It's Wood's 38th consecutive sale. He has been doing it longer than any other tax collector among Florida's 67 counties and possibly longer than any other county tax collector in the United States, staffers in his office tell GlobeSt.com.

The annual ritual is a good deal for the county, the tax certificate purchaser and even the delinquent tax payer, county government managers tell GlobeSt.com.

For the county, the delinquent taxes are paid up front by the certificate purchaser who bids the amount of interest he wants to receive from the delinquent property owner. Wood awards the certificates to bidders asking the highest interest rate.

The property owner has two years to pay the tax amount to the certificate holder plus the interest rate awarded on his specific property. If the property owner pays the taxes and the interest, he/she reclaims the property. The certificate holder walks away with an interest rate payment that could vary from 10% to 18%, the maximum rate allowable under Florida law.

Those interest rates are better than most returns today from stocks, certificates of deposit, municipal bonds and money market accounts.

"For the property owner, it's a good deal because he gets two extra years to pay the taxes," a real estate lawyer not connected with the auction tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity. "Even having to pay an 18% interest penalty is still better than losing the property, if it's a prime property in the first place."

About 75 bidders were at Monday's opening sale; 150 took in the first-day auction last year. "The crowds change from day to day, but this year they are expected to be about the same as last year, maybe an average 120 a day," a government staffer tells GlobeSt.com.

Most of the properties comprising the $23 million delinquent debt load are single family dwellings but apartment houses, townhomes, condos, vacant lots and undeveloped land often show up among the auctioned properties, tax records show.

Developers, investors, property owners and budding real estate tycoons wait for the annual event and pack the tax collector's chambers to bid on the certificates. Often, they have no specific idea of the history of the property, its category (multifamily, office, industrial, retail, single-family) or even exact location.

"All we know and mostly care about is being paid the highest interest rate when and if the owner decides to take back his property," a Maitland, FL investor who has traveled the tax certificate auction circuit throughout Florida for years tells GlobeSt.com on condition of anonymity.

"You've got to have a lot of time to take in these auctions but if you have the interest and the patience, you could wind up with a not-too-shabby portfolio of interest for a song."