Bargain hunters are making plans to be in downtown Fort Worth when $150,000 of furniture and accessories go on the auction block Wednesday morning.
"These are very high-end quality pieces, that if, perchance, you know, I get lucky and there's not a lot of people here bidding, there could be some great bargains," said Debbie Fillmore of Fort Worth, who spent part of Tuesday checking out the items.
There are nine rooms of furniture and other accessories, all of it seized for back taxes from Circa Design Showroom, a high-end furniture store in Southlake.
"They owed us about $35,000 in delinquent taxes covering three years on two different locations," said Tarrant County Tax Collector Betsy Price. "We had worked with them to pay, and they just weren't paying."
Rugs, furniture and other items were originally priced in the thousands of dollars. But at Wednesday's auction, everything will go for about 10 cents on the dollar.
"Someone is going to walk away with a good deal," said Morris Booth, delinquent collections manager for the Tarrant County Tax Collector's office.
"I guarantee you you will not find prices that we will sell these for at a store anywhere," Booth said. "This is an auction, a public auction. It's bottom dollar. We're interested in getting the taxes paid."
The auction begins at 10 a.m. at the Tarrant County Education Center at 401 E. 8th Street. The tax collector will only take cash or checks with a letter of guarantee from a bank.
