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Post Office Auctions $8 Million Worth of Mail Annually, Has No Idea What It's Selling (vice.com) 48

Posted by msmash from the PSA dept.
Whether its Pokemon cards, swords, or gift cards, the USPS Mail Recovery Center can accommodate all your shopping needs. From a report: Every year, the United States Postal Service auctions millions of dollars worth of undeliverable mail, an amount that could likely be far more if the USPS had any idea what it was selling, according to postal service documents. In 2020, as part of our special project on the USPS, Motherboard filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the USPS for a list of items auctioned by the Mail Recovery Center in Atlanta, Georgia, the USPS's "lost and found," a facility where some 67 million pieces of undeliverable mail annually are sent to. If the items are deemed to have a value of greater than $25, sentimental value, or otherwise possess "some material value," the items are stored in case the USPS receives an inquiry from the person who was supposed to get it.

After a period ranging from 30 days to "indefinitely," the USPS either recycles, destroys, or auctions the item. But the USPS doesn't auction the items individually. It contracts with GovDeals, a government surplus auction website, to sell them off in lots. Currently, the Atlanta Surplus Center has 645 lots on auction, with items ranging from gift cards to cell phones to laptops. But mostly the lots contain "general merchandise." Ironically, the lots must be picked up at the Atlanta facility, as the mail will not mail the lost mail to the winner of an auction. In response to Motherboard's request, the USPS said it doesn't keep much of any information about the auctions at all. "As information, the Postal Service does not have a record of the actual number of items auctioned, the sale prices of those items, nor the sale prices of the individual lots," the USPS said. The only information it included in the response was an annual breakdown of 2015 through 2019 of the number of lots auctioned and the total revenue from those auctions.
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Post Office Auctions $8 Million Worth of Mail Annually, Has No Idea What It's Selling More

Post Office Auctions $8 Million Worth of Mail Annually, Has No Idea What It's Selling

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  • Why aren't these items returned to sender? There have been numerous times where I enquired about items that never made it to the recipient and disappeared into a black hole. If USPS auctions the stuff off, would that explain why they don't try very hard to return the package to the sender? (I can't believe more than 8million worth of items have no return address)

    • Why aren't these items returned to sender?

      Because they don't have a return address, or the return address was lost along with the address it was sent to.

      ... (I can't believe more than 8million worth of items have no return address)

      Ah, your faith in the competence of ordinary people is touching. Naïve, but touching.

      • I have not read the article. I do enjoy collecting stamps and learning about the USPS. 8 million dollars of valuables is an amazingly low number. When, I last looked 150 Million pieces of mail are deliver daily. In 5 days that's 1.2 billion, and 1 year that's 62 billion pieces.

        An item that I do know about the USPS, it has a lost mail section in each region ( regional recovery center, was called a dead letter office), then ( I think ) in Colorado they have a separate lost mail division to handle what the oth

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Merk42 ( 1906718 )
      I had a package that tracking said was sitting a nearby post office for a week, then suddenly today it's "delivered". Only it wasn't delivered because I checked immediately after getting the notification, and it's not there. Guess it's going in the auction now.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by suutar ( 1860506 )

      In 2019 the USPS handled 143 _billion_ pieces of mail. Assuming the 8 million consists entirely of stuff valued at $25, or 320k pieces, that's about 2 pieces per million that wind up auctioned. How many pieces aren't worth auctioning per one that is I don't know, but let's assume 1000. So that's 1 in 500 that can't be delivered or returned. That doesn't seem all that infeasible to me...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by suutar ( 1860506 )

        Oooh, even better, I overlooked that TFS mentions that 67 million per year are undeliverable. That's about 1 in 2000.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      Why aren't these items returned to sender? There have been numerous times where I enquired about items that never made it to the recipient and disappeared into a black hole. If USPS auctions the stuff off, would that explain why they don't try very hard to return the package to the sender? (I can't believe more than 8million worth of items have no return address)

      The post office actually tries extremely hard to get lost mail somewhere. They will attempt to recover the address on the label as best they can (i

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Rhipf ( 525263 )

      I can't believe more than 8million worth of items have no return address

      There were ~129 billion items shipped via USPS in 2020. From the summary 67 million pieces of undeliverable mail sent to the Atlanta center. This would represent just 0.05% of mail that is undeliverable. It isn't that hard to believe that 5 people out of every 10000 people may have accidentally messed up when labeling their mail.

    • I lost a vintage computing item in the mail last month. Bizarrely, USPS delivered the flimsy empty box that it was shipped in to me. Clearly at some point the box had gotten ripped open and the contents had fallen out. The shipping box had the shipping label, but the contents did not.

      When I talked to the people at the post office, they didn't say anything about any way to try and retrieve the item. They just pointed me to the USPS site where I could request reimbursement.

      That really ticks me off now, becaus

  • And removes the good stuff! I suspect there won't be any laptops in your auction box. ;-)

  • If a laptop etc isn't delivered and is lost, doesn't the seller flag the serial # for future appearance? And if I buy a device from something like PostOfficeLots.com (which I made up), could I be charged with stealing it?

    • There is actual law about this:
      your question is about being defined as theft: the answer is No

      it works on the basis of storage and shipping law.
      it goes ...
      lost item ...
      if item is reported by shipper then it's "lost and could be recovered in the future" + insurance carrier has rights to claim if they paid out
      if shipper does not report item lost and it's sold by the US government. The item will be free and clear of all future claims from shipper, insurance carrier can claim and because it's a US government en

  • So if we set up a new department, that validates, offers, packs and ships lost mail we might increase revenue from where we are now. We could even create a website in which these items are listed and either put up at a fixed priced or auctioned. Maybe the post office can use this as a basis of a system where are stored and can be used to pay for USPS service goods or persons or firms that affiliate with the USPS. Maybe the service can partner with the treasury to convert those funds into other fungible obje

    • Increased revenue does not automatically equate to increased profit. If the cost of implementing and managing such a system adds more cost than value, it's a net loss. There's a reason why the third party that already does the work chooses to do blind auctions. They likely get a percentage of the proceeds. If they thought they could get more profit by identifying and sorting items, they already would be doing such.

      • Also, I don't necessarily want the Postal Service to be in a position to directly benefit from selling misdirected mail. Somewhere along the line this could very well lead to more mail being "misdirected", or the lost mail resolution folks not trying so hard to resolve delivery because of a profit motive.

    • I doubt you would see any OEM supplied laptops or equipment their as that would all have detailed return addresses for non delivery. It will be personal laptop deliveries, maybe ebay or private sales and as such they wouldn't have the ability to do much with the serial.

  • if you only buy mail that is ticking.

  • Isn't it illegal to knowingly misdirect mail?

    • It's most likely items in damaged packaging. Things fell out of a box/envelope and are loose. The mailing label fell off or got blurred by moisture. If an item has no distinguishable shipping/sender information, it cannot be properly directed.

      • I still get stuff delivered in damaged packaging. Just because the packing is damaged doesn't mean I can't use whatever's inside.
    • When you control the mail, you control INFORMATION! - Newman

  • I get it that some items are mal-addressed for both the sender and the recipient, but is there really no other information to go on?

    For example some mail is picked up by the mail carrier, can they not reject mail that is clearly lacking an address. Some mail is franked, can the franking machine not be traced, can mail be returned to a "lost and found" box at the post office that first handled it for a while, so people can go look for undelivered items and if there is no other option than to sell it that the

    • Wrong address is given, bad zip code, stuff like that. And also no return address so there's nothing to do with the package. The fact that there's enough of this stuff with high enough value to give it to a third party to auction means that there's a LOT of mail going through the USPS. Mistakes get made, especially when there are many millions of items being delivered.

      I myself routinely get mail for a past homeowner, I've been here 20 years and I get mail not for the previous owner, but the one prior to

  • After winning a bid you have to separately contract to ship things? This shrinks your potential pool of bidders significantly.

    • Looks like you actually have to make an appointment and pick up the item in person within 10 days of winning the auction, failure to do so could result in being banned from future auctions. At least that is what the one auction at the closest location to me seemed to say.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Pascoea ( 968200 )

      After winning a bid you have to separately contract to ship things?

      Yup. You have to pay a 3rd party shipper to go get it for you, pack it up, and ship it to you.

      This shrinks your potential pool of bidders significantly.

      I'm sure it does. I've bought a few things from sites such as these. Really, the process is pretty painless, just more expensive than you'd think. For most of the 3rd parties you can send them a lot number and your zip code, they'll give you a quote in a few hours. If you win: Pay the auction, sign a release, pay the shipper, shit shows up at your door a week later. It can certainly be a little intimidating,

  • Buyers also don't know what they are buying (Score:3)

    by dmay34 ( 6770232 ) on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @04:02PM (#62165195)

    The OP forgets an important detail. The buyers also don't know what they are buying. They bid blind. The USPS has a crate of stuff. Its sealed and buyers bid on it. They may be getting 700 lbs of USB drives or 700 lbs of toilet paper. The winner comes and hauls off their prize, what ever it is. Then it's their problem to either flip it for profit or dispose of it at their cost

    • This is absurd. How do you bid on something blind? The size of the package wouldn't tell you anything. Bid $100 on a big box of styrofoam peanuts?
  • I've lived here for 12 years now, and I still get 3-4 mail per year that is not junk that addresses someone that hasn't lived here for, oh yeah, at least 12 years. Last one was last Nov from Social Security informing her benefits were going up. Tons of info on here if I was looking to steal her identity, most obvious being her SSN. I usually don't open these but I accidentally opened this one and found out she was getting a 10% boost on her $800 SSI payments. (too bad those checks didn't come to me). W

  • Airliners deal with the same thing (Score:3)

    by wakeboarder ( 2695839 ) on Tuesday January 11, 2022 @05:16PM (#62165471)

    people lose stuff, it's part of being human. Airliners also have 3rd party people to deal with unclaimed luggage. So who cares? I'd rather see a lost item find a new home then go in the trash.

    • "Airliners also have 3rd party people to deal with unclaimed luggage"

      This is totally different. There's no such thing as "unclaimed mail". The USPS is supposed to deliver all mail to your mailbox/home. Unless you put your mail on hold, you never go to the post office to claim your mail.

      • Or if you move, or if you never pick your package up after repeated warnings, or if the address isn't right ect ect.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      I hope they give away/sell them properly instead of blindly.

  • If you are really convinced that the post office is leaving a bunch of money on the table it's a great opportunity for you to get rich *and* help the the government earn more money: start buying up the shit the post office auctions off and resell it for a profit.

    If you can't make this work then the criticism of the post office seems unjustified. If you can make it work then go do it. You'll make a bunch of money and, in so doing, increase demand in the post office auction and help the government make mor

  • More like "got lost and they are too lazy to deliver it". What a scam.

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