Mad Anthony F's with the police... auction

I generally hate the question that I seem to get from coworkers on Monday mornings. It seems like my coworkers always have great weekends, filled with drinking, debauchery, and other pleasures. I, on the other hand, have the kind of weekends that make those of 75 year old church ladies look exciting - they generally consist of watching tv, running errands, doing homework, going to the gym, and - if I'm really lucky- going to a couple yard sales.

This weekend, though I did something fun. Well, something I think was kind of fun... even though it's pretty lame. I spent a large chunk of Saturday at the Maryland State Police Seized Items auction.

It started at 9, with registration starting at 8. I got there right around 8am, after driving down 95 in the Ranger through the rain while eating a tasty chicken biscuit from Chik-fil-a. There was a pretty long line for registration, which was held in a state police recruiting trailer. You had an hour to look over the items, which were mostly the kind of stuff that either people steal (cd's, mostly in soft cases, laptops, cell phones, jewelery, watches, car stereos, portable cd players) or that they use to commit crimes with (knives, gun scopes, scales). There wasn't a lot of chance to see stuff, given the amount of people there.. it was crowded. They ran two auctions, one outside (tools, bikes, a set of wheels and tires from a Mercedes, ect) and the electronics and clothing and stuff inside.

I bid on a bunch of lots, but much of the stuff went way high and I dropped out. I also left early - there were still about 200 lots left, including some knives and multipurpose tools I was interested in, but I'd been standing for 5 hours and my feet and back were killing me, so I paid and left.

So what did I buy? Four things, in order of auction:
-A Pelouze 2 pound digital scale - $10
-A Lanzer Encore x10 10 channel crossover - $37
-A roll of 100 37¢ stamps for $19
-An Apple Powerbook (15" G4 1ghz, 256mb RAM) for $500

The best deal was probably the stamps... I basically got postage for half price, and I mail a lot of stuff between bills and rebates. I've already ordered 400 one cent stamps from ups.com to go with them (I'm ready for the postage rate increase). The Encore was kind of a mistake - I saw x10 and figured it was for home automation networking, but it turns out it's for hooking up elaborate car stereo systems. I can't find any, sold or unsold, on eBay, so I don't know if I'll make anything selling it.

The Powerbook was one of those things where I wondered what I was thinking afterwords.. I didn't know the specs, if it would turn on, or if it had an adapter. It did, and it's got a reasonably decent processor, although it's a little low on everything else (256mb RAM, cd-rw, no airport). It's also got a couple dings in it. Still, I'm sure I can get most of what I paid for it on eBay or locally. It was a gamble, and I don't usually like to gamble - but I'll probably come out of it better than most people in Atlantic City.