Police Auction: A Place to Get Bargains!

Everyday all across the country, police agencies like county sheriff departments, police departments, local police agencies, and federal law enforcement agencies acquire lost, abandoned, confiscated real estate, motor vehicles, and other personal properties from different private owners as a result of arrests, forfeitures or plain neglect on the part of the owner. When left unclaimed for a certain period of time or when proven that they are acquired illegally, these items go to police auction.

A police auction is no different from other types of auctions held by privately-sponsored auction houses. You go to the site, inspect the auction goods, bid, win, pay, and go home happy. The main difference is, unlike all other types of public auctions, you do not have to pay a registration fee in order to place a bid. All you have to do is to go to the location and bid.

You may have heard of claims saying that you can drive home an almost new car for just a couple hundred dollars. While this may seem to be too good to be true, there is a truth behind it.

One reason why these goods are being sold dirt cheap is because police agencies really have no use for them. So instead of putting these goods in their storage or at their garage, it is more reasonable to dispose them through public auction. Besides, storage cost are very high.

Another reason for this is that police auctions are not as popular to many as most people are more aware and would certainly go to online auction sites and privately-run auction house. As a result, there are less people that participate in the bidding. This keeps the price of the auction goods low and if you are lucky enough, you can get the item without dealing with the competition.

Third, many goods on sale at police auctions are not appraised. Meaning, the minimum bid is not based on the current market value of the goods. Thus, there is a possibility to get items at the least possible price.

Finally, there is a negative notion that goods being sold at police auctions come from criminals. While this is true, most of the items here do not have bad history of ownership.

Police auctions are held on announced schedules. You can get auction schedules here or on the police agencies' offices, community boards, local newspapers, and police websites.