Privatization via eBay

An interesting new wrinkle in selling off government property is paying off quite well: hawking things through online auction sites. See this report from the January issue of Governing magazine (scroll way down, to headline "Next Up: City Hall?") My favorite detail: Tennessee selling off 16,000 pounds of mussel shells for $25,000. For those interested in obtaining stolen property in the hands of local cops, visit propertyroom.com. There's an interesting set of baseball cards up today.

Comments

[Franklin Harris]

If it's in the hands of the government (never mind just the cops), it's all stolen property.

[B.P.]

Folks are bidding way too much for stuff over there at propertyroom. Dig the United Nations 25th anniversary commemorative coin -- shocking that this showed up in a police seizure auction.

[Jon H]

I love this: "Code 3 MX-7000 Light Bar with Mechanical Spotlight"

It's the lightbar from a police car.

http://www.stealitback.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=39510298&prmenbr=31895249&aunbr=39856963

The mind boggles.

[Jon H]

And this: 82 inch tall light up cross

http://www.stealitback.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ProductDisplay?prrfnbr=39563849&prmenbr=31895249&aunbr=39910514

[Diego]

Oh damn, no guns.

[Kevin Carson]

Stories of government assets being sold on Ebay got me thinking. The only way one can determine the real exchange value of a good (or, from my mutualist perspective, the amount of socially necessary labor embodied in it), is by selling it to a willing buyer on the free market. So government-produced goods and services have no determinable exchange-value so long as government force is entailed in "marketing" them.

For example, the Mars probe, technically, is great work. There's no denying that even the sectors of the economy controlled by the state sometimes produce use-value. After all, even in the USSR, people ate the food, lived in the apartments, and used the shoddy appliances produced by state industry. The only caveat is that, because the entire process was removed from the realm of voluntary transaction, there was no meaningful gauge of exchange-value. There was no way of knowing whether, or how much, people would have spent of their own money for those goods and services if their range of alternatives had not been artificially controlled.

I'd guess that for the vast majority of government-produced goods and services, in any society, the price that can be fetched by selling them to the highest bidder in a free market (e.g., on Ebay) will not be enough to recompense the cost of producing them. I doubt that any willing private consumer (or association of consumers), spending their own money, would be willing to pay enough to compensate what the Mars probe cost to produce.

[DFH]

Unfotunately, this new adapation to technology will only make plundering the property of Americans even more profitable for the law enforcement community.

Grow a marijuna plant in your own back yard? Forfeit your house! See your house selling on E-Bay.

Does no one remember the Donald Scott case in California?

[Chris]

When I came upon stealitback I contemplated the ethics of police and a private party making money off other people's stuff also. But, there is apparently some system that allows for legal owners to get their stuff back - how well advertised this process is is another question. Assuming that the property is not able to be returned to the legal owner, I wonder why it is a problem that others can't bid on items listed.

With a "working" free market system and consumers who have a clue on reasonable pricing standards on items listed (achieved simply by searching cnet, pricegrabber, pricewatch, dpreview for computers, cameras and other desirable goods, or specifically for some cameras - Canon's museum) or other relevant price checking services online, one can assume that the auction should work.

But, there's a catch - bidding wars start in the last few minutes - thereby extending the time of the auction - it won't end until all but one bidder remains. And don't forget all those people who up the bid long before the last day of the bid process. HELLO. Why not wait until the last day and keep the price low?!? Are there stoolies bidding up the price???

I bid on a camera and gave up when the price reached an unreasonable amount considering the condition of some items are not entirely known until they are in your hands and the cost of shipping for a one pound item was ludicrous.

It's a novel idea that needs some ethical standards and reality checks set in place.

Someone is going to get that cool stuff, might as well be someone with a clue.