Photo: Getty Images

So, how did that auction of Bernie and Ruth Madoff's stuff go? Great! It was expected to raise half a million dollars for the victims of Bernie's fraud and ended up bringing in more than twice that. Here's how: A pair of Cartier onyx and diamond earrings sold for $70,000 and another pair of Ruth's diamond earrings went for the same amount. Bernie's shiny Mets jacket, complete with his name embroidered on the back, sold for $14,500. Three wooden duck decoys seized from the Madoff's Montauk beach home went for $11,500 and the address sign that was once in front of that house sold for $2,000. Bernie's 1960 Hofstra class ring sold for $6,000. And the most awesome piece of the lot, a white life preserver painted with the words "Bullship N.Y." went for $7,500, more than fifty times the $140 estimate.

Madoff Auction Brings in More Than $1 Million [WSJ]