Free Republic

As y'all know, Laz has been running a daily thread, informing us of the countdown to the usurper leaving our Oval Office. Yesterday, Laz held a contest. It was very exciting, with much competition. I don't know how I did it, but I WON!!! My prize, is that I get to choose the next descriptor word to add to the daily thread. It's a wonderful prize! There's just one problem. I can't think of a word. So, I'm putting this prize up for auction. The high bidder gets to pick the word. All proceeds from the auction go directly to...

The Luzern County, Pennsylvania Sheriff’s Department has decided to auction off about 175 firearms, some air guns, knives and other items.  The items have been collected under a number of different administrations over 17 years, from 1993 to 2010.  Most of the items are from Prevention From Abuse (PFA) orders, temporary and permanent.  The Sheriffs office published (on their website, in a pdf file) a list of 154 cases that had expired, and told people who wanted their property returned to let them know that they wanted their property back.  That was done on 5 November of last year.  ...

At Auction | 1920s Brough Superiors Oct 8th, 2015 | Categories: Jared Paul Stern, Motorcycles | by Jared Paul Stern “It is a miracle that all this docile strength waits behind one tiny lever for the pleasure of my hand,” T.E. Lawrence (aka Lawrence of Arabia) wrote of his Brough Superior in the 1920s. Built by hand in Nottingham, England from 1919–1940, the “Rolls-Royce of motorcycles” became an instant legend thanks to the likes of Lawrence, who owned eight of them. Extremely fast, exclusive and expensive, no two of the custom-built bikes were exactly alike. At its Stafford, UK sale...

A piece of paper that sailed aboard the Titanic was recently sold at auction for the price of a fancy sports car. The yellowed document — a luncheon menu for the first-class dining room — is dated April 14, 1912. This means that it details the last-ever gourmet lunch served aboard the ill-fated luxury ocean liner. The menu reveals that, the day before the boat sank to the bottom of the icy North Atlantic Ocean, wealthy passengers dined on "grilled mutton chops," soused herring and a variety of other delicacies.

The still-life watercolour was painted when Adolf Hitler was in his mid-twenties, and sold by his Jewish art dealer Samuel Morgenstern, who was later sent to the Lodz Ghetto... ...The Telegraph's art critic Alastair Smart says of the piece, "The work is of no intrinsic, artistic worth whatsoever. The only vague point of interest might be that, unlike the iffy watercolours of Vienna city we associate with Hitler the painter, this rarity is an iffy watercolour of a pitcher of azalias."... ...Hitler moved to Munich in 1913, having been unable to make a living as a painter. The Nazis later...

The rope used to execute ousted Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein could be yours for the right price. Ex-Prime Minister Mowaffak Al-Rubaie has put the item up for sale more than eight years after he witnessed Saddam hanged in 2006. An unidentified senior Iraqi political official told the Middle East news site Al-Araby al-Jadeed this week that several individuals from Israel, Iran and Kuwait are vying to purchase the rope — with one making a $7 million bid.

The Pratte Collection auctioned last week, is best known for containing Carroll Shelby’s 800 hp Super Snake Cobra, the 1954 Pontiac Bonneville Concept car and the GM Futurliner, but it also contained one of the largest collection of childrens' cars ever assembled. More than 70 went to auction and they'll make you drool.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has gone to the dogs. Well, at least its rugs have. [snip]

Sotheby’s got New York’s fall auctions off to a rollicking start with a sale of Impressionist and modern art on Tuesday that totaled $422.1 million, the highest in the 270-year-old company’s history. Leading the charge was Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti’s 1951-52 bronze “Chariot”—depicting a finger-thin woman riding atop a chariot—that sold to a telephone bidder for $101 million.

Flag bearing IS symbol auctioned at Sydney mosque •Boy, 15, posts pictures online and says he’ll fight Assad •Fred Nile calls for ban on flag throughout Australia ... PREMIER Mike Baird said the Islamic State flag could be banned across NSW. His stance follows footage of one of the flags, which is linked to the barbaric terrorist organisation, being auctioned in front of families and young children in Sydney. “That is something we will consider and work with community groups about but we can’t have the position where you are seeing any activity that is promoting terrorism, supporting terrorism,” Mr...

The Billings Montana Police Department and Yellowstone County Sheriff's department are going to auction off a number of guns on Saturday, August 2nd, from 9 a.m. to noon.   The stated reason for the auction is the law passed in Montana that requires such assets to be sold to federal firearms dealers (Montana code 46-5-313) rather than be destroyed.   These pictures give us an idea of the assets that are being saved by laws such as these.   Each picture is one lot of guns.  The guns will be auctioned off in lots.    Notice the minty looking Springfield 1903 in the...

One of the largest collections of military machines in the United States is being auctioned July 11-12 in California. It was curated over the years by the late Jacques Littlefield, who housed the collection at his Military Vehicle Technology Foundation in Portola Valley. After Littlefield’s death in 2009, the collection was acquired by the Collings Foundation, an educational organization whose mission is to preserve the history of military automobiles and aircraft.

When Arizona passed legislation early last year to stop the irrational destruction of valuable property that had come into the hands of local governments, the state required that firearms turned in to government agencies be sold through normal commercial channels, thus insuring that the guns were taken "off the street". Some local governments had been involved in what amounted to a modern Deodand ritual, where inanimate objects were "punished" by destruction as a way to sacrifice to the gods of political correctness.    Even in medieval times, most deodand objects were sold, with the money going to the Church or...

The winning bidder will also receive historic photos and documentation of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow's last stand, when the partners in life and crime were ambushed by law enforcement officers in Louisiana.

Francis Bacon’s three-paneled painting “Three Studies of Lucian Freud” became the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction on Tuesday when it soared to $142.4 million at Christie’s.

WASHINGTON -- Congressman-turned-convicted-felon Jesse Jackson Jr. will sell his town house in the nation’s capital to help pay a $750,000 forfeiture he owes, according to a court filing today. Jackson, 48, a Chicago Democrat who quit Congress last November, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Aug. 14 after using $750,000 in campaign cash on a Rolex watch, furs, vacations, celebrity memorabilia, mounted elk heads and other whims. He has not yet reported to prison, but is expected to do so shortly, a federal Bureau of Prisons official said.

**SNIP** The Marshals Service released the following statement: "The U.S. Marshals Service today canceled the auction of forfeited assets from the Jesse Jackson, Jr., case before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. After receiving legitimate concerns about the authenticity of the guitar purportedly signed by Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen and out of an abundance of caution, the Marshals Service will conduct a secondary review of all the assets. Once the review is complete, a decision will be made whether to repost any assets for sale by auction.

CHICAGO -- A showy red cape and an autographed Michael Jackson poster drew the most interest from potential buyers as a government auction of around a dozen personal items forfeited by prison-bound ex-congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. got underway Tuesday. **SNIP** The red cashmere cape drew the most attention in the hours just after bidding began early Tuesday. By evening, it registered 39 bids — pushing the initial asking price from around $300 to $965. Court documents say Jackson purchased it — with campaign funds — for $1,500 from an Edwards Lowell Furs store. After a sluggish start, bidding surged during...

More than a dozen pieces of memorabilia and luxury clothing once owned by disgraced former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. will go up for auction starting Tuesday. The items include Michael Jackson and Bruce Lee memorabilia, a guitar signed by Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen, and fur coats and capes. **SNIP** Starting prices range from $115 for a cashmere cape with mink trim to $525 for the autographed guitar. Jackson Jr. paid $800 for the cape and $4,000 for the guitar, according to documents that identified the items for forfeiture at the time that Jackson Jr. was charged.

The US Treasury auction went off better than last week’s 10 and 30 year auctions. ta36mth Particularly with regard to the bid/cover ratios. The 6 month bid/cover remains at 5.01 while the 10 year and 30 year are lower and at their 2nd lowest point since early 2009 when QE1 began. This is indicating that there are fears that The Fed will slow down the taper of $88 billion per month in Agency MBS and Treasury purchases. But at the long- and mid-section of the yield curve, not the short-end. Here is a chart of Expected Future Outcomes and Most...