Bureaucrats get EBay fever / State sells penknives confiscated at airports at online auction

A hacksaw is merely one of the many confiscated "Carry-On" items confiscated at one Northern California airport. The items are being sorted at the State of California Surplus Warehouse in Sacramento and will be auctioned off on Ebay on Thursday, February 20, 2003. (BY CARLOS AVILA GONZALEZ/THE SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE) less A hacksaw is merely one of the many confiscated "Carry-On" items confiscated at one Northern California airport. The items are being sorted at the State of California Surplus Warehouse in Sacramento and will be ... more Photo: CARLOS AVILA GONZALEZ Photo: CARLOS AVILA GONZALEZ Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Bureaucrats get EBay fever / State sells penknives confiscated at airports at online auction 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

That pocketknife you surrendered to airport security screeners might now be tucked away in someone else's pocket -- someone who bought it on EBay.

Under the handle CaliforniaGold2000, the state is using the Internet auction house to convert scores of confiscated items to cash.

So far, $16,281 has been made selling objects taken from passengers at Oakland and Sacramento airports -- the only ones in Northern California to participate in the state program.

Among the oddest items confiscated and sold were at least three circular saws, hatchets, curtain rods and a little girl's baton, said Robb Deignan, spokesman for the surplus property disposal program, a division of the California Department of General Services.

Also sold: 5,364 pocketknives, 350 pounds of scissors, 594 corkscrews and 309 leatherman tools.

The Transportation Security Administration, which employs most airport screeners, allows airports to decide how to get rid of the mountains of items collected, said spokesman Nico Melendez.

They are too numerous to return to their owners, Deignan said.

Since November, when the program started, 2,400 pounds of objects have been delivered from the Sacramento airport, and 2,250 pounds from Oakland.

In cash-strapped, tech-savvy California, someone in the state's surplus property program thought up the idea of selling the things on EBay, Deignan said.

California may be the only state in the country that has employed EBay for the purpose.

"We're putting items that are reusable back in the hands of people," Deignan said. "On EBay, it's egalitarian. It opens the bidding to the world."

In Southern California, Los Angeles International, John Wayne and Ontario airports participate in the surplus program.

Meanwhile, airport officials in San Jose and San Francisco say they will continue to dispose of the mostly metal items by hiring haulers to take them to recyclers.

The state had been selling other surplus items, such as electronics taken in police raids, on EBay for several years, and already operated two public sales warehouses -- in Sacramento and Fullerton, Deignan said.

The scissors, knives and tools taken by airport screeners are perfect for EBay because they are relatively valuable and easy to transport, he said.

As the effort to sell the confiscated airport items online has progressed, employees have become more knowledgeable about what EBay buyers want, and how best to sort the lots.

Most of the things for sale online are of the garden-variety pointy type: "10 collector knives, Gerber," "200 money clips, lots of styles and brands" and "mountains of miscellaneous used hand tools."

Bidding starts at $9.99, with the most expensive auction so far bringing $835 for 350 pocketknives.

The proceeds are divided between the state and federal governments. The state uses its share to offset the cost of the program, Deignan said.

He said he has heard no complaints about the program -- aside from the state employee who told him that the EBay descriptions should be more poetic.

But when some airline passengers who had unwittingly donated items to the cause were informed of the program, they weren't too pleased.

"As far as the concept is concerned, I think it's ridiculous," said Bernard Wormgoor, who was flying out of Oakland with his wife when she was asked to relinquish a pair of nail scissors that her mother had given her some 40 years before.

"They don't own it. They took it away -- that doesn't mean you relinquish ownership," he said. "I don't want to use the word 'theft,' but it starts smelling like it."

Nicola Place of Danville agreed.

Flying out of Oakland on a business trip, she lost a Swiss Army knife her dad had given her more than 20 years ago. "It broke my heart," she said. "It had been everywhere with me."

Thinking about it ending up on EBay, she said, "It makes me sad. . . . It irks me that they can take it away and make money off us. It's bad enough they take it away."

On the other side of the virtual auction block, however, are a number of satisfied customers.

In fact, CaliforniaGold2000 boasts an admirable EBay rating, with just one negative comment out of 310 sales in the past six months.

The lone complaint came from user Squishypig, who claimed the item purchased was not as described, horribly packaged and that a refund was difficult to obtain.

CaliforniaGold2000 replied, in part, "there's no pleasing everybody."

Among the successful, satisfied bidders was Nevada City businessman Greg Cook, owner of Friar Tuck's Restaurant and Wine Bar, which burned down last March.

Cook is preparing to reopen the joint this spring, and he was in the market for corkscrews.

Never having bought an item off EBay in his life, he dipped his toe in the bidding in the last hours of an auction for 42 wood handle corkscrews -- and got them, $36 for the lot.

"They're $20 ones. They're beautiful, I've been showing them to everyone," Cook said. "We do a big wine business. The wood handle ones are nicer because when you work all night, they're nicer on your hands.

"I'm real happy," he said.