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GRAFTON, Mass. —The Town of Grafton received almost $30,000 in bids for six obsolete municipal vehicles that were auctioned on an eBay type website designed for cities and towns.
The website, publicsurplus.com, posted the final bids when the auction ended Wednesday morning. The biggest seller was a 1997 Elgin Pelican street sweeper with 12,562 miles. After 500 bids, the first which appeared on Feb. 6, the highest bidder was a person titled "budweiser 26" who offered $14,600.
The next highest was a 1987 Mack Truck with a winning bid of $7,225.
Kevin J. Mizikar, the assistant town administrator for Grafton, said in early February he anticipated the total sale of all six items raised to be about $10,000.
The sales are not final until they are approved by the Board of Selectmen on March 5.
If they are, the winners will be contacted by the auction website, Public Surplus, based in Provo, Utah, and collect the money by wire transfer or credit card. The winner will pay sales tax and a 10 percent buyer’s premium, which goes to the site. The town collects the full winning bid with no fee.
The winner is responsible for picking up the item, which might include a flat bed tow truck. “Some of them would not be able to be driven off the site under their own power,” said Mizikar in early February.
All money raised will go to the town’s general fund, Mizikar said.
Comments (10)
Paluzzi is gone? Good.
I am sorry to hear that the Daily Voice has decided to close down their Central Mass Operations. Best of luck to the Central Mass Daily Voice employees, you have been a pleasure to work with. Also sorry that I had to hear the news from their one competitors.
I wondered where the surplus vehicles were disappearing to. I don't recall seeing much publicity locally about the sales though.
great idea, yes,, but why use an "eBay" like website and not just use eBay?
Either way, much better than a small blurb in some obscure paper that would have brought, like $5,000.
The internet,,, making the world smaller and smaller.
1997 to 2013 is equal to at least 15 summers of which our towns street sweeper was used for 12,562 miles or 837 miles per year. At an average driving speed of 8 mph, that means the street sweeper is used about 100 hours per year, or for 2.5 weeks on the day shift.
I believe the proposed 2014 budget includes a street sweeper lease agreement for $50,000 per year or at a cost of use of $57 per mile, before labor and fuel.
Grafton is getting ripped off with this lease, based upon the data.
And I won't even get into the logic of selling a underused vehicle for under $15K and replacing that with a forever operating expense lease of $50K annually.
Who's the winner here? The Bud-man who bought a street sweeper for under $15K or Grafton who now is on the lease hook for a similar vehicle for $50K per year?
Literally, the Bud-man could sweep our streets 2.5 weeks per year and pocket $35K in his first year and $50K every year thereafter.
Excellent points and it just amazes me when I see this sort of thing happening all too often with government equipment.
How many mile on the sweeper and operating hours?
What was the original cost?
Why is it not in service or considered "surplus",, would a paint job have fixed whatever reason it was being replaced or taken out of service?
Why not hire "TEMPORARY" seasonal workers ( we all know some town employee who's kid who needs a foot in the door).
But hey,,, at least it didn't go to someone with a town "connection".
Right?????
Yikes. I hope that's not true.
What a great way to raise money! I wonder if there is anything else the Town doesn't use anymore that could be auctioned off?
How about the power boat parked at the Police station? Does it get any use for police business, in town?
A great way for the town to raise some incremental funds and weed out obsolete equipment that's been sitting up at the DPW facility.