[jward172]

Hi Allpar,

I am trying to track down Wes Notovitz, who wrote a post about collecting police cars. I am a journalist in Galesburg, Ill., and our police department is getting ready to sell a bunch of old squad cars on ebay. I would like to ask Wes if that is standard practice, if a lot of decent police cars can be found on ebay, or which avenues used police cars are usually sold to. Please tell him he can reach me at [email protected]

Thannks!

 

[Dave Z]

Will forward now

 

[TWX]

To the issue of government sales, my guess is that the city, county, or state will have specific rules on how governments can divest themselves of assets worth over a certain amount of money. I know around here, they do it through a combination of local surplus-store retail, local auction, and Internet (not e-bay) auction depending on the organization. Arizona State University, for example, runs a retail store in their warehouse for the little things (computers, bicycles, furniture, miscellaneous small items) and every couple of months they hold a big in-person auction for cars and items sold in lots, so a lot of computers or a lot of chairs or a lot of filing cabinets, that sort of thing. One of the cities is open for retail two days a week, and holds periodic auctions in-person as well. Phoenix, if I remember what I saw correctly, does offer auctions through a web site.

I would expect that if you contact some municipal property management departments you can find out how they do it.