Lincoln [Nebraska] police long have auctioned off unclaimed and stolen property at the impound lot.
But two recent auctions potentially attracted an audience numbering in the millions.
In March and November, the auctions of bicycles, cars and other items moved from a traditional auction scene complete with an auctioneer wearing a cowboy hat to www.PropertyRoom.com.
The Web site is run by Property Bureau, a California company that uses the site to sell items from the property rooms of 425 police and sheriff’s departments in 30 states.
The Lincoln Police Department followed the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Department and Bellevue police to become the third Nebraska law enforcement agency to use the auction site, said Thomas Lane, one of the site’s founders and chairman.
“It looked like a smoother system for us,” said Pam Fittje, property manager for Lincoln police.
She keeps track of the stolen and unclaimed goods that end up in police possession.
Planning traditional auctions in Lincoln is always a gamble, she said.
The weather often doesn’t cooperate and there’s no way to guarantee a crowd.
Abandoned cars and bikes are auctioned off once a month, but other items only make it to the bidding block about four times a year, Fittje said.
Expanding the audience of potential bidders was one reason she decided to give the site a try, she said.
PropertyRoom.com gets 12 million to 14 million hits a month, with 2.5 million unique visitors, Lane said.
Recent items up for bid on the site included two-way radios, Versace sunglasses and a 1-acre chunk of land in New Mexico.
Fittje said she didn’t have a tally of how well the items she sent in March sold, but results were good from the November batch.
Then, a tub of stuffed animals sold for $143.
A Sharp projector went for $1,190.
And, perhaps the most surprising to Fittje, three paintings fetched a total of $3,150. There’s no way the paintings would have brought such a high price in Lincoln, she said.
“If we would have got $100 a piece, I would have been surprised.”
Property Bureau handles the shipping and payments and deals with bounced checks or credit card hassles.
“We don’t have to deal with any of that,” Fittje said.
Property Bureau also takes a 50 percent cut.
That may seem like hefty chunk of proceeds, but Fittje said, items are bringing higher bids than they would in Lincoln. And the expense of having a property employee at a day-long auction is eliminated.
Property Bureau also appraises jewelry, and it checks whether stereos and TVs work.
“They’re totally up front what the condition is,” said Fittje.
Fittje said she’ll likely use the Web site again, although she didn’t know exactly when that would be.
“We can do it whenever we’re ready.”
PropertyRoom.com
Here’s how bidding on PropertyRoom.com works:
- When police have a pile of items ready for auction, Property Bureau picks it up at no cost.
- Each item is given a bar code, which allows police to track it.
- Photos of the items are posted.
- Bidders have five days to ponder what, or if, they’re willing to pay.
- Bidders make offers and either get a “hot item” like a Minolta Maxxum 35mm Camera - Model Maxxum 7 - with camera bag - or not.