美国驻英国大使馆迁往新址后在线拍卖一批多余物品，其中既有卫生纸这样的日常用品，也有二手汽车之类“大件”。 美国使馆拍卖多余物品是例行做法。美国驻瑞典、土耳其、葡萄牙等国使馆也在举行在线拍卖。

The US embassy in London is holding an online auction¹ of “surplus property” and you only have until Wednesday next week to bid for rare finds such as 1,200 toilet rolls, some broken vacuum cleaners and a scuffed² coffee table.

美国驻英国大使馆正在举行“剩余财产”网上拍卖。直到下周三人们才能竞标这些“稀有”物品，诸如1200卷厕纸，几个坏掉的真空吸尘器和一个已经磨损的咖啡桌等。

None of the items have any official US insignias or historical value.

所有物品都没有美国官方标志或历史价值。

It is a curious jumble³ of items: desk lamps, a Volvo S80, boring bookcases, a circular saw, 22 plastic stacking chairs, five broken Dyson vacuum cleaners and a defective⁴ photocopier⁵ (price: ?1; condition: scrap). Most useful, perhaps, is the pallet of 1,200 loo rolls, which, at the time of writing, had no bids from its ?100 starting price.

这些奇怪的拍卖品还包括：台灯、一辆沃尔沃S80轿车、样貌平平的书架、圆盘锯、22把塑料可叠放椅子、5台坏掉的戴森真空吸尘器和一台有故障的复印机（价格：1英镑、状况：已报废）。也许最有用的要算1200卷厕纸了吧。这些卫生厕纸起拍价是100英镑（约合8.9元人民币），但截至报道时，还没有人出更高的价格。

The Independent reported an embassy staffer calling the toilet paper "probably a bit above bog⁶ standard".

英国《独立报》报道称，一位大使馆官员表示，这些厕纸“可能要比普通的质量好点儿”。

For those interested in the unwanted state department goods, a 2007 Volvo in "usable" condition costs $8,427.

如果你对拍卖品感兴趣的话，其中的沃尔沃汽车购于2007年，“还可以使用”，起拍价8427美元（约合57279元人民币）。

There is also a choice of five broken Dyson vacuums priced between $15 and $65, or several new LED desk lamps for $75.

拍卖品中还有5台坏掉的戴森真空吸尘器，起拍价在15美元到65美元之间，以及几台新的LED台灯，起拍价75美元。

These aren’t even the weirdest⁷ things being sold by US missions. There are auctions⁸ happening, or about to happen, in other countries with a similar car boot sale-style load of tat. Yerevan, Armenia, has several rugs “with stains”, office chairs (also “with stains”) and a broken fridge among its 45 lots. The embassy in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, offers several household appliances and a load of printer-ink cartridges⁹, as well as computers and mobile phones “with cracks and scratches”.

这些还不是美国大使馆出售过的最怪异的物品。在美国驻其他国家大使馆，也有类似的拍卖正在进行或即将开始，风格同样类似于在跳蚤市场摆摊卖旧货。美国驻亚美尼亚大使馆（位于首都埃里温）的45件拍卖品中就有几条“污迹斑斑”的地毯、同样“污迹斑斑”的办公椅和一台坏掉的冰箱等等。美国驻乌克兰大使馆（位于首都基辅）拍卖了几件家用电器和一堆打印机墨盒，以及“有裂缝和划痕”的电脑和手机。

The auction in Ankara, Turkey, has helpfully split its lots into furniture collections, so you could kit¹⁰ out your flat with a ready-made curated collection comprising beige armchair, office chair, lamp and end table. Tirana, Albania, wants to offload a few generators¹¹; Lisbon’s lots seem mostly to include office furniture, but without pictures. Stockholm’s catalogue is grander, with a lot of dark wood ornate furniture, chandeliers–and a step machine. Three of Belgrade’s five lots are unused eight-foot ladders.

在美国驻土耳其大使馆（位于首都安卡拉）举行的拍卖会上，大使馆专门从拍卖品中分出了家具系列，这样买家就可以为公寓挑选一套现成的家具，其中包括米色扶手椅、办公椅、台灯和茶几。美国驻阿尔巴尼亚大使馆（位于首都地拉那）想要甩卖几台发电机，美国驻葡萄牙大使馆（位于首都里斯本）的拍卖品多数是办公家具，但没有图片。美国驻瑞典大使馆（位于首都斯德哥尔摩）的拍卖品更加豪华一些，有许多装饰华丽的深色木质家具和枝形吊灯，还有一台踏步机。在贝尔格莱德（塞尔维亚共和国首都）的五个拍卖品中，有三个是八英尺（约合2.4米）高的新梯子。