Silicon Insights: Stealitback.com
May 17, 2001 -- There is a new auction company on the Net that has found a way to make a profit while helping both public safety agencies and the public at large. If I sound enthusiastic, it's not just because I'm on the company's board of directors.
Listen to Andrew Seybold's report.
It is called Stealitback.com and its premise is very different from other auctioneers. Most auctions companies — including the world's largest eBay — provide a place where sellers can list items they have for sale and buyers can then bid on them.
While most of the time the items for sale and the sellers are legitimate, there are times where bidders get ripped off, paying their money and never getting the product they paid for. There are also times when there is a question about the ownership of the products being offered for sale.
‘Hot’ Items
But stealitback.com, run by PropertyBureau.com, is different because the items for sale come from the property rooms of police and sheriff's departments, confiscated during raids, or as evidence in a criminal case.
Previously, police departments used to give these items to auction houses that would sell them in lots for next to nothing. But since stealitback.com has been opened for business, most of the departments who have signed up have received more income in just a few short months than they have in more than a year.
The types of items offered for sale run the gamut from jewelry, to TVs, VCRs, Camcorders, bikes, tools, and anything that can be carted away by the thief. The police do work hard to find the legal owners, but is many times not successful, partially due to the lack of coordination and the sheer volume of items recovered.
Stealitback has a provision on the site where you can enter the make and model number of an item you have had stolen and if it shows up in the inventory they will return it to you no charge. This has already happened with an expensive guitar that was left in the back of a taxi in San Francisco. The guitar was traced and returned to its rightful owner.
The inventory offered on the site has been steadily increasing as more public safety agencies sign up. This is one of the most innovative uses of the Internet and the Web I have run across. It is also one of the few sites that is truly a win for everyone.
The police benefit by unloading items that previously clogged up their storage areas. Plus, they make more money than they ever did. Buyers get bargains, and people who have had items stolen from them have a chance to recover them.
All of this from a small company with a big idea.
Andrew Seybold is a consultant and top computer industry analyst. He is considered by many to be the leading authority on the mobile computing industry. He's based in Campbell, Calif.