AUSTIN, Texas — When times were good, Agillion Inc. looked like a million bucks.
Employee trips to Mexican resorts. A luxurious office building with tinted windows, curved walls and a game and workout room that represented the best of what the high-tech boom could offer: staggering venture capital, high salaries and a good-time atmosphere that seemed almost too good to be true.
But that recent high-flying past might as well have been a jillion years ago.
On Thursday, thousands of prospective buyers converged on the vacant 80,000-square-foot building to pick over the remains of what was left of another high-tech flameout.
They were in search of a good bargain on computers, phones, furniture — anything they could find — as auctioneers sold off the remnants of Austin-based Agillion and a handful of other high-tech companies that went out of business.
Auction officials expected up to 500 people. They were surprised to find their parking lot full, police directing traffic and a steady stream of buyers still arriving an hour after the auction started.
By noon, about 1,500 people had jammed their way into the building.
"This was far larger than anything we expected," said Charlotte Hair, the facility manager of the Agillion building and a former Agillion employee.
Hair successfully bid on ergonomic office chairs, one of the cushy perks that every employee got during Agillion's spending sprees. She bought 30 at $5.25 each.
"They wanted you to feel good at work so you'd stay at work," she said. "I don't think Agillion was doing anything different from anywhere else. That's how you attracted talented high-tech workers."
The excess was evident everywhere. Agillion was a software company that had scored a partnership with IBM and bought TV time during the advertising orgy of the Super Bowl.
The massive headquarters housed about 150 employees, Hair said. A coffee station had 13 portals for different kinds of brew ranging from Arabica to Sidano Gold.
A punching bag hung from the ceiling in the workout room next to a treadmill. In the hallways, overstuffed bean bag chairs waited for new owners next to wall art, office furniture and hundreds of phones and laptop and desktop computers.
Back in a second floor kitchen stood two open wine bottles, one white, one red, and unfinished wine coolers, weary signs of a party that ended too soon.
"It was a great ride. I enjoyed it like everybody else," Hair said. "Champagne flowed, but the bubbly eventually stopped."
The auction drew those wanting to upgrade their home computers and laid-off high-tech workers striking out on their own and looking for useful technology.
Jeff Twining, a technical writer who was laid off from Vignette Corp. a couple months ago, wanted to buy another computer to help his fledgling start-up, Wordsmith & Co.
But the large crowds drove up prices quickly and Twining left empty-handed. Computer monitors sold for $500. Desktop computers hit the $900 range.
"It was certainly no garage sale," Twining said. "I bailed out. It became a question of working for my clients or possibly picking up some equipment nobody else wants."
A few found bargains.
Michael Hudkins, who manages a used office furniture and supply company, picked up 10 mobile phones for $17.50 each. They would normally retail upward of $100, he said.
Hudkins' business has boomed in Austin's high-tech bust. The hard lessons learned by spending lavishly only to go bankrupt has businesses turning more toward spending less on quality used supplies, he said.
"We're up 20 percent from last year," he said. "And we were up 30 percent last year."
Others just browsed, thankful they still have a job yet wondering if someday it won't be their phone headset going to the highest bidder for only pennies on the dollar.
Times have changed, said Graham Perks, a software programmer. It used to be everyone looked for new higher-paying jobs all the time but now everyone is more cautious.
"Two years ago you could walk into any job," he said. "Now you don't want to leave any job."