Auction Unloads Exxon Cleanup Gear : Environment: Nearly 8,000 bidders pick over inflatable boats, TVs, animal shampoo and more. Alaskans say the auctioneers are the ones cleaning up with high prices.

Thousands of bargain hunters snatched up everything from all-terrain vehicles to animal shampoo on the first day of an Alaska-size garage sale offering gear from the Exxon Valdez cleanup.

Locals grumbled that out-of-town businessmen with plenty of money in their pockets and a need to justify their jaunts to Alaska helped drive up prices Tuesday.

“It’s a feeding frenzy,” said Butch Johnson, a fisherman in search of nets who lives in the Prince William Sound fishing community of Cordova.

Everything on the opening-day block was sold, including a plane, mobile homes, TV sets and cat box filler, used to provide traction on oily beaches.

The four-day sale continues through Friday at various sites. The items up for sale today include 10 cars, 51 trucks, 6 buses, heavy equipment such as forklifts and more marine supplies.

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers International of Vancouver, British Columbia, bought the leftover equipment from Exxon Corp. last month. The company said it collected $3.8 million Tuesday.

“A sale like this only comes around once in a lifetime,” said Rod Meeks, an Anchorage aviation mechanic who bought two outboard motors for $3,250. “You really realize the size of the spill by all the garbage that came out of it.”

Many in the crowd complained about high prices. Some people were upset about having to buy in lots. Microwave ovens were clumped with animal shampoo, for example.

“Prices are way out of line. The people we know--the fishermen--aren’t buying anything. They’re just shaking their heads,” said a Kodiak fisherman.

Parked cars lined the roads for miles in all directions and Ritchie Bros. ran shuttle buses to the auction.

An auctioneer in a booth atop a truck sold rows of all-terrain vehicles and aluminum skiffs, pallet after pallet of brand new fishing nets and such things as life jackets, tables and chairs.

A 1966 DeHaviland Beaver seaplane with an old Esso tiger painted on its tail and uncertain saltwater wear sold for $435,000. New, the plane would cost about $700,000.