Travelers’ confiscated items go to eBay
Published 9:00 pm Sunday, November 20, 2005
PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregonians who have tried and failed to get items like cigarette lighters and nail scissors onto commercial flights now have a way to recover their confiscated items: online.
Such contraband is picked up and sold on the Internet by the State Surplus Program, part of the Oregon Department of Administrative Services.
The sales fetched $72,000 in 2004. With more than $55,000 raised through October, the state is on a similar pace for 2005, according to Tom Vance, surplus operations manager.
“You’d think people would get the message after a while and it would start slowing down, but there are just barrels of the stuff,” he said. “You can’t imagine the thousands of pocket knives and Leathermans and corkscrews we sell.”
Prohibited carry-on items include box cutters, ice axes, knives, meat cleavers, razor-type blades, sabers and swords.
The items seized as safety risks typically do not have high value. Passengers opt to surrender items rather than leave the line to have them checked in baggage, said Jennifer Peppin, a U.S. Transportation Safety Administration spokeswoman in Seattle.
Across the country, the agency similarly donates seized items to state and local surplus programs. The federal agency does not receive a percentage of any sales.
After the state surplus office gets the items, they are divided into groups, bagged, photographed and then offered for bid on eBay. Everything that’s received from the airports is sold, Vance said.
The batches have fetched between $50 and $400 each.
The proceeds represent just a fraction of the $7 million to $8 million raised each year by the surplus program, he said, but every dollar raised means money that can be used elsewhere to pay for other state programs.
The program sells thousands of government-owned items that are being replaced, from office furniture to cars, plus items seized from criminals.
