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A collection of more than 40 watches including an 18-karat yellow gold vintage men's Rolex, a stash of jewels featuring a pair of Victorian-era diamond earrings, and designer furs with labels like J. Mendel and Bill Blass are among the items expected to fetch the most attention. The Rolex is valued at $75,000, while an auction lot with diamond earrings and other gem pieces has an estimated price tag of $15,600 to $23,400.

The auction of personal valuables and oddities of the rogue financier and his wife, Ruth, is expected to raise at least a half million for the victims of his record fraud, according to a tally of low estimates for individual items. The U.S. Marshals Service and Pflugerville, Texas-based Gaston & Sheehan Auctioneers, which is handling the sale, declined to estimate the potential grab of the whole auction.

Also up for sale are highbrow housewares like Christofle flatware and Tiffany placecard holders and lowbrow loot like the imprisoned Madoff’s personalized New York Mets jacket (valued at $500 to $720) and Post-it notes.

Prospective buyers can bid live Saturday at the New York Sheraton Hotel & Towers, or online if they register at the auction house's Web site by Thursday afternoon.

Madoff, 71, was sentenced in June to 150 years in prison for orchestrating the Ponzi scheme that spanned decades and is believed to be the biggest in U.S. history.