If you want to make some money from buying at auction then buying at police auctions could be well worth considering. You can pick up all sorts of bargains cheaply at police auctions, with a view to keeping them yourself or selling them for a profit. Here are some tips:
First off, this is very important: Don’t imagine that you’re going to be able to buy a Range Rover seized from a drugs dealer for £50, or his Rolex for 50p. That’s not how police auctions operate unfortunately.
So what can you get at a police auction then?
There are two main types of goods: On the one hand lost property – things that the public have handed in to the police and which have gone unclaimed. Expect a fair few umbrellas amongst the more valuable items like mobile phones, cameras and laptops.
The second type of goods you’ll find at police auctions is police recovered stolen property. It’s mainly goods the police have recovered from burglars caught in the act of committing a crime, or from their own homes. For whatever reason, it’s not been possible to trace the owners so it is put up for auction.
This stuff is probably a lot more interesting. It comprises things like bicycles, lawnmowers, power tools stolen from sheds, cameras, electronics, small electricals, jewellery, mobile phones, valuables stolen from cars, collectables and even antiques.
Now this is important: You will rarely if ever see an auction advertised as a ‘police auction’. Also, the police themselves don’t hold auctions themselves down at the local police station. Instead, the goods are handed over to a local auction house who holds the official force contract to auction off these goods. Most times, police lots will be mixed in with other lots in a general sale – so you need to read the catalogues carefully so you can spot when they come up.
Also. Some police forces use the Bumblebee site to auction off their stolen and seized goods. It’s an online auction site a bit like eBay but it exclusively handles goods from the police.
One of the really great things about police auctions is that really valuable stuff is normally sold off without reserve because the police definitely don’t want it back after all! It just goes to the highest bidder – even if the highest bid is very low. So, whether you’re buying for yourself or for resale you can pick up some excellent bargains at police auctions.
For more expert secret sourcing techniques plus listings of official auction houses who hold police auctions plus wholesalers, import sources, manufacturers and many more discount sources What Biz Opp recommends the .