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A $26,800 Ring For $5,000? Sold!

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By NICOLA M. WHITE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 3, 2007

Updated: 09/03/2007 12:12 am

TAMPA - Ever wonder where bad guys' stuff goes after authorities seize it?

Sometimes, the giant porcelain vases and eye-popping diamond rings end up in a hotel ballroom, surrounded by items culled from bankrupt businesses, estate sales and abandoned safe deposit boxes.

Sometimes, the public gets a chance to buy it - often, at a steal.

Sunday afternoon, Georgia-based D.A. Auctioneers Inc. set up shop at the Sheraton Riverwalk hotel in downtown Tampa, peddling everything from bronze dolphin sculptures to 9-carat diamond tennis bracelets to a framed print of the Pink Panther.

'We love it; it's the thrill of the chase,' said Vicki Jennings, a seasoned auction-goer from Maryland who once bought a $20,000 Persian rug at auction for $800. Sunday, she was eyeing a diamond ring and a sapphire tennis bracelet.

Most of the 100 or so people who stopped in to the auction came to browse and marvel at the stunning antique furniture and art deco-inspired jewelry. They also gawked at the, well, less subtle offerings, such as the gold- and jewel-encrusted eagle statuette, which did not draw any takers.

'There's some cool stuff here,' said Chrissy Springer of Lutz, who fell in love with a signed sculpture of an elongated woman that also serves as an ashtray.

'There's some really gaudy stuff here,' she said, gazing around the room.

She bid $50 on the sculpture. The winner walked away with it for $600.

Elizabeth and James Miller of Riverview came with a mission: find an oval or round antique-looking framed painting and a nightstand for their bedroom.

'And hidden treasure that you don't know you want,' James Miller said.

They didn't come looking for a 180-pound fountain sculpture of two frogs, valued at $19,500. They didn't buy it, but still: When you see all those bargains in one room you start to think your home wouldn't be complete without a frog fountain or a 6-foot fountain of a topless mermaid with a conch shell on her head. The mermaid, by the way, was valued at $27,000 and sold for $6,000.

The bidding process is not for wimps. When the audience didn't come through with the prices the auctioneer expected, he pleaded and cajoled.

'You're killing me,' he said when people offered $100 bids on artwork worth thousands more.

'Wow, what a steal,' he conceded when a woman walked away with an 8.2-carat emerald ring inlaid with 2.3 carats worth of diamonds for $5,000. The ring appraised at $26,800.

A sapphire-and-diamond tennis bracelet went for $2,750, while a 1.1-carat blue diamond ring was had for $3,500, and a Tiffany-style lamp sold for $200. A Tanzanite-and-diamond Cleopatra necklace, valued at $44,000, sold for $7,000.

'The only place you'd get this cheaper is at night with a brick,' the auctioneer said.

Reporter Nicola M. White can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or nwhite1@tampatrib.com.

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