FDIC Selling Failed Bank's Crown Jewels

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has gotten used to selling homes and land, but how will it do hocking tennis bracelets?

The FDIC is working with Tranzon Auction Resolutions to auction a slew of jewelry that the agency inherited after the the $1.2 billion-asset Tennessee Commerce Bank in Franklin failed in January. The collapse marked Tennessee's first failure since 2002. The auction runs through Tuesday morning.

The more than 150 shiny pieces were collateral on loan to a jewelry store that later defaulted, says David Barr, an FDIC spokesman.

As of Thursday afternoon, the items ranged from a bag of 251 red goldstone gemstones with a bid at $5 to a 16-inch, 18-karat white gold and diamond necklace that had 23 bids and a top bid of $3,100. The vast majority of the inventory is decidedly skewed toward the lower end of that range.

Though most of the assets the FDIC has been left to resolve this cycle have tended to be real estate related, Barr says there have been some odd items over the years.

"By no means is this the most unusual," he says. "We've had livestock for ag bank failures, movie rights, and the most-famous example was a 10% interest in the Dallas Cowboys in the eighties. Luckily, we've had much better success with buyers who are willing to take all the assets."

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