid in person, holding up auction cards from their seats in the ballroom of a Marriott Hotel near Sea-Tac International Airport. Others — more than 1,000 Thursday — check in from near and far, posting their bids on the Web.
When bids keep creeping up, auctioneer Millard Dove checks in on the Web audience. Turns out some bids were made by mistake, so the going price drops back down to $20.
"I’ll deliver them personally," pleads Dove, founder of Silicon Valley-based DoveBid Inc.
No deal. The final bid rests at $20 — one of the lowest of the day. Hours later, a server worth an estimated $72,000 sells for $3,250.
In all, more than 1,600 computers, printers, modems, software items and other equipment were auctioned — all booty from high-tech companies that have gone bust in the last year.
Computers and components from New Jersey businesses were sold in the morning. Hundreds more people showed up for the afternoon, when loot from some of Seattle’s ex-high-tech businesses — Rival Networks, Vitessa, PlyMedia and others — went up for bid.
DoveBid, an industrial auction company based in Foster City, Calif., hosted the event — the first dotcom sell-off it has offered in Seattle, according to Tim Green, the company’s director of auction services.
"We’ve got dotcom computer business failures that are calling us constantly," says DoveBid vice president Bruce Costello.
"It has kept us busy," Costello adds, "especially in the San Francisco Bay area."
Banks and creditors in charge of foreclosing failed companies sign up for the auctions. Proceeds from the auctions go toward paying off debts.
At an auction in San Jose, Calif., last month, Green says the company sold about $1.5 million in computer equipment, with hundreds of participants there and more than 2,000 people in 47 states and seven countries registered online.
Bidding is fast and furious. Web participants tend to be more audacious than people sitting in the audience, DoveBid project manager Craig Duey says, taking a break from cashing in orders.
"We’re transmitting across the world, so those people don’t have to be here," he says. "You can sit at home naked in front of your PC and buy all your stuff."
Jerry Sheehan, a firefighter from suburban Bothell, says he’s in the market for a new computer, but isn’t sure if he’ll buy anything.
"I’ve got a son and an old computer, so I thought I’d come down here and look for a deal," says Sheehan, 45.
Items generally sell at 25 percent to 75 percent of face value, Green says.
Alan Lessard, a freelance computer consultant from Lynnwood, isn’t so sure.
He’s looking for components to build home-based computer networks for three of his clients. "I can build them with different parts for the same configuration for about half the price they’re going for here, so I don’t know if it’s worth it for me to be here," says Lessard, 33.
But Dave Seago, a safety training consultant from Seattle, left the auction satisfied. He spent $5,300 on four laptops for his business — half of what he says he would have had to pay at retail.
DoveBid hosted a preview Wednesday so customers could view the merchandise, but only a list and the slide projections were available at auction time.
"You have to know what you want," says Veronica Fairchild, 29, a teacher from Seattle.
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