Charlie Daniels to Auction Unclaimed Property on eBay

Arkansas Auditor of State Charlie Daniels (D) has struck a deal with eBay to auction unclaimed property to begin January 27, 2012.

Daniels says over 20 years of abandoned safe deposit box contents have accumulated in the Auditor of State’s unclaimed property vault. The new online auction program will free up space.

“The items being auctioned include things such as jewelry, coins and baseball cards, all from abandoned safe deposit boxes that came to our office because the original owner most likely either moved or died years earlier,” said Daniels.  “Our eBay program will give these abandoned valuables a new home instead of keeping them locked away in a vault.”

Items to be included in the first auction are:

• 9 Golden Replica U.S. Stamps-First Day Covers
• Miscellaneous coins that have sustained fire damage (includes a $1 coin from 1878)
• Costume jewelry
• Gold $100.00 Coin from Belize
• American Revolution Bicentennial Coins
• Paper Money

The Auditor’s office will hold new auctions on the last Friday of each month beginning January 27, and each auction will last 10 days.  Future auctions will include silver and gold coins, silver candelabras, silver serving pieces, diamond rings, men’s and ladies’ watches, baseball cards and collectible stamps.

Interested bidders may sign up to receive email auction alerts by visiting the Auditor’s website at www.auditor.ar.gov.  Bidding is open to any registered user of eBay; however, the Auditor of State, office employees and their immediate families are not eligible to bid on auction items.

According to Arkansas law, safe deposit boxes are presumed abandoned by the original owner if the property remains unclaimed for more than five years after the expiration of lease or rental period on the box.

Proceeds from each item’s sale will be held in trust for the original owner to claim, as the right to claim one’s abandoned property is never extinguished, Daniels said.

The Auditor’s office has returned over $82 million to original owners of unclaimed property. The office annually hosts The Great Arkansas Treasure Hunt, an awareness program to help reunite unclaimed property owners with their lost assets. In 2011 unclaimed property reported to the State Auditor’s office totaled $22.8 million, with an additional $150 million from previous years still waiting to be found.