Comptroller auctioning surplus items
Carpet, weed-whackers, computers up for bid
The Orange County Comptroller’s Office has launched its first-ever online auction of surplus county property. Need exercise equipment? Don’t join a gym. You can shop online from your couch, my flabby friend.
Among the hundreds of surplus county items up for bid through Friday are three stationary exercise bikes and three exercise benches (all sold together). Current price for the bundle: $55.
The auction’s also offering up string trimmers, mowers and other used lawn equipment; computer monitors by the pallet; and other stuff the county doesn’t need or want anymore, said Comptroller Phil Diamond, who switched from live to virtual auctions to reach a bigger audience of bidders through the internet.
The auctions allow the county to recover part of its costs for equipment and vehi-
cles, and provide the public with a fair and open opportunity to get in on the fire sales, designed to clear out warehouse space, he said.
“If there’s something you need on there, you can probably get a pretty good deal, too,” Diamond said.
As of Tuesday morning, bids totaled more than $8,600 combined for hundreds of items. The bidding went up by $2,000 over the Labor Day holiday weekend.
Many items are bundled together — such as the 568 computer monitors.
Diamond said online auctions are more convenient for bidders, who can still schedule visits to the warehouse to inspect the items if they don’t trust photographs and descriptions posted alongside the buyer-beware “as is” notice on the comptroller’s site.
The county staged its last live and in-person surplus auction in March at a county warehouse.
Diamond said the online auctions are cheaper to stage than in-person auctions.
There’s no auctioneer fee and no expense for off-duty, armed deputy sheriffs who are needed at in-person auctions because of wads of cash bidders must carry.
Terms for in-person auctions are usually cash only.
The online auctions require credit card or wire transfer. The comptroller also adds 6.5 percent in sales tax.
Like live auctions, you never know what you can get, Diamond said.
“You want to roll out the red carpet? Maybe you have important visitors coming, we’ve got 10 rolls, ” he said.
The 20- by 40-foot lush red rolls appear to be “new, unused,” according to an online description. In just his second year as fiscal watchdog, Diamond said he wasn’t certain why the county bought but didn’t use the carpet.
And you can still get in on the deal.
The bidding, which started at $50 on Aug. 24, is up to $152.50.
The auction will remain open to bidders through 5 p.m. Friday.
The site comes with a warning:
“Remember — this bid is a contract. Please only bid on an item that you are serious about buying. If you do win the bid you are legally bound by contract to purchase the item.”
So, if you don’t really want the bundle of 108 laptops and 39 tablet computers (Most are Dell and HP with the hard drives removed, per Orange County policy), stay out of the bidding scrum, which had driven the price to $1,802 as of Tuesday morning.
Diamond said he hopes to offer up monthly online auctions of surplus county property, attracting thousands of bidders where a live auction often is limited to a couple dozen bidders who are able to make time to attend the auction.
With online auctions, a bidder can log in and bid at 2 in the morning if they wish. Some do.