“Please notify me when you post new auctions!”
“I’m interested.”
“I’m definitely interested.”
Last week we featured some auctions in a post called Find unclaimed property on eBay, which caught the attention of many of you in our eBay community of thrifty, smart shoppers. You wanted more information and more auctions and, as we said to our commenters, you can stay posted by checking the seller’s listings regularly. Given that the series of auctions runs for a few weeks, we knew you would appreciate our revisiting the seller, mass.state.treasury, to see what was on offer this week (and thought some of you would like the reminder to take another look).
For those of you hearing about these sales for the first time, the Massachusetts State Treasury department is organizing a series of eBay auctions for unclaimed property. Unclaimed property constitutes:
“Any financial asset with no activity by its owner for an extended period of time. This includes savings accounts, checking accounts … stocks …safe deposit boxes, and uncashed benefit checks, gift certificates, etc. Unclaimed Property does not pertain to land, houses or real estate of any kind.
According to the seller, the items up for auction are the contents of safe deposit boxes that have been held in Special Deposit for seven years by various institutions. As with last week’s auctions, we were surprised by the variety of interesting items that people abandoned in safe deposit boxes. We have a feeling that safe deposit boxes in other parts of the country or the world might not contain the type of booty found in Massachusetts, but who knows. We will definitely keep an eye on any other of these kinds of auctions that arise on eBay, and let you know through the eBay Stories blog right away.
Let’s start with an item sure to intrigue our coin collectors out there. It’s a group of 198 US WHEAT PENNIES:
Remember back to our eBay Stories post A controversial penny for $14K? In that case, a Lincoln penny entered “extremely rare and valuable” territory by sparking a controversy over the artist’s initials prominently displayed amid the wheat stalks.
Of course, the value of these 198 wheat pennies depends on their year of issue. According to the About.com mini-guide to the key dates for wheat pennies, you have a chance to make over a million dollars:
“Date and Approximate Mintage
1909-S – 1.8 million
1909-S VDB – 0.5 million
1914-D – 1.2 million
1922 (No mint mark) – unknown (D is missing)
1931-S – 0.9 million”
Are you a gambler? So far, 18 bidders have joined the fray, jacking up the price of these pennies to $23.11.
Nearly as many bidders have jumped into an auction for this 18K GOLD AND CULTURED PEARL BRACELET WITH 23 3.30MM CULTURED PEARLS, AA:
The price is currently up to $801.45, but with a couple more days left for bidding.
As we told you last time, the title of this auction is The Thrill of the Hunt. However, some of us prefer for our hunt to involve less guesswork. If you want up-to-the-minute information on when your favorite store or seller posts new items, eBay has an enticing feature. Read how you can save your favorite sellers and stores in the eBay Help section to find out how.
This is the way to avoid having to push “refresh” all day on the seller’s page. Just click on the seller’s user ID. When the page links you to the seller’s My World page, click the link that says, “Add to favorite sellers.” You can link this information with your email address so you receive instant auction updates to your inbox, or view your favorite sellers in your My eBay page.
If you want to see what is currently up for sale this week, take a look at the complete list here. So far, there are many diamond rings, watches, gold chains, gemstones, coins and currency. We would like to point out, though, that more items are going to be posted daily, with a total of about 2,000 pieces through early December. Keep checking in to see what treasures you can uncover.
While perusing these goodies, if you happen to see your high school class ring or cherished locket from years past (and you were or are a resident of Massachusetts), simply provide proof of ownership and the Massachusetts State Treasury will return the item to you. If the item is already sold, you will receive the purchase price from the auction.
Good luck, and happy hunting!
I’m going to be looking for some of these auctons around my house and sell them to get the money Ka Chinging in! Thank you for previding this wonderful helpful information!
I am surprised at how gullable people can be. Just because a name has a State and the word treasury in it, doesn’t mean that its filled with bargains galore! In fact, this site is not even ‘officially” affiliated with the state of Mass. Shame on Ebay for advertising it as something special, and for highlighting it to Ebay users as something special and fantastic…….it is neither! The prices at which things sell for on this site are criminal!!!!