Odd Auction: Someone Won Iowa Floor Globetrotters Played On

DES MOINES, IA — It was billed as a floor with history and now someone owns the basketball court — hardwood and hoops — that once graced Des Moines' Veterans Memorial Auditorium. The floor and two Pro-Bound, Ultra-Pro 8.0 hoops were sold through an online auction that ended Jan. 16.

The two-week auction drew more than a dozen bidders and ended with a high bid of $18.337.50, including a 12.5 percent buyer's premium. The winner has 10 days to secure a semi and move the flooring.

The winner hopefully has a 112-by-60-foot area available for the floor, which hosted the Harlem Globetrotters, countless Iowa high school state tournament basketball teams and even state dance and drill team competitors.

The auction listing on GovDeals.com says the floor was last refinished and painted in 2006 when the Iowa Event Center logo was added as well as a black border. "The Iowa Event Center logo would need to be removed after purchase," according to the listing.

For the winning bidder's packing convenience, the disassembled floor comes on 15 full carts (dollies) and one partial cart. Polk County, which owns the auditorium and thus the floor, will want four of its metal carts back, so "those stacks will need to be loaded ... by hand," according to the auction information. The successful bidder gets to keep all other wooden carts.

The winner will need a semi-trailer truck to load the material, which was sold "as is" and contains "slight damage from use."

The auction ended before 7 p.m. Tuesday and in the final day the price soared from just $9,050 in the morning to more than double that at the close of the auction.

And for that price, it didn't even include a basketball.

Image via PDPics/Pixabay