Nail Clippers, a Parking Meter and a River Barge: This Is N.Y.C.’s Yard Sale

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/25/nyregion/junk-sale-auctions-nyc.html

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Think of it as quite possibly the world’s biggest yard sale.

There are typewriters, cellphones, fingernail clippers, washing machines, toilet bowls, parking meters, snow blowers, deer hunting stands, rowboats, cars and much, much more.

All of this, courtesy of the City of New York.

When the nation’s largest city cleans out its municipal warehouses and storage closets, there is no end of leftovers, hand-me-downs and just plain junk that all has to go.

In fact, the city agency charged with disposing of all this unwanted stuff now runs a massive year-round logistical operation — including more than 1,300 online public auctions annually — to try to find new homes for a hodgepodge of miscellaneous items at the end of their useful government service.

“We’re getting rid of things we no longer have a use for, but someone else can find treasure in,” said Mersida Ibric, a deputy commissioner of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services. “At the end of the day, we’re not trying to make a significant profit at this. We’re just trying to salvage whatever value is left — to make sure it’s not wasted.”

Last year, the city’s auctions raised $12 million for its coffers, a mere pittance given the city’s $92.8 billion budget, but still enough to fill potholes. Top sellers included a couple of river barges that once ferried city scientists ($2.2 million); old mechanical voting machines taken apart for scrap metal ($207,000); movable barriers from city streets ($400,000); and shell casings ($316,000) from the Police Department.

Things that do not sell are donated, or as a last resort, sent to the Sanitation Department for permanent retirement.

In some cases, the city’s discards find new life and purpose, and often more respect, in their second act. All it takes is a little love and commitment. Outdated parking meters have been turned into $5,000 art sculptures. A lowly curbside newspaper box now occupies prime real estate inside a Manhattan public relations firm.

A 1954 fireboat, the John D. McKean, had been mothballed in 2016 after a storied career, including rescue missions after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and Captain Sully Sullenberger’s 2009 Hudson River plane landing. It, in turn, was rescued by Ed Taylor, the owner of Down East Seafood, a wholesale seafood company in the Bronx, and a business partner, Michael Kaphan.

Mr. Taylor was not even sure if the engine still ran — it did with some tweaking — “but to be a custodian of a piece of New York is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

He added, “I just thought it was the coolest thing in the world.” It cost them $57,400 at auction.

Since then, the fireboat has been restored to its original luster at the North River Shipyard in Nyack, N.Y. A nonprofit foundation has been formed to preserve the boat as a living museum, and plans to bring it back to the city next summer for educational tours on the Hudson River.

Even something as ordinary as a news box — the kind that used to sit on every street corner — can set off a bidding war.

Risa Heller, the founder of Risa Heller Communications, said she desperately wanted a yellow metal New York Post box when it came up for auction this fall. It was in a lot of 17 news boxes that had been abandoned or found in unauthorized locations by the city’s transportation department.

But first Ms. Heller had to outbid everyone else, including several journalists. She waited until the last minute to jump in with a high bid of $42. Then she spent $400 to hire a truck to pick up the news boxes from a warehouse in northern Manhattan, and another $550 to pay her office building to dispose of the banged-up ones that she did not want after closer inspection. Now, the New York Post box is proudly displayed in her office.

“Just looking at that newspaper box brings me joy — and not just from besting the competition,” she said.

The castoffs are rounded up through a citywide salvage process. A corps of more than 200 employees at city agencies double as designated “salvage officers” to help identify and track unwanted stuff, in coordination with the Citywide Administrative Services.

Items are listed first in an internal city database that serves as a kind of free interagency exchange. School leaders recently claimed a robot — think WALL-E’s cousin — that was used by the police to remove hazardous materials before it stopped working. Now students at Staten Island Technical High School will attempt to bring it back to life.

Food and other perishable items from the city’s emergency supplies are occasionally donated before they expire. Last year, 240,000 liters of donated water ended up with two churches in Flint, Michigan, which was plunged into a crisis after its tap water was contaminated by lead.

Bradlee Clegg, a member of the West Court Street Church of God in Flint, said the donated water was handed out to families, including a single mother and an older woman who took care of four grandchildren. “That water was truly a blessing for them,” he said.

If there are no takers, photos and descriptions of the items are listed on an online public auction site. Anyone can bid, except for city employees and their relatives to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. Items are sold as is, and there are generally no returns. Buyers also have to pick up their winnings.

Many auction items await their fate inside a cavernous warehouse in Middle Village, Queens — like the city’s version of an Amazon warehouse — which also stockpiles office and emergency supplies — bottled water, printer paper, toilet paper, snow shovels, rock salt, and electric blankets — to deliver to city agencies.

The other morning, boxes overflowed with expired yellow taxi medallions — piles of metal plates that were once worth millions of dollars before Uber and Lyft — and thick, round glass pieces in red, green and yellow that had been stripped from old traffic signals.

“We thrive in the weird,” said Larry Siegel, a Citywide Administrative Services official who helps oversee the auctions. “We get to deal in haz-mat robots, fire boats, typewriters, and toilet bowls. It’s a great way to learn about the city’s history — and it’s a lens into city operations.”

In recent years, the city has auctioned off thousands of coin-fed parking meters that have been replaced by a new high-tech parking system. Most ended up sold for scrap metal but some were donated for art.

Conrad Stojak, a New York street artist who received 35 donated meters, fashioned intricate scenes of New York City under the glass dome of each meter. There were workers rebuilding the World Trade Center complex and repairing the Statue of Liberty, and people ice skating at Rockefeller Center (complete with battery-powered skaters).

The meters-turned-sculptures have been displayed as public art and sell for $5,000 and up to collectors in Manhattan, the Hamptons and Beverly Hills.

“Nobody liked the meters,” he said. “They came back as something better — and who wouldn’t want to reinvent themselves?”