[thechat] FWD: [IP] Items Confiscated At Airports Sold on Ebay

Joe Crawford joe at artlung.com
Sat Mar 1 10:42:00 CST 2003


Latest revenue stream for the State of California...

--
Joe "ArtLung" Crawford
San Diego California USA: http://artlung.com/


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 09:00:43 -0800
From: Dave Farber <dave at farber.net>
To: ip <ip at v2.listbox.com>
Subject: [IP] Items Confiscated At Airports Sold on Ebay


------ Forwarded Message
From: Gerald Ballman <ballman at usna.edu>
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 11:58:19 -0500
To: dave at farber.net
Subject: Items Confiscated At Airports Sold on Ebay

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/02/28/BA64041.DTL


Bureaucrats get EBay fever
State sells penknives confiscated at airports at online auction

Suzanne Herel, Chronicle Staff Writer   Friday, February 28, 2003

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That pocketknife you surrendered to airport security screeners might now
be tucked away in someone else's pocket -- someone who bought it on EBay.

Under the handle CaliforniaGold2000, the state is using the Internet
auction house to convert scores of confiscated items to cash.

So far, $16,281 has been made selling objects taken from passengers at
Oakland and Sacramento airports -- the only ones in Northern California to
participate in the state program.

Among the oddest items confiscated and sold were at least three circular
saws, hatchets, curtain rods and a little girl's baton, said Robb Deignan,
spokesman for the surplus property disposal program, a division of the
California Department of General Services.

Also sold: 5,364 pocketknives, 350 pounds of scissors, 594 corkscrews and
309 leatherman tools.


The Transportation Security Administration, which employs most airport
screeners, allows airports to decide how to get rid of the mountains of
items collected, said spokesman Nico Melendez.

They are too numerous to return to their owners, Deignan said.

Since November, when the program started, 2,400 pounds of objects have
been delivered from the Sacramento airport, and 2,250 pounds from Oakland.

In cash-strapped, tech-savvy California, someone in the state's surplus
property program thought up the idea of selling the things on EBay,
Deignan said.

California may be the only state in the country that has employed EBay for
the purpose.

"We're putting items that are reusable back in the hands of people,"
Deignan said. "On EBay, it's egalitarian. It opens the bidding to the
world."

In Southern California, Los Angeles International, John Wayne and Ontario
airports participate in the surplus program.

Meanwhile, airport officials in San Jose and San Francisco say they will
continue to dispose of the mostly metal items by hiring haulers to take
them to recyclers.

The state had been selling other surplus items, such as electronics taken
in police raids, on EBay for several years, and already operated two
public sales warehouses -- in Sacramento and Fullerton, Deignan said.

The scissors, knives and tools taken by airport screeners are perfect for
EBay because they are relatively valuable and easy to transport, he said.

As the effort to sell the confiscated airport items online has progressed,
employees have become more knowledgeable about what EBay buyers want, and
how best to sort the lots.

Most of the things for sale online are of the garden-variety pointy type:
"10 collector knives, Gerber," "200 money clips, lots of styles and
brands" and "mountains of miscellaneous used hand tools."

Bidding starts at $9.99, with the most expensive auction so far bringing
$835 for 350 pocketknives.

The proceeds are divided between the state and federal governments. The
state uses its share to offset the cost of the program, Deignan said.

He said he has heard no complaints about the program -- aside from the
state employee who told him that the EBay descriptions should be more
poetic.

But when some airline passengers who had unwittingly donated items to the
cause were informed of the program, they weren't too pleased.

"As far as the concept is concerned, I think it's ridiculous," said
Bernard Wormgoor, who was flying out of Oakland with his wife when she was
asked to relinquish a pair of nail scissors that her mother had given her
some 40 years before.

"They don't own it. They took it away -- that doesn't mean you relinquish
ownership," he said. "I don't want to use the word 'theft,' but it starts
smelling like it."

Nicola Place of Danville agreed.

Flying out of Oakland on a business trip, she lost a Swiss Army knife her
dad had given her more than 20 years ago. "It broke my heart," she said.
"It had been everywhere with me."

Thinking about it ending up on EBay, she said, "It makes me sad. . . . It
irks me that they can take it away and make money off us. It's bad enough
they take it away."

On the other side of the virtual auction block, however, are a number of
satisfied customers.

In fact, CaliforniaGold2000 boasts an admirable EBay rating, with just one
negative comment out of 310 sales in the past six months.

The lone complaint came from user Squishypig, who claimed the item
purchased was not as described, horribly packaged and that a refund was
difficult to obtain.

CaliforniaGold2000 replied, in part, "there's no pleasing everybody."

Among the successful, satisfied bidders was Nevada City businessman Greg
Cook, owner of Friar Tuck's Restaurant and Wine Bar, which burned down
last March.

Cook is preparing to reopen the joint this spring, and he was in the
market for corkscrews.

Never having bought an item off EBay in his life, he dipped his toe in the
bidding in the last hours of an auction for 42 wood handle corkscrews --
and got them, $36 for the lot.

"They're $20 ones. They're beautiful, I've been showing them to everyone,"
Cook said. "We do a big wine business. The wood handle ones are nicer
because when you work all night, they're nicer on your hands.

"I'm real happy," he said.




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