  We present empirical HII region oxygen abundances for a sample of
low-luminosity starburst galaxies which are in a short lived evolutionary
state. All five galaxies are characterized by centrally concentrated star
formation, which is embedded in smooth stellar envelopes resembling dE-like
systems. The galaxies also have small gas contents with typical M_{HI}/L_{B} ~
0.1 resulting in gas exhaustion timescales less than 1 Gyr, even when molecular
gas is considered. We find, compared to other morphologically similar systems,
the galaxies of this sample have surprisingly high oxygen abundances with 12 +
log(O/H) ~ 9.0. We propose that these objects are a subclass of evolved blue
compact dwarfs, which have exhausted most of their gas supply while retaining
their metals. We further propose that we are seeing these objects during a
short phase in which they are nearing the end of their starburst activity, and
could become early-type dwarfs.
