
DATE: Sunday, November 16, 1997             TAG: 9711160068

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   82 lines

GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE . . . BEAUTY IS IN THE EYES OF THE BUYERS AT BEACH AUCTION.

The Ford Crown Victorias parked in the back lot of the city garage no longer looked regal. The pair of Coast Guard 31-foot inboards in the next row had nearly equal amounts of paint and barnacles on their hulls. And it's doubtful that the 1976 Seagrave pumper, just down the way a bit, will ever cozy up to a hydrant again.

But none of that made a difference to the 150 farmers, contractors, taxi fleet owners, shade tree mechanics and cell-phone-wielding out-of-towners who showed up Saturday morning for an auction of used city vehicles and equipment. The auction raised roughly $200,000 for the city.

Most were hoping for a bargain. Some, like David Overstreet of Virginia Beach, left satisfied that they'd found one. For $3,200, he picked up a 1992 Chevrolet S10 pickup, complete with oversize cab, air conditioning that worked, and several hundred dollars' worth of built-in toolboxes.

``Looks like you got a deal,'' an envious passer-by told him. ``I hope so,'' Overstreet, a retired city employee, responded. ``I plan to fix her up and resell her.''

The semi-annual sales have been run by the city's Automotive Services Division for at least the past 35 years, said Shelby Etheridge, the division's administrator, who has worked on city vehicles since 1962. So has automotive mechanic Americus McPherson. Like Etheridge, he loves the sales. ``I've only missed one of them in all that time,'' McPherson said.

``Things have changed a lot, though,'' he added. ``When I came to work here, we only had about 20 police cars in the whole city.'' On Saturday morning there were at least that many retired ones on the auction block.

With their roomy interiors and heavy-duty police engines, the eight-cylinder Crown Victorias and Chevrolet Caprices drew an assortment of potential buyers. In the past, many have been bought by teen-agers with a passion for automotive muscle. Now they're often snapped up by taxi fleet owners for domestic use and entrepreneurs who have foreign sales and big profits in mind.

``These guys come in from New York and Miami, buy them and ship them to places like Mexico for resale,'' said auctioneer Calvin Zedd as he watched from the sidelines while his son, Steve, rattled off the numbers and pounded the gavel. ``It's a lot different now from the way it used to be,'' said the senior Zedd, who has been in the auction business in Hampton Roads for 39 years. ``There's a lot more outside interest, outside money.''

It was local buyers, however, who left with the most interesting pieces among the 118 that were auctioned off on Saturday. When Everette Brown of Virginia Beach got the 21-year-old Seagrave pumper for $2,000, he acquired a prize that had caught the eye of just about every male. Few had been able to pass by without climbing onto the running board or into the cab.

If all goes as Brown plans, the pumper's fans can revisit it next fall in Fairfax County. Once it's refurbished, it will be used to give kids rides at Burke Nurseries' annual Pumpkinfest, he said.

The pair of 31-foot boats, once owned by the Coast Guard, went to David Lewter of Chesapeake. One cost him $2,000, the other $2,200. ``I'll fix them up, maybe keep one and sell the other,'' said Lewter, an electrician.

One purchase that left buyers more curious than envious was made by Beth Harvey, a Virginia Beach auto repair shop owner. She got a utility van of undetermined lineage for $550. The windshield was missing, the seats were toast, the steering wheel was melted and the wiring had been vaporized, the result of an unfortunate incident in a city parking lot.

Still, Harvey was enthusiastic about her purchase. ``The box is still good. I can use that on another vehicle. And there's a lot of stuff on it I can use for parts,'' she said.

That, according to Etheridge, is what makes the sales so popular with the public. ``It's like they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

GARY C. KNAPP photos

Sammy Godwin, 11, of Chesapeake sails between Coast Guard boats for

sale at the auction of secondhand items on Saturday.

Beach employee Chris Gilbert's sign tells prospective buyers which

item is up for bidding.

Graphic

ON THE BLOCK

Items sold included:

[For complete graphic, please see microfilm]