Rip, a stray dog who became a World War II hero after being found homeless and starving in a bombing raid in London, will be remembered at an auction next month.

Rip was saved by an Air Raid Precaution (ARP) warden during the 1940 German attacks in the Poplar area. The terrier-cross became the local ARP post's mascot and soon started sniffing out casualties trapped under burning or bombed buildings.

He located more than 100 victims and won a Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the U.K. military's Victoria Cross for bravery. His circular bronze decoration will be offered by the specialist auction house and dealers Spink on April 23. The medal will fetch as much as 10,000 pounds ($14,400), Spink said in an e-mail last night. It would not name the seller. 

Cowan's Auctions, located in Cincinnait, is preparing to hawk what its staff says would be the highest-priced firearm to be sold at auction in Ohio history.

The antique gun is an 1886 model Winchester rifle that was the favorite of many turn-of-the century sportsmen, including President Theodore Roosevelt. The .33-caliber weapon, designed by famed firearms pioneer John Browning, was known for its "buttery" smooth firing action. It was commissioned by American auto magnate John F. Dodge and delivered in 1913 but never fired. Dodge wanted it as a piece of art.

The rifle features inlay wood carvings of a buck, doe and fawn on one side of the receiver (the base of the barrel) and a bull-moose and cow on the other. The animal recesses are filled with some of the 195 grams (6.8 ounces) of gold that are on the rifle. The 1886 is one of two high-profile pieces commissioned by Dodge that will be auctioned at 10 a.m. April 29 at Cowan's in Winton Place. The event is open to the public.

Firearms expert Jack Lewis at Cowan's said the Winchester, consigned from a family in a Southern state, will fetch a minimum sale price of $400,000. Bids could go as high as $600,000.

That, Lewis said, would make the Winchester the highest-priced firearm sold at auction in Ohio (and that doesn't include a 15 percent buyer's premium, which is added to the high bid). The previous high is thought to be Sitting Bull's Whitney Revolver, sold for $120,750 at auction Nov. 17, 2005, at Cowan's.

Crashing through a gate in the dead of night, thieves using trucks and trailers recently robbed a farmer in Clever, Mo., of 53 Brahman crossbreed cows valued at some $50,000.

Known for a distinctive hump at the base of the neck, Brahman cattle are rare here and would be easily spotted at a local auction, leading investigators to think the rustlers already had a buyer — or a butcher — lined up.

“Those were full-grown cows,” Sheriff Joey Kyle of Christian County said. “Around 1,100 pounds apiece. That’s 53,000 pounds of beef on the hoof. Your normal stock trailer will handle a dozen to 15 cows, so do the math.”

It was the first cattle theft in the county in more than two years and the largest state officials could recall. It came amid a surge of such thefts here in southwestern Missouri. In January, rustlers hauled away 41 cows in nearby Lawrence County. Investigators in Barry County report 30 head stolen in the last six months. In Greene County, Sheriff Jim Arnott said rustlers had struck 10 times since October, stealing a total of 93 cows.
 

Out of toilet paper? Need to pick up a few things for dinner? Take a number and start bidding.

Bargain hunters in a handful of states these days are trading supermarket aisles for the auction circuit in search of deep discounts on everything from cereal to spare ribs. Past the sell-by date? Bidders are happy to ignore that detail if they're getting a good deal.

As consumers seek relief from the recession and spiraling food prices, grocery auctions are gaining in popularity as an easy way to cut costs. The sales operate like regular auctions, but with bidders vying for dry goods and frozen foods instead of antiques and collectibles. Some auctioneers even accept food stamps.

When Kirk Williams staged his first grocery auction in rural Pennsylvania last month, nearly 300 people showed up. Astonished by the turnout, he's scheduling auctions at locations throughout northeastern Pennsylvania.
 

Tired of getting up at 3 a.m. to make donuts for peanuts? Think you deserve a break today? OK. What’s it worth to you?

A new job auction website based in Silicon Valley has launched which aims to be the top online marketplace for bidding on jobs. Bid4MyBiz.com is a new web2.0 social network which allows people and companies to post jobs and gigs online and receive bids from companies, professionals, and freelancers. It sounds simple, but it's a new concept which looks like it can help during the economic crisis and change the way people look at hiring professionals and finding work.

When we attempted to check out the website today (not that any of us are “looking”), it was down due to “technical issues.” Maybe Bid4MyBiz.com needs to auction off it’s IT director position.

According to the brains behind the concept, “Instead of going on search engines looking for service providers, Bid4MyBiz allows you to post your job details one time and receive detailed bids from companies, professionals, and freelancers, saving you time and money.”

The bathrooms at my local sports park are looking a little … nasty. Let’s start the bidding at $5. Any takers?
 

With loons like Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen and Madonna running around the English countryside, is it really a shock that the Brits passed on taking claim of another psycho?

Bonhams was unable to unload a 20-page score to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic Psycho after the minimum price was not met. The auction house had hoped to sell it for somewhere around $56,000. The music was composed by Bernard Herrmann to accompany Hitchcock's 1960 thriller. The manuscript carries the notes to the slashing, shrieking violin sounds that play when a knife-wielding killer bursts in on actress Janet Leigh as she showers in the Bates Motel.

The score is being returned to Hermann’s third wife. Madonna? Sorry, she's staying.
 

It's a good thing Michael Jackson didn't go with the "over my dead body" ultimatum.

Despite the comebacking King of Pop's legal objections, a Beverly Hills auction house is going ahead with a planned sell-off of nearly 2,000 pieces of furniture, clothing and other Jackson memorabilia that the company was asked to cart off from Neverland Ranch last year.

Some of the items on the block, such as a few of the Thriller artist's jewel-encrusted gloves (including the glove), a black fedora and a couple of MTV Video Music Awards, will be on display starting Wednesday at the Hard Rock Cafe in NYC's Times Square.

"It will be the last time you can see these items publicly unless they're purchased by a major museum," Julien's Auctions proprietor Darren Julien told the New York Daily News.

But while Julien is championing the goodies for sale, he is still required to go through the motions in court.

To read more, click here.
 

The United States has something Egypt wants back and it’s not Brendan Fraser.

The Egyptian government claims we’re in possession of a 3,000-year-old wooden coffin illegally smuggled out of the country more than a century ago and wants to make sure it isn't auctioned like a pair of Chinese sculptures were in February. The nearly 5-foot-long coffin was removed from a tomb in Luxor around 1884. The ornamented coffin belonged to Pharaoh Ames of the 21st Dynasty, which ruled over Egypt from 1081-931 B.C.

The Associated Press is reporting that the coffin is currently in the hands of the customs authority in Miami, Fla., who confiscated it after it was shipped to the United States from Spain.

U.S. officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but sources close to the case believe government officials are tying to get Egypt, as part of the terms of return, to take possession of all DVD copies of box office bomb The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
 

Like Rodney Dangerfield the Dryosaurus gets no respect.  Not now or millions of years ago.

If there was a playground back in the Late Jurassic period, the Dryosaurus was the kid with two left feet, bad asthma and glasses so thick bullies used them to burn ants. While it was built like a super model with long neck and long slender legs, it didn’t have the sex appeal of the Raptor, Brontosaurus, Triceratops or T-Rex. Old Dryo was basically just food and fodder for others.

Last weekend a 9-foot-long Dryosaurus skeleton that was expected to bring up to $500,000 was a no-sale at the I.M. Chait Gallery in Manhattan. The skeleton was unearthed at a private quarry in Wyoming in 1993. 

An 18,000-year-old woolly mammoth skeleton found in Siberia stole the show for $60,000 while an ammonite fossil went for close to $50,000.
 

Joining the hundreds of other classics at this year's 7th Annual Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach Collector Car Auction on April 9-11 will be Ford's first production-spec 2010 Ford Shelby GT500, as well as a pair of Mustang GT Concepts.

Shelby's latest badass coupe sports 540-hp and 510 lb-ft of torque from its 5.4L supercharged V-8 motor. Also on the list of mods are numerous suspension and visual tweaks to ensure this Pony grips and looks as well as it goes.

The pair of Mustang GT concepts first bowed at the 2003 Detroit Motor Show and have since toured the nation at various national car shows. Each features an interior packed with charcoal and deep red leathers, billet aluminum and retro-inspired instrument displays. Twenty-inch rolling stock and Brembo brakes keep the 400-plus supercharged horsepower in check. While multiple design elements have clearly been translated onto the current 2010 Mustang, some failed to make it past the conceptual stage.

Proceeds from 2010 Shelby GT500's sale will benefit the Carroll Shelby Children's Foundation, while money from the concepts will go directly to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.