The online bidding for six Air Force cabins in Alaska started at $25 apiece on Feb. 23. When the digital gavel came down -- so to speak -- two days later, each of the cabins had sold for at least $6,500.

The Air Force's unusual online auction of the cabins from the now-defunct Seward Air Force Recreation Camp in Alaska, which closed in 2012, earned $40,660 in all. The cheapest cabin sold for $6,500 and the most expensive cabin sold for $7,100, said Christine Cimino, a spokeswoman for Government Liquidation, the surplus auction firm that handled the sales, Government Liquidation. The other four cabins sold for $6,765 each, Cimino said.

The winners have until May 15 to get a licensed and bonded contractor to remove the cabins from the campgrounds.

The duplex cabins, which were built in 1994, each measure 31.5 feet wide by 32 feet long, including a front deck, for a total area of 1,008 square feet.

Cimino said last week that selling the cabins was highly unusual for them. Government Liquidation typically auctions off scrap metal, aircraft parts, boats, computers and other office equipment, machinery, trucks and other vehicles.

But the Air Force has sent Government Liquidation has a new oddball item to auction in the works: a A Chickering and Sons upright piano that is between 105 and 110 years old and is being auctioned off at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Bidding began starts at 12 a.m. Eastern time Friday, and ends at 5 p.m. Eastern time March 3.

Cimino said the piano is in excellent condition, but has some scratches and dents and would need to be polished professionally.

A few notes played on the piano in an online video also shows it could use a tuning.

Fully restored Chickering and Sons pianos have sold for $16,000, Government Liquidation said. Bidding for this piano, like the Alaska cabins, starts at $25.

Stephen Losey is the air warfare reporter for Defense News. He previously covered leadership and personnel issues at Air Force Times, and the Pentagon, special operations and air warfare at Military.com. He has traveled to the Middle East to cover U.S. Air Force operations.

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