Sunday, January 25, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Airport security sparks market for confiscated goods

Several states resell items to generate revenue, but Nevada throws or gives away collections

John Morris, a CPA and Internet entrepreneur in Springfield, Ill., examines a small pocket knife Friday in his home office. Morris buys items seized from passengers at state airports and the government, reselling them through online auctions. SPECIAL TO THE REVIEW-JOURNAL

Ever wonder what happens to the thousands of nail clippers, scissors, screwdrivers and other banned items collected every day by airport security screeners?

At some airports, they are destroyed.

But in many states, if you're forced to surrender a pocket knife or something else at a security checkpoint, your property is likely going to be disposed of in a more lucrative manner.

"This stuff brings a pretty good price on eBay," said Rob Deignan, a spokesman for the state of California's General Services Department.

In a little known but burgeoning economy, the heightened security at the nation's airports following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has sparked a new market in which tons of scissors, knives, tools and other items deemed unsafe for airline travel are resold through online auctions.

Through September, California had utilized eBay to unload 13,000 pocket knives, 1,400 corkscrews and about 1,200 pounds of hammers, saws, chisels and other tools collected by federal screeners at airports in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Oakland, Fresno, San Jose and Orange County.

"We sell whatever seemingly ridiculous item people would try to take on an airplane," Deignan said. "We're taking what we've gotten from the airports and turned around and put it back into people's hands and back into the economy."

The Golden State's 337 online auctions, which include bulk sales of up to 100 pocket knives at a time, generated $62,000 of revenue for its self-funded surplus program.

South Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas, Washington and Oregon are a few of the other states that confirmed last week their surplus agencies also take part in this bit of recycling, which sometimes sees people using the Internet to buy back an item they were relieved of before boarding a jetliner.

Some states even ask the federal government for stuff collected at airports outside their border.

For instance, McCarran International Airport's prohibited items until recently were destroyed because Nevada's state government chose not to take custody of them.

But last month, Arkansas asked if they could have the more than 10,000 items collected monthly at McCarran, and the request was granted. A private government contractor shipped it last week. It's unclear if McCarran's items will go there in the future.

The state of Kentucky not only obtains seized items from Transportation Security Administration checkpoints at airports in Louisville and Lexington, but also in Orlando and Tampa.

"We've got a dump truck at Fort Knox that's available to haul all the stuff," said Chuck Geveden, director of the Kentucky Division of Surplus Property. "We love it. It's fun for us because we get to go through all this stuff and see who was stupid enough to try to take something on a plane. Of course, we don't get the guns. They destroy those."

Kentucky hawks most of its items on eBay but sells some directly to a few "approved buyers," such as police officers, firefighters and Boy Scouts. The self-funded program helps save local governments money by supplying public safety agencies with knives, tools, pepper spray and other items they would normally buy at a higher price.

"A brand new multipurpose tool, if you bought it at Home Depot you're going to pay 60 bucks, whereas I have them for sale for 10 bucks. And the fire department needs multipurpose tools," Geveden said.

Like California, Kentucky sells scissors, by far the most surrendered item at the nation's airports, by the pound.

"I've got 500 to 600 pounds of scissors right now," Geveden said. "And I'll sell them for five or six bucks a pound to schools and universities. Ten pounds of scissors'll bring 40 or 50 bucks on eBay."

Like any profitable and rapidly growing sector of the American economy, this one has attracted middlemen.

A few enterprising people purchase items surrendered at airports from the state governments on eBay in large lots and then turn around and sell them one at a time for substantial profits.

"It's a roundabout economy," said John Morris, a Springfield, Ill., accountant whose home is chock-full of items seized from travelers. "All these people are losing so many of these things at security checkpoints, so I thought these must be hot items. People are going to want this stuff back, I might as well sell it to them."

Morris, a state employee, became an Internet entrepreneur after Illinois' budget crunch forced him to accept pay cuts that reduced his income by more than 30 percent.

The tubs of Leatherman tools, Swiss Army knives and other items in his home come from the state of California's eBay auctions or from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

For Morris, a real score is when he buys a few pounds of scissors and gets a pair of hairstylist's or barber's scissors, which can bring $150 to $300 a pair.

In the few months he's been auctioning off airport surrendered items on amazon.com and eBay, he's generated nearly $5,000 in revenue.

But that's small potatoes, Morris said. He's expanding operations this year with a new Web site, www.my-favorite-tools.com, to complement his online auctions.

"I have hopes to bring in some substantial income this year," Morris said.

He shouldn't have any trouble staying stocked up, as the number of prohibited item collections show no signal of subsiding.

The TSA, which screens passengers and their bags at 429 airports nationwide, takes legal possession of the property once passengers choose to surrender it at checkpoints rather than take it back to a car or hand it off to someone who's not traveling.

The TSA then offers the items collected by its screeners to any state government willing to take them off their hands.

According to the state governments participating, not all of the prohibited items collected are sold online.

For instance, Washington state, which has picked up 11,000 pounds of prohibited items from Washington's airports in the past nine months, has donated much of it to other entities.

"The fingernail clippers and fingernail files go to the homeless shelters, and then we donate the Swiss Army knives to the Boy Scouts," said Doug Coleman, manager of Washington State Surplus Programs. "We let the fire departments and the police officers go through the tools. We sell a pair of scissors or a pocket knife for 25 cents."

The California government last year donated 100 mini-canisters of pepper spray surrendered at airports to a Sacramento women's group called WEAVE, or Women Escaping A Violent Environment.

It remains unclear why Nevada has not taken advantage of this free government handout.

But state surplus agencies that have chosen to go the eBay route see Nevada's move as akin to throwing away free stuff.

"It's such a waste," said Nole Bullock, a spokesman at the Oregon Surplus Property Program. "They're throwing that stuff away? They should call us. We'll take it."