Hank McMauser

Over the years I've taken part in 2 Police bicycle auctions. The 1st one was in the city of Oberlin Ohio , home to famous liberal arts College. There I picked up a fully intact except for the wheels Giant Rincon for the grand sum of $12 and change. Ordered a custom built wheelset from Nashbar for a little north of $120. Throw in a new chain and a cassette amd I had a really decent bike for quite a bit less than $200. At the same auction I also got schwinn cross trainer?? for less than $40 that just required air in the tires and general maintenance.
. Fast forward a decade or or so and found myself living about an hours West of Boise Idaho. I found an online auction of Boise P.D. items at one of the local online auction houses. I bid on and won for about $45 + taxes and auction fees for a Taleigh Mojave 3.0. Fearing the worst I traveled to Boise to pick up my treasure with a tool box full of tools for repairs. Much to my surprise all was required was air in the tires, and some minor brake adjustments, and I was doing laps in the parking lot.
if you have participated in police bicycle auctions tell us about your experiences with them.

Maelochs

How do you get involved in police auctions? With cars at least, I thought there were requirements and fees and such so that every Joe or Jane couldn't just walk in and start bidding.

I mean, my garage is pretty full, but I should would like some more bikes I don't have time to ride.

Hank McMauser

The ones I went to you just signed up either online, or in person with the auctioneer the in person auctions usually give you a card to hold up with your number on them so they know who to mark an item to when it's won. I've found that many online auctions use the same app, so often times once you're in you just have to log on.

VegasTriker

Haven't been to one in more than a decade and now many jurisdictions have gone on to selling items online rather than at a physical auction where you bid against a bunch of other people. I saw a lot of problems with the old way it was done. Some of them are still present when you bid online. You couldn't get close enough to the bike to measure the frame size or see hidden damage. When the auction was real time a lot of bidders who had no idea of which brands might be worth bidding on. They would bid up the price for a bike with a familiar brand name and ignore much better bikes they had no idea about. That made it easy to only bid on good bikes and ignore the vast array of crap that was put up for bid. Now with easy access to information on the true value of a bike you are less likely to find real bargains. You are still faced with possibly buying a bike that didn't fit just as you do on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace but at least with those you can go and measure the bike frame or have the seller do it for you before you waste time buying the wrong size. It seems like there are a lot fewer bargains these days no matter how you search. The only fee I recall is a 10% buyer's premium which went to the auction company. They did not charge sales tax then and do not charge it now.

BillRS22

I just happened to stumble on a police auction in a small town in Wisconsin many years ago. I got a nice 1969 Schwinn balloon tire bike for $12. After we hit $10 most of the locals dropped out- damn Chicago money. Bill

skidder

I asked at our local police department a while back and they mentioned the unclaimed property is sold to auction houses or scrap vendors by lots. Its more of a 'wholesaling' operation, no auctioning of individual items on a 'retail' basis. The 'lots' can contain bicycles, car parts, furniture, instruments, tools, appliances, just about anything.

Mr. 66

I would try the local university surplus auctions, there are many unclaimed bikes that pass through those.

Hank McMauser

I'm pretty sure back then the Oberlin PD were acting as campus police.

pdlamb

I was interested back in grad school, so I went to the other side of town about a month after the spring semester let out. Some nice bikes were there, but I lost interest at the 25-bike lots. No way could I get that many back to my apartment!

Hank McMauser

You could rent a uhaul, or Home depot pickup, flipping them back to the incoming freshman might prove a worthy endeavor if the original cost outlaybwasnt too bad.

philbob57

The last police auction I attended wasn't a source of bargains, because the police hired a skilled auctioneer who got really good prices from the crowd. I left in disgust when I saw people paying 90% of the new price - sometimes more than the new price - for rusty bikes. As a taxpayer, I should have rejoiced, I guess....

Maelochs

yeah, that happens at auctions ... the desire to win outweighs the desire to save ... good auctioneers make it all about competition and seizing the goods .... so no one looks and sees that "the goods" are crap.

dedhed

https://wisconsinsurplus.com/

Hank McMauser

Here's an interesting lot in Vegas.....
https://www.govplanet.com/for-sale/S...rm=&pnLink=yes