What does eBay, Massachusetts and unclaimed property have in common?
EBay, Massachusetts and unclaimed property do not sound like subjects that should be together, however, they were.
Various pieces of unclaimed property in Massachusetts has now become available to online consumers through government-sponsored auctions using eBay to facilitate its transactions. That is the relatinship with theses three subjects.
State Treasurer Timothy Cahill was on hand to kick off the auction and said eBay would allow the state to raise funds from all over the world, on a scale that was impossible just years ago.
“We think it can reach a wider audience and generate more money [than a live auction],” Cahill said. “It’s a private sector practice that we want to incorporate into the state government.”
Even after an item has been sold, Cahill said, the items’ original owners are still able to claim the profits from the auction.
“Once [the item] is sold, the money goes into an account under the [new] owner’s name,” said Mike Ward, a Treasury Department employee. “Ten years down the road, if grandsons or sons or daughters [of the original owner] come to make a claim, the cash would go to them.”
States such as Colorado, Kentucky, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Texas have already implemented state-sponsored online auctions.
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