Washington State liquor stores--followup on the auction

As I wrote in March, Washington State auctioned off its state liquor stores in an online auction that  opened March 6, 2012 and closed April 20, using an entirety auction, in which either all the stores would be sold together to one bidder, or each store would be sold separately.  The separate bidders won. However, 18 of them failed to come forward and pay their bids, and so a second re-auction followed, on May 24. (The re-auction of those 18 seems to have been well attended.)

Here are the results of the initial auction (the 18 failed bids wouldn't have changed the outcome...)

By the Numbers
• Total sum of individual bids       $30.75 million
• High all-store bid                      $4.6 million (will not count)
• Registered bidders                    551
• Total number of bids                 14,627
• Single stores to individuals        93
• Multiple stores to individuals     28
• Lowest winning bid                    $49,600 for Store 186 in Spokane (Division street)
• Highest winning bid                   $750,100 for Store 122 in Tacoma (72nd and Pacific)
• Increase in bids on final day      $23.7 million

Like many online auctions, if a bid was placed during the final five minutes of the auction, the end time would automatically extend for an additional five minutes. The official planned end of the auction was 4:00 p.m. PDT. However, heavy bidding activity extended the auction until 6:25 p.m. Friday evening.

The re-auction of the 18 liquor stores brought in an additional $5.9 million.