EBay claims 30 million users, and on any given day it hosts 5 million auctions for everything from costume jewelry and baseball cards to Rolls-Royces and vacation homes. The USPS won't say how much it is making off eBay auctions from the St. Paul Mail Recovery Center, calling it proprietary information. Atlanta and San Francisco are not included in the test, which is expected to continue through the summer. If the test is judged successful, the Postal Service will hold bids on which online auction service it wants to use, Horne said. No letters are ever auctioned.
Items sold are usually brand new merchandise or valuable antiques and collectibles.
They must sit in the Mail Recovery Center for anywhere from 30 days to up to a year to give postal detectives time to find their owners. The most numerous items include music CDs and books, as well as movies on CD and tape. The items range from Barbie doll toy sets to chain saws to chemistry sets, and from barbecue grills to sewing machines to exercise equipment. The most unusual undeliverable item auctioned on eBay was a castration kit for pigs, Horne said. Buyers must pay by cashier's check, money order, or credit card through Billpoint, eBay's online escrow service.