Duty-Free Shopping
          
               Some of the best auction buys can be found in
          property that has been seized by a government agency.  As
          you might suspect, the U.S. Customs Service is a major
          source of such property.  Whenever a traveler coming into
          the U.S. can't or won't pay customs duties, the
          merchandise is impounded.  That also happens when goods
          are shipped, but the duties aren't paid.  The Customs
          Service has a steady supply of jewelry, watches, clocks,
          liquor, electronics, clothing, and perfume among other
          goods to auction.
               Moreover, when drugs or other illegal goods are
          seized while being smuggled into the U.S., the vehicles
          used to transport them are seized as well.  So Customs
          often has fast cars, boats, and planes to auction.  The
          Houston customs district alone seizes 15 to 20 boats and
          60 to 80 airplanes each month.
               From time to time, this inventory is auctioned off -
          - for example, the Customs Service recently announced a
          "Short Notice Auction" of Oriental and Persian
          handknotted carpets and rugs.  On another occasion, 19
          Rolex watches went on the block.  Real estate has ranged
          from marinas to country mansions.  Lovers of tropical
          birds may be able to legally acquire rare specimens that
          have been confiscated as illegal imports.
               At one California sale, the U.S. Customs Service
          auctioned off an airplane.  Buying interest was sparse
          and uninformed, so a shrewd customer nabbed it for
          $15,000.  As it turned out, the plane was worth well over
          $100,000.  The buyer sold it easily for $90,000, still
          well under market value, and pocketed the $75,000 profit.
               If you buy assets that were originally bought with
          drug money, there's another advantage.  Such items
          generally have been paid for in cash, so there are often
          no existing mortgages or liens on the property.
               A private company, EG&G Dynatrend, conducts public
          sales of seized property and abandoned merchandise for
          the U.S. Customs Service.  According to the company,
          auctions are conducted approximately every nine weeks in
          Los Angeles; Jersey City, NJ; Nogales, AZ; Miami; El
          Paso, TX; Edinburg, TX; and Laredo, TX.
               In addition, sales are held approximately every four
          weeks in Yuma, AZ, and Chula Vista, CA, as well as in
          other locations as the volume of property warrants.
               These sales fall into six categories:
               1) Cyclic sale.  These are public auctions, held
          regularly.
               2) Specialty sale.  These sales are held
          irregularly, whenever the volume, value, or the unique
          nature of seized items requires a sale.
               3) "Quick" sale.  Here, merchandise is sold through
          negotiation or via the best offer.  Typically, these
          sales are held to rapidly move perishable items or large
          amounts of low-value merchandise.
               4) Sealed-bid sale.  Written bids are submitted to
          a specified place by a certain day and time, usually for
          merchandise that can't feasibly be sold otherwise.  The
          sales flyers list the terms of sale and instructions for
          submitting sealed bids.
               5) Consignment sale.  When it is not cost-effective
          to transport seized property to an EG&G Dynatrend sales
          center, the merchandise is consigned to a local auction
          house.
               6) Open-bid sale.  If seized property does not merit
          relocation to a sale center, because of quantity,
          location, or value, bidders may write their offers on
          publicly-posted bid forms.