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- BUSINESS, Page 41Business NotesAUCTIONSA Texas-Size Garage Sale
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- In its heyday, the Lamar Savings Association boasted four
- large teak elephants in its Austin lobby. They may have
- impressed the customers, but they did not help the balance
- sheet. Last week more than 1,000 bidders crowded into a Houston
- warehouse to see the elephants auctioned off for $1,600 to
- $2,000 apiece, along with the property of 33 other failed
- Southwestern thrifts. A 1957 Bentley automobile went for
- $10,050. Besides computers and other office equipment, the
- Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation also sold
- hand-carved ivory tusks and even two kitchen sinks.
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- The four-day auction brought in more than $800,000. The
- FSLIC, which currently holds $9.6 billion in assets seized from
- failed thrifts, has raised more than $300 million this year by
- selling off their property. That comes to roughly one
- five-hundredth of what the S & L bailout will cost U.S.
- taxpayers in the next ten years.
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