Schools sell old equipment online
by Byron Kho
The Daily Pennsylvanian
September 16, 2004
Universities have found a new way to get rid of the excess equipment, furniture and junk that can build up in campus warehouses and facilities: online auctioning.
Approximately 12 universities across the nation -- including Pennsylvania State University, Oregon State University, the University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin -- use eBay or individualized Internet auction programs to help reduce surplus goods and return revenue to university coffers.
"Departments can recover some of the costs they used to initially buy the stuff," said Ari Kasapyan, spokesman for the University of Washington's Property and Transport Services.
"We sell it all off through the auctions, and the departments get a large percentage back."
Like all public universities, the University of Washington is obligated to offer auction products -- ranging from protractors to hospital beds -- to governmental agencies before they are allowed to sell to the public, as the items are considered state assets.
The goods are sold using the University's public store, a live auction Web site and on eBay.
"We generally sell our smaller items on eBay, and use it as a kind of advertisement for the larger items. If they don't sell, they still generate interest in the product, and we can sell it through our public store," Kasapyan said.
Surplus With A Purpose, the surplus program at the University of Wisconsin, has its own online auction -- but not by choice.
"Our market obviously isn't as big as eBay's," said Tim Sell, SWAP's business manager. "But we can't use eBay, as contractual language on their user agreements are in violation of what the state of Wisconsin can do."
Sell pointed out that this restriction wasn't necessarily a liability. "We made $280,000 in our first year, without any advertising," he said.
To donate items to charity, state universities have to prevent favoritism in giving by utilizing a so-called "competitive process," which tends to overcomplicate any philanthropic intentions, Sell said.
"We used to donate until the state said it wasn't allowed like it was. Now it's actually more practical to just sell it."
Private universities have it easier in this respect, as there are no legal obstacles governing how they choose to give away their effects.
While Penn doesn't have a specialized surplus department, it does have in-house storage within most facilities. From these inventories, old equipment and furniture get redistributed to the University, given to Student Performing Arts or donated to the Center for Community Partnerships, Philadelphia schools or other community groups in need.
"If we throw it away, we have to do it at our expense, so we don't like to do that," said Kris Patterson, manager of the Office of the Perelman Quadrangle, Campus Union and Performing Arts Facilities.
While Penn and many other universities don't intend to use auctioning in the near future, Sell hopes that the idea will take root.
"Universities need to wake up to the 21st century. This is the way things will go," he said.
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