Issue date: 5/5/05 Section: News

Media Credit: Michelle Carter Students look over bikes that were left in bike racks outside University buildings.

Three to four times a year, people flock from miles around to the Recycling Center to buy the University's unwanted things.

The University had its spring surplus auction last weekend. Up for sale were chairs, bicycles, jewelry, cleaning equipment and scores of computer parts. All items were sold, as the flier advertised, "as is, where is, with no guarantees stated or implied."

Howard Worcester, the recycle and surplus property coordinator, said almost everything the University buys can be sold at the auction. He said if campus offices have extra furniture or equipment, they fill out a form and send it to the business office. Once they have enough things for a sale, they have an auction.

All the revenue from the auction goes to the University's general fund.

"Probably an average sale would bring in somewhere around $8,000," Worcester said.

The highest-sold item was an air compressor, sold for $275, and antique furniture pieces from the library were high items, selling at around $200 each, Worcester said.

The auction procedure starts after people receive a numbered card and give a worker their information. People hold up their numbers when auctioneers call out prices, then go to a window to pay for and haul away newfound treasures, Worcester said.

Senior Audrey Armstrong, a Recycling Center employee, watched over the jewelry until it was ready to be bid on.

"Some of the watches go for maybe $10 a piece, but by the end it will be like five [of them] for a buck," Armstrong said.

Some people at the auction were regular auction-goers. Senior Cassie Phillips works for the Recycling Center and said she thinks there might be bitterness along with the competition between the regulars, most of whom are older men.

"When they were bidding on vacuum cleaners, the guy who tends to clear up around here paid $27 the first go-round and then thought he could get the next ones cheaper," Phillips said. "The last bid he paid $30, so it was probably someone driving up the price, bidding against him."

Not many students attended the auction except for the employees helping out. Junior Steven Doeschot said he found some deals at the auction.

"Whenever there was something really cheap, I just bought it," Doeschot said. "I bought two bikes for $2."

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