In need of a school bus or iPod? Check out the county auction

By Jackie Valley

Thursday, Nov. 17, 2011 | 2 a.m.

In the market for a slightly used Mercedes C230 Kompressor — forget that it was once owned by a criminal who had it snatched away by the cops?

What about a set of barbells or an office desk, car tires, an iPod? Who doesn’t need a school bus?

All of it — 370 vehicles and 900 miscellaneous items deemed local government surplus — will be up for auction Saturday.

“We’ve never had anything not sell,” said Clark County Automotive Services Division manager David Johnson, who helped organize the auction.

The stuff is culled from a dozen area agencies — including local police forces, city government departments and the Clark County School District.

Besides that rust-colored Mercedes confiscated by the police, a few cars down the line, a 2003 Jaguar X-Type shares a similar tale.

Pallets of weightlifting equipment, office furniture and unused tires sit at the opposite end of the lot. Seventy shiny, yellow school buses fill a parking lot across the street.

And those are just the unwanted items.

Then there are the ones simply left behind — high-end digital cameras, iPods, laptops, video games and jewelry found at McCarran International Airport.

Gates open at 8 a.m. Saturday at the county storage lot. The bidding starts promptly at 9 a.m. and will last through the afternoon. Until then, prospective bidders can register and tour the lot, 4320 Stephanie St., near Flamingo Road.

“All money goes back to government coffers,” Johnson said. “Whatever agency owns the (items) — the money goes back to them.”

Two previous auctions this year reaped a combined profit exceeding $2 million, he said.

It’s anyone’s guess how much Saturday’s auction will yield.

“I don’t try to make a projection, because of the fact that there’s such varied stuff here,” Johnson said.

One year, an H1 Hummer sold for $46,000, he said. Former police vehicles — a sea of heavy-duty Crown Victorias — have fetched from a couple thousand dollars up to $7,000.

“The guy that bought that Hummer for $46,000 got a hell of a deal,” Johnson said.

In the end, it all comes down to the bidders. How much are they willing to shell out for that former police Harley Davidson motorcycle or fire department boat or pallet of printers?

“The last two auctions we held this year, our prices are coming back up in line to where they used to be before the economy had issues,” Johnson said.

Prospective bidders, who were streaming into the lot Wednesday morning to register and preview items, run the gamut from private citizens to small-business owners and construction companies, Johnson said.

Many come looking for a deal. They suspect others try to turn a profit by purchasing items, marking them up and reselling them on eBay.

Many of the school buses end up in Mexico or South America, said Mike Wood, a certified appraiser and yard manager for TNT Auction, the company contracted to conduct the sale. Others buy the old buses with more ambitious plans, such as converting them to motor homes, he said.

By noon Wednesday, people wandered alone and in groups, scanning the aisles, inspecting items and starting car engines.

Jose Meyers, owner of Meyers Auto Parts, dropped by to scope out parts suitable for his delivery vehicles.

A pallet of seemingly new tires piqued his interest as a bidder and irritated him as a taxpayer.

“Sit on that chair for another year or take these tires and use them,” he said, motioning to items in the miscellaneous section.

Damon Patton, a tourist from Washington, D.C., hoped for a smaller, traveler-friendly, take-home prize — maybe an iPod. “I can’t fit the big stuff on the plane,” he said.

Meanwhile, prospective bidder Joe Thorn traversed the lot as a self-described “window shopper.”

“I like this truck,” he said, gazing at a 2004 Chevrolet Silverado. “But it will probably go for a lot more than I’m willing to pay for it.”

Even so, Thorn plans to join the other bidders on auction day.

“Who knows?” he said. “It may be my year.”