The Aldrich Ames Holiday Shopping Guide

Finally! You have settled on the perfect gift for that certain hard-to-buy-for someone on your Christmas shopping list: a solid-gold man's bracelet previously owned by a Soviet mole. But alas -- your local mall can't help you. What to do?

Look no further. The personal effects of luxury-loving confessed spy Aldrich (Rick) Ames will be auctioned off this week at the upscale Galleria Centre near Atlanta. The sale will be conducted by Manheim Auctions, a nationwide firm that is contracted to dispose of all goods confiscated by federal agencies like the FBI, which earlier this year laid claim to the property amassed by Ames and his wife Rosario while the former CIA analyst was supplementing his $69,000 salary with appreciative bonuses from the KGB.

Why Atlanta? Auctioneers say the Southern capital and home of Ted Turner is the nation's premier market for the kind of flashy goods -- diamond-studded Rolexes, collectible autos and the like -- the U.S. appropriates from superspies and, far more frequently, drug dealers. TIME was given an exclusive preview of a small portion of the Ames collection. Highlights included: