Pick Up A Piece of Enron

shintaro points out this massive collection of "gear from Enron on auction. Amongst the more than 3,000 in this auction (1 of 10) are state and federal law books, and numerous notebooks sans hard drives. Might be a good opportunity to pick up a Sun Enterprise Server? Office furniture is also on offer, Herman Miller and Knolls all over, not an IKEA item in sight. Interesting what Enron employees and shareholders must feel looking at this loot."

Comments

What?

[Pig Hogger]

No paper shredders????

Re:What?

[Anonymous Coward]

Those will be in the Arthur Anderson auction.

Re:What?

[selderrr]

Enron was way past the point of Shredders : they worked with shrinters

Ha.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm waiting for the Martha Stewart Living auction. Mmmm, cheap pots and pans and bedspreads!

My favorite auction item.

[Weaselmancer]

Amongst the more than 3,000 in this auction (1 of 10) are state and federal law books

...still in their shrink wrap.

Ba dump bump! Thanks, I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

Re:My favorite auction item.

[WoodstockJeff]

still in shrink wrap

Ah, but you forget that people like this live by knowing the limits of the law, and exploring their edges. You can't play the game without knowing the rules!

At least some of those law books are probably well worn. Companies like this spend lots of time exploring what has and hasn't been explicitely been ruled to be illegal, and trying variations on what has been to get around whatever was perceived to be the downfall of the now-illegal ploy.

$200 minimum bid?

[djcapelis]

Some of that equipement is outdated and not worth the minimum bid... I'll go back to pricewatch and ebay...

YRO?

[Staos]

Why is this under YRO?

Re:YRO?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because... uh... Enron... Bush... Ashcroft taking your rights online away!!!!!!

Ethics Handbook

[ltsmash]

I wonder if they'd have the ethics training handbook available. I'd definitely buy that.

Great Looking Sun Ultra Enterprise 6000....

[Anonymous Coward]

esp. with the faux wood grain veneer finish - ahh, they don't make em' like they used to...

http://www.dovebid.com/assets/display.asp?ItemID=w eb2165924

Still waiting.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm still waiting for SCO to go down, so I get get me a load of cheap Linux licences.

Re: Accounting Optional

[shubert1966]

Enron made campaign contributions totaling more than $5.7 million between 1989 and 2001. Republicans received 73% of this money. Ken Lay was an ardent supporter of George W. Bush during Bush's time as Governor of Texas. During the 2000 campaign, Lay allowed Bush to use Enron corporate jets to fly from stump speech to stump speech. So close were these men that Bush granted Lay a nickname: 'Kenny-Boy.'

About this time my '.com' was watching venture capital dry up. We had a meeting with Arthur Andersen to discuss our accounting product and I distinctly remember the 23 or 24 year guy not having the slightest clue why he was even meeting with us. Uniterested and pathetic questions. No wonder every audit firm in the universe used to APPROACH US at tradeshows - they must've thought EVERYONE was on the take.

Well my life since then plays like a broken country album. And Larry Ellison still looks like the devil. I hate this mellenium so far.

Company Auctions

[jchawk]

These company auctions rarely offer discount prices on anything... People get caught up in the moment and end up paying crazy prices for hardware. Often times you actually do better by buying newer hardware, then picking up things from these auctions.

There are exceptions... If you don't mind picking up a couple of hundred computers you can get a reasonable price per unit, but most on slashdot are probably not looking for that, nor could they afford it...

Just my 2 cents.

Re:Company Auctions

[Zak3056]

These company auctions rarely offer discount prices on anything... People get caught up in the moment and end up paying crazy prices for hardware. Often times you actually do better by buying newer hardware, then picking up things from these auction

No joke--another thing to consider is that any hardware you pick up is going to be at least three and a half years old (Enron died 12/2000.)

Something I noticed in the listings is that everything seems to have a minimum bid of $200, no matter what it is. Compaq server rack? $200. Compaq server rack with builtin 15" LCD, keyboard, trackball, and KVM? $200.

Like you noted, anyone who finds a good deal is someone willing to buy by the pallet at fifty to seventy cents on the dollar. If you're a surplus dealer who can move that kind of volume, more power to you. Else, best advice is stay away.

Re:Company Auctions

[Lumpy]

to a point.

Local company bankrupcy auctions can be a goldmine, espically if your area has less-than-savvy companies and citizens.

A Local Machine shop went belly-up after they over expanded from the dot-bomb boom. they dies about 2 years ago and a year after they had an auction.

Things like compressors were going for nuts prices, espically the executive laptops and office pc's.

I picked up a toshiba toughbook for $10.00 and was the only bidder as nobody bidding knew what it was including the auctioner. "A briefcast test instrument object." I also picked up two SGI "fuel" CAD stations with 21 inch monitors and input tablets. They were auctioned as "special computers that dont run windows"

I got them for $100.00 each. One was still in the boxes.

if it's normal stuff, then the idiots will be bidding like crazy, if it's slightly wierd, it can be had for absolute dirt.

and yes, I love my P-III 800 toughbook.

Re:Wouldn't it be more appropriate

[TheAdventurer]

Community programs are a bottomless pit into which tons of cash is wasted, I mean spent.

At least some up and coming business can get some good deals on expensive equipment.

Skip right to page

[mobby_6kl]

11 - VCR/TV
13 - plasma displays (mostly with screen burn :/)
15 - projectors, cameras, UPS
16 - huge boxes full of keyboards, modems and other cards, CAT5,
17/18 - Compaq deskotps, in groups of 20
18 - Sat. phone, '96 Chevy truck
19 - Pallets of plastic TRASH RECEPTACLES, sate and federal law books
20 - IBM and Compaq PII and PIII laptops (NO HDD!)
21 - IBM 600 and T21 laptops
>22 - couches and other boring stuff
25/27 - SUN and IBM servers
27/28 - Compaq servers

uhh sorry don't have time to go through all of this, maybe someone could continue. just one more random page: 50, Lucent digital phones, SUN servers and Cisco switches

Re:Server slow as hell

[One Childish N00b]

You're new here, aren't you?

My Favorite

[Cavio]

My favorite personal piece of Enron memorabilia is a yellow rubber ducky they mailed me when they were selling bandwidth.

Just the goofyness of it. It is so dotCom. Completely unrelated to networking, but here sits this happy little duck with an Enron logo plastered across it's chest and the slogon "GetCapacity" in it's URL.

I use it to talk to when I'm in my office alone and face a moral dilema. Whatever the duck says, I do the opposite.

Re:Enron Equipment

[selderrr]

auctions like these have a walk-in day where you can review all the material. The online brochure is to lure buyers who don't know what they are buying.

Re:$200 minimum bid for everything

[mveloso]

What they do is keep it around, and you can call in after the auction to buy bunches of unsold items at a price.

For best results, do the webcast or go in person. There are massive deals to be had. At one auction I attended, a loaded Sun E450 (quad proc, 1gb ram, lots o disk) went for $900 + buyers premium of around 16%.

The downside to having many lots is the auctioneer will sometimes collapse identical lots into one to save time. If you've got the cash, it's a great way to get great deals. You can also propose lots, like "I'll take the next 10 sun boxes for $8000 total."

Auctions are a real trip, but you have to know how much stuff is worth, definitely. I've seen things go for above-retail prices, so be warned.

Enron prisoners - where they are now

[Animats]

We track this on Downside. Only two people involved with Enron are in Federal prison right now: Lea Fastow, the CFO's wife, and Andrew Glisan, the corporate treasurer. Andrew Fastow, the CFO, pled guilty and will be going soon, but he's not behind bars as of today. Skilling and Lay have been indicted but not yet tried.

If you haven't been following this, Glisan gave up Fastow, and Fastow gave up Skilling and Lay. We're waiting to see if Lay gives up Bush.

• Inmate Register Number: 20290-179
  Name: LEA W FASTOW
  Age: 42
  Race: WHITE
  Sex: FEMALE
  Projected Release Date: 7/10/2005
  Location: HOUSTON FDC
  1200 TEXAS AVENUE
  HOUSTON , TX 77002
  Phone Number: (713)221-5400

• Inmate Register Number: 20293-179
  Name : BEN F GLISAN
  Age: 38
  Race: WHITE
  Sex: MALE
  Projected Release Date: 1/17/2008
  Location: BASTROP FCI
  1341 HIGHWAY 95 NORTH
  BASTROP , TX 78602
  Phone Number: (512)321-3903

Source: BOP.

Bastrop is a low-security prison, with a plant making bulletproof vests. Houston FDC is an "administrative" facility, for short term prisoners, those in transit, and those with court proceedings nearby.

buying enron's assets...

[0WaitState]

Maybe California can buy its power back?

From an employee view

[dsingram]

Interesting what Enron employees and shareholders must feel looking at this loot In a word... Sad. Just like most of you, I went to work everyday and worked my tail off. I worked at Enron for 3 years, right till the end. I can honestly say this, I never again expect to work with a group of people as smart, driven and passionate as I did with the crooked E. That is the saddest part. Some of the best people I have ever worked with are going through the same thing.... very sad.

We got the Enron Aerons

[xenoploid]

I'm a grad student in the Interactive Media Division at USC. In our media lab meeting space we have 6 aerons from enron (it's been rumored they were board room chairs).