The proposed sale last year of all of High Times assets has thus far failed to go anywhere, but the intellectual property – including trademarks, websites and event names like the Cannabis Cup – were returned to the market for bids from would-be purchasers, in a window that closed on Tuesday this week and attracted at least 10 bids, according to the broker in charge of the listing.

Although the number of interested buyers is significantly less than the 36 bids submitted for High Times when its former five dispensaries and licensed cultivation operations were also part of the package, there’s still been a surprisingly competitive batch of bids, said Drew Mathews, CEO of Green Life Business Group.

“We did have groups that were involved last time that actually increased their offers on the IP… by millions,” Mathews said, adding that he expects a sale to close within the next 30 days.

To the best of Mathews’ knowledge, the hard assets from High Times have been turned back over to creditor ExWorks, but ExWorks isn’t even attempting to sell the dispensaries or the grow, Mathews said.

“I know it sounds crazy, but they feel that the landlord fees, the (state taxes and) fees, are all so high that it’s actually higher than what the license is even worth,” Mathews said. “They don’t even want to spend the time because they think it’s underwater … Pretty much everything tied to those licenses is pretty much gone.”

The key problem, Mathews said, was that receiver Kevin Singer was terminated by ExWorks last summer, which basically canceled many of the financial benefits that any possible buyer would get from a deal. Court-appointed receivers such as Singer can structure acquisition deals so that buyers are able to escape a lot of previously built-up bad debts. Once that discount was off the table, Mathews said, ExWorks had a hard time getting the math to work on a High Times sale.

“When the receivership’s no longer in place, and those fees still exist, those skeletons in the closet, the landlord fees, who’s going to buy that? Knowing the offer they’re going to make is less than it’s actually, the debts and liabilities were higher than the (assets) were actually worth,” Mathews explained.

By contrast, Mathews said, the auction for StateHouse Holdings in January resulted in 72 offers total, including three that were made for the entire company. Those three offers are still tied up in negotiations, and it’s not clear yet when a purchase will be finalized, because a judge will have to approve whichever deal is ultimately agreed upon.

Mathews said he couldn’t identify any of the bidders, but it appears that none of the three parties were Harborside founders Steve and Andrew DeAngelo, who told Green Market Report last year that they had submitted a partial bid for some of StateHouse’s assets, but not the entire company.

While Mathews said he’s not at liberty to share the financial offers for StateHouse, he said the three competing bids would likely shock much of the California cannabis trade.

“What got a lot of groups out of bed was you had a lot of checked boxes,” Mathews said, noting that StateHouse already had a brand presence in 900 dispensaries across California, is vertically integrated, owns much of its own real estate, and is already regularly bringing in $100 million a year in top-line revenue.

And despite a lot of negative headlines in recent years about cannabis industry woes, Mathews said his phone is ringing off the hook with first-time buyers looking to break into the legal marijuana business.

“We’re getting the most amount of call volume we’ve ever seen from new buyers,” Mathews said. “Valuations are at an all-time low, and they’re continuing to drop. … Valuations are so low that they finally feel it’s reasonable, versus all the idiots who were buying on projections and pro forma. Now that they’re actually looking at bottom line, and what a true business should go for, that’s what’s finally giving them comfort.”