Monday, July 11, 2005
Looking for an airport confiscated pocketknife?
Did you loose your great-great-grandfathers' hand carved perfectly sharpened and sentimentally significant pocket knife at the airport recently? Do you want it back? I just read a story on USAToday.com that Kentucky and other states are selling your beloved confiscated items on EBay!! That's right folks, your stuff is on the auction block!
Alabama, Kentucky auction items confiscated at Florida airports
MIAMI (AP) --Travelers who lose pocketknives or scissors during security checks at two Florida airports could get them back --if they make the best offers to two other state governments.Every few weeks, state employees from Kentucky and Alabama pick up thousands of knives, scissors, box cutters, baseball bats and other prohibited items that security agents intercept at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Miami international airports.
Kentucky's Division of Surplus Property sells the items, along with items confiscated from airports in Massachusetts and its own state, on the online auction site eBay.com. Officials said the sales net the state about $2,500 a month, or roughly $30,000 a year.
http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-07-11-florida-items_x.htm?csp=34
As usual, the story inspired some curiosity so I did some sleuthing. I first checked eBay and tried a keyword search of "Kentucky's Division of Surplus Property" which resulted in no hits. I then tried "confiscated" and voila, thousands of items for sale. I wanted to see who was selling this stuff and the top search results were held by "Walls4" from Liberty Kentucky. I noticed this person had hundreds of great reviews without a single complaint. Well done Walls4!
I wanted to find the official seller from the Kentucky Division of Surplus Property so I went to Kentucky.gov and searched for "Division of Surplus Property." The top result was a link to the departments web-section and they offered a link to their items for sale through eBay.
The link to eBay is the yellow box
Following the link brings you to the "only show items for sale by "kysurplus" of which there were 60 items. Some items were offered in individually, others in lots. If you happened to be looking for a pocket knife, this is the place but the only other items offered at the time of this post were Miniature Louisville Slugger bats and a few Craftsman Wre[n]ches. (See image)
The user profile on eBay writes:
Surplus Property The Division of Surplus Property for the Commonwealth of Kentucky frequently has property that is no longer of any use to the Commonwealth. The public may bid on items placed on ebay as well as bid at public auctions, which are advertised on our website. We will also receive sealed bids for certain items. Sealed bid items will be advertised on our web page as well. Our warehouse is not open to the general public. Types of Property The Division of Surplus Property for Kentucky will place items for auction ebay on a regular basis. These items will range from office furniture such as desks, filing cabinets, chairs, and shelves, to vehicles, computers, and equipment.
http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=kysurplus
From the official website, they offer allot of great information about buying surplus property directly from the state as well. If your business focus is reselling products like this, it may be a good place to get a deal and support your state at the same time.
- http://www.usatoday.com/
- http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-07-11-florida-items_x.htm?csp=34
- Kentucky.gov
- http://finance.ky.gov/internal/surplus/
- eBay link to products sold by kysurplus
