Auctions

More than 170 people crowded the ballroom of a Long Beach hotel for what amounted to an upscale fire sale. The event was an auction. The products were 38 posh waterfront condominiums. And bidders like Mike Murphy came looking for bargains. The Internet marketing worker snapped up a two-bedroom unit for $376,000, less than half the original price. In all, he and other eager buyers ponied up $14.9 million in less than 90 minutes.

For workers at the popular Tsukiji fish market, the final indignity may have been when the intoxicated British tourist licked the head of a frozen tuna. In the now-notorious incident, captured by a Japanese TV crew, an irate market official shouted in English, "Get out! Get out!" as the man patted the tuna's gills. Every day, hundreds of sightseers gather in the predawn gloom to witness one of the most popular events on the Tokyo tourist agenda: the daily tuna auction.

A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner had bought it secondhand for less than a buck. It is one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, probably a testament to the volume's rarity and excellent condition, said Stephen Fishler, co-owner of the auction site ComicConnect.com and its sister dealership, Metropolis Collectibles. The winning bid for the 1938 edition of Action Comics No.

A college student was charged with two federal felonies Wednesday for what he contends were acts of civil disobedience -- making false bids to run up auction prices on oil and gas parcels on public land near Utah's national parks. At the Dec. 19 lease sale, Tim DeChristopher grabbed a bidder's paddle, drove up prices and won 22,000 acres of land for $1.79 million, an amount he later said he didn't have the means or intention to pay.

EBay Inc. said it would discontinue by year-end the section of its site that allows users to participate in live auctions hosted by other companies. The company said the move would not materially affect its business -- though millions of users patronize EBay's partner auction houses. A spokesman for San Jose-based EBay said maintaining and improving the 7-year-old Live Auctions platform fell outside the firm's current focus on boosting listings, improving buyers' experiences and making the site safer from fraud.

The auctioneer gazed out at the audience, knowing this was the moment they'd waited for. Next up, he said, was lot No. 23 -- a "wonderful, exceptional, 66-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as Samson." He gestured to the ferocious-looking skull sitting on a stand to his left. "There she is," he said. The people who had gathered in the elegant gallery at the Venetian hotel gasped. Samson is one of the three most complete T. rex specimens ever discovered, possessing the most intact skull in existence.

Marilyn Monroe, dead 47 years, still carries enough cachet that a bidder on Monday offered $4.6 million for the crypt above the spot where she is entombed. Elsie Poncher, whose husband, Richard Poncher, is buried in the crypt at Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park, said she wanted to sell it to pay off the more than $1-million mortgage on her Beverly Hills home. If the winning bid on EBay is legitimate, Poncher will be able to do a lot more than just retire her mortgage.

An Atlanta investment banker is auctioning off more than 15,000 videotaped episodes of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's Christian talk show. "The PTL Club," which aired from 1974 to 1987, featured Jim Bakker offering upbeat sermons from a couch and Tammy Faye, wearing her trademark heavy mascara, singing about Jesus. Most episodes were taped at their empire -- which included a hotel, campground and theme park -- just south of Charlotte.

Google Inc. said Tuesday that it would shut down an advertising partnership with more than 800 newspapers, a key part of the Internet giant's effort to expand into offline media, because it didn't make enough money. The Print Ads program, which launched with 50 newspapers in November 2006, allowed advertisers to use Google's online services to bid on space in print much as they do for search-engine ads. The service ends Feb. 28.

Need more water? If you've got $30 million or so, you can bid for it at an auction this fall. In what officials believe is a first for the state, a Southern California water agency is planning to auction off enough water to supply about 70,000 homes for a year. Water sales are not uncommon in California, especially when supplies are tight, as they are in the current drought. But putting water up for bid in an auction -- which is bound to drive up the price -- appears to be unprecedented in the state.