Dot-Com Castoffs - auction of office equipment from failed Internet companies - Brief Article

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, June, 2001 by Erin Burt

A GLUT OF barely used computers, office furniture and electronics is hitting the auction block from out-of-business dot-coms.

Powerful computers, CD burners, digital cameras and laser color printers are--like the companies that once owned them--selling for a fraction of their original price. You can also bid for some of the lavish accouterments of the dot-com heyday: leather sofas, espresso machines, NFL season tickets, vacation property and luxury cars.

Two auction firms--James G. Murphy Auctioneers, in Seattle, and Charyn Asset Management, in San Francisco--hosted their first dot-com auctions in November. Since then they have sold property of 22 more dot-coms, and the pace has been picking up.

Most auctions take place on site, but you can bid by phone or mail, or on the Web. Charyn (www.charynauctions.com) has a catalog and accepts phone bids. Murphy (www.murphyauction.com) and R.L. Rasmus Auctioneers, in Alexandria, Va., (www.rasmus.com) post lots on their sites and accept advance bids. All three plan to host live online auctions within a year.

Bidders should take a lesson from the dot-com collapse: Do your homework and don't pay inflated prices for overvalued stock.