Roughly 850 machines were auctioned off in Osnabrück on Wednesday. Not quite “under the hammer”, as chief auctioneer Max Manuel Lueders had no hammer. He and his staff sat on the podium at Osnabrück Halle, praising saws, workbenches and cabinets – all from the inventory of insolvent steel company IAG Magnum: “Once, twice…” and then the next bidder’s card was usually already raised up. Only when no bidder in the audience showed any more sign of twitching, Lueders called: “sold” and hit his pen on the table.
