Ebay is now a Place for the Sale of Unclaimed Items
Every state and law enforcement agency is now turning to Ebay for help: to sell of their unclaimed property. Most police departments have now opened an Ebay channel for auctioning unclaimed property that has not been claimed for a long time.
Some of the states have as much as $2 billion in unclaimed property waiting to be auctioned; either forgotten safe deposit box items, abandoned bank accounts, stocks or uncashed checks. Tangible assets are eventually auctioned on Ebay and the proceeds are maintained for the owner to claim, according to the treasury.
Some of the states and police departments have full-fledged eBay auction programs which are managed like any other division. Many states have reported eBay sales in upwards of $3 million. States like Pennsylvania have a site dedicated to online auction.
The official state website, www.patreasury.org has also a current list of unclaimed property owners. “Roughly one in 10 Pennsylvanians have unclaimed property — who knows, a little extra holiday spending money might be waiting for you,” said Treasurer Rob McCord in a written statement.
Sheriff’s offices in Wisconsin can now use online auction websites such as eBay to get rid of unclaimed property. Gov. Jim Doyle recently signed a bill that gives counties the option of selling items on the Internet. Prior to this bill, the police department were only allowed to sell through local auctions. According to Walworth County Sheriff David Graves, the revenue often was less than what it cost to store the items and pay for an auction.
With the option to choose Ebay, a lot of officers have expressed relief, “This will clear up the space in evidence rooms and free up deputies’ time so they can be out there protecting the public like they’re supposed to be,” Graves said. “This will save tax dollars and catch up the law with technology.”
Ebay has been officially adopted as the auction portal for majority of the state treasuries and Law enforcement agencies for unclaimed assets.
“This makes the items more accessible to a larger universe of individuals over the Internet, and again, it would just make it much simpler for county sheriff’s to dispose of these items,” Sen. Neal Kedzie, R-Elkhorn said.
