Shoppers cheated work and tested their talent for a bargain, fuelling a frenzied bidding war for just about everything that’s left of the Wyndham Resort in Southampton.

A mind-numbing 400 items went on the auction block in a marathon session which lasted close to three hours.

Electronics, tools, furniture, computers, artwork — it all had to go. Most of it did.

Ever since Hurricane Fabian the Sonesta Hotel in September 2003 the hotel has not regained its swagger.

Windwalker Bermuda LLC is expected to step into the 33-acre footprint and turn it into a luxury resort again with a renovated Bay Wing, a rebuilt Carlton Wing and a new condo-hotel.

The furniture inside the 200-plus guest rooms which did not sell on Tuesday will be on sale sometime next month, as will the huge inventory of outdoor furniture — all by January.

“I’m giving it away! Giving it away!” exclaimed Cliff Schorer who served as auctioneer.

He also happens to be the man who owned the hotel when it was still accepting guests.

Yesterday he hosted a sale where the objective appeared to be: take no profit.

Hundreds of people showed up and handed over a $200 refundable deposit in order to get a paddle.

“There’s some good prices going around and some good deals,” said Jim Piper who was shrewdly scouting bargains for the BESCO energy company while his wife took a stab at less practical items.

He picked up a six-passenger golf cart for $1,750, which may or may not start, and a pushcart tool box big enough to fit a person inside. That went for $450.

The tool box also had hundreds of dollars’ worth of tools inside, but Mr. Piper confessed he did not even know what was in there and he also did not care, saying: “I’m more interested in the box itself.”

Both of his purchases are to be used on BESCO work sites.

It will be harder for his wife to explain why she pulled the trigger on a caseload of Wyndham insignia beer cosies.

Bidders could be cavalier because the prices were so cheap. It seemed impossible to make a mistake.

It was the kind of situation which promoted pockets of personal stories.

A slight woman with greying hair and a gentle voice outbid a room full of people to win two hut tubs.

“This is my first auction,” Renee Edgecombe said bashfully right before refusing to give her age.

When asked how many items she had bought, she replied: “Who knows.”

The plan was to keep one hot tub for herself, the other would go to her daughter-in-law.

“I’m loving it,” she said vowing to find her way into another auction before too long.

Another woman was snatching up artwork with the precision of a dealer.

She cheated work to be there and within minutes scooped up six pieces and was negotiating with a man across the room to buy a crayon number he outbid her for.

The winning bid was a whopping $20 — for the pair!

“I came to buy the outdoor furniture,” she said. “But they’re not up on the block.”

In the end, her tenacious buying was really a guilty binge, all impulse.

She had no idea she would be going home with enough artwork to fill a small gallery.

“I got the whole lot for $40 each and they’re all framed. I think it’s terrific.”

The buyer across the room admitted he had no real appreciation for art, but once somebody came over to try and broker a deal — he knew he should probably hold on to his purchase.

It may be worth something, he figured.

The biggest buzz of the afternoon came when lot numbers 367 to 396 were called — 29 LG 42-inch plasma televisions.

The first 15 went in a flash, for about $1400 each.

The remaining 14 went to a quick-thinking bunch near the door who the auctioneer labelled “The Cartel”.

They figured out that the pricing got considerably lower when items were sold in a group.

So when those last 14 plasmas went up for grabs all at once “The Kingpin” — as he became known — bought them all for a price of $900 each.

He sold the ones he did not want to the friends he made inside the auction room.

Each of them walked away with a bargain far greater than any other bidder achieved on the televisions — which clearly were the hottest items in the collection of 400.

At some points the winning bids were so remarkably low, the auctioneer would yell, “stolen!” instead of “sold!”