Jason Whong: Renaissance Man-in-Training

You know that scam where they try to sell you a guide to government surplus auctions for $20? And they tell you this boat sold for $300; this car for $50, this house for $800? Well, it’s all true, but you don’t have to pay $20 to find out where the auction is.

I ended up writing a newsbrief about the local auctions at work, and was so inspired that I figured the auction would be a great way to spend my saturday morning.

I ended up getting a Pentium III/600 and monitor for $22. Only, it was the crappiest monitor in the pile. One other person had bought 10 PIII/600s and 10 monitors also for $22, plus a gigantic monitor for $24. I ended up trading him the CPU and monitor for the gigantic monitor. He said he changed his mind because it might have been too big to fit in his truck.

I was thinking of offering $10 for about 2 tons of surplus marble, but someone else ended up starting the bidding at 100, which was too rich for my blood. No marble for our bathrooms, sadly.

I stuck around for the bikes and broke some woman’s heart by getting a 10-speed adult bike for $12. All it needs is a little air in the tires. Its pedals fold in to save space. There were some Mongoose bikes that were selling for more than cars. I didn’t bid on them, though.

So, cheap thrills were had. I don’t know if the monitor works yet, but if it doesn’t work, it just means the $12 bike was really $34, which is still a darn good price.