Has anyone bought county tax lists?

[Joe Schmitt]

Does anyone know about the format of the County tax lists, or have an old one that they are willing to let me take a look at?

I want to buy and flip vacant lots using the methods outlined in Podcast 39. I contacted Ramsey County to see if I could buy a list of vacant lots with delinquent taxes. They told me that they will only sell me a list of all properties with delinquent taxes. I'm OK with that.  They only want $86 for the list. However, I'd sure like to know if there is some way to sort or filter the list based on property type. 

The problem is they won't send me an old list or give me more details about the list format. It's not like $86 is a huge sum of money, but I would rather not spend $86 on something that isn't helpful at all. 

Has anyone used this strategy to market to find other kinds of properties off-market? What kind of success did you have?