FREMONT, Calif. -- An auction of 8,500 of Solyndra's "surplus assets" drew more than 1,000 people to the bankrupt solar manufacturer's headquarters here yesterday as a political storm continued swirling in Washington, D.C., over the company's $535 million federal loan guarantee.

In addition to the crowd here, thousands more bidders participated online from Bulgaria, Greece, Hong Kong, Israel, Uruguay and a dozen other countries. The Internet crowd missed the Mexican and Creole food trucks massed outside the warehouse.

SPECIAL REPORT

Solyndra, a solar manufacturer that was given a $535 million loan guarantee and touted by the White House as a model for the clean energy economy, has filed for bankruptcy. E&E examines how it got there and what it means. Click here to read the report.

Bidders found few bargains. There was, for example, a $90 price tag on a Solyndra hard hat, about double the going rate for logo-less helmets, and $450 on a pile of company polo shirts.

"A hundred dollars for a goddamn hat!" said Howard Wells, a metal dealer from Oakland. "By the time they get to what I want, it'll be a million dollars."

Lulu Kann, an engineer at semiconductor equipment manufacturer Tango Systems in San Jose, came with a list of about 15 items and maximum bids. By lunchtime she was still empty-handed. "If you didn't do your homework, you're not going to get a good deal," she said. A set of drill bits that she was willing to buy for $100 sold for $300.

Solyndra officials designed the two-day auction to get rid of non-essential items that wouldn't appeal to someone buying the company with an eye toward restarting it. The company plans to sell its core business assets in a large sale through a separate process that is still being worked out through a bankruptcy court (E&E Daily, Oct. 31).

It's not clear where the proceeds will go, since a restructuring of the loan reshuffled creditors to give some private investors priority over the Energy Department.

But there was nonetheless a vast spread of furniture, appliances, technical equipment and company memorabilia up for grabs. Framed pictures of the construction site of the building that the company used part of its loan to build fetched $250, while a mass spectrometer went for $50,000. A banner made for President Obama's visit in May 2010 sold for $400.

Auctioneer Ross Dove took the stage at 10 a.m., flanked by three men calling online bids via laptops.

A potential buyer peruses Solyndra's wares. Photo by Debra Kahn.

Dove -- whose company, Heritage Global Partners, also handled the liquidation of the infamous energy company Enron -- reeled off rapidly rising bids, at times bemused by the prices the items commanded.

"If you go out and get 1,000 hard hats and put the Solyndra logo on them, imagine how much you could make," he said.

There were also Solyndra-branded neckties, tote bags and eyeglass-cleaning cloths.

Potential buyers also marveled at the demand. Resellers complained that high bids crippled their profit margins.

"These prices are crazy!" said Tony Harris, who flew in from New York to buy equipment to sell to eBay vendors. "I've never seen it like this."

And some buyers might also be forgetting about the add-ons, he said. The auctioneers charge a 15 percent commission in addition to California sales tax, 8.75 percent.

But many high bidders expressed satisfaction with their purchases.

Iraj Barabi, vice president at semiconductor testing equipment manufacturer Essai Inc., down the street from Solyndra, bought two microscopes, a portable X-ray machine and a machine to test materials' hardness.

"We're trying to get stuff for our new building in Arizona," he said. The microscopes cost $2,750 and $8,500, compared to $5,000 and $12,000 for new, he said.

A former Solyndra equipment technician who accompanied a friend to the auction said he wasn't bidding on anything. Still unemployed two months after the company laid off all its 1,100 workers, he receives checks from the state Employment Development Department.

He pointed to two huge orange machines in the center of the warehouse that weren't for sale. The Dutch-manufactured machines were supposed to connect solar cells within a panel more cheaply than by previous methods, but Solyndra ran out of money before they were up and running.

"They were supposed to bring the price on the panels down, but running out of money was a big problem, too," he said.