Auction houses, left luggage...

postingalwaysposting

Am I being dim? I have been looking at my local auction house as I am after an old sewing box. Now alongside the thing you expect to see at actions they also list modern stuff, including left unclaimed luggage. Now some of these lots include iphones (many) and kindles. Now I have a kindle (latest gen) and I thought if you logged it with Amazon the next time anyone tries to link it to there account its locked. Also if you report your phone (iphone) lost or stolen doesn't the phone operator lock the phone? Therefore there is no value in these things as they are useless. Or am I wrong, which no doubt I am :rotfl:

Many thanks...

RFW

postingalwaysposting wrote: »

Am I being dim? I have been looking at my local auction house as I am after an old sewing box. Now alongside the thing you expect to see at actions they also list modern stuff, including left unclaimed luggage. Now some of these lots include iphones (many) and kindles. Now I have a kindle (latest gen) and I thought if you logged it with Amazon the next time anyone tries to link it to there account its locked. Also if you report your phone (iphone) lost or stolen doesn't the phone operator lock the phone? Therefore there is no value in these things as they are useless. Or am I wrong, which no doubt I am :rotfl:

Many thanks...

Presumably if they were logged or locked they would be able to find the owner and therefore wouldn't be lost property. It depends where they come from but the police and British Rail have to make attempts to find the original owner before putting it to auction. That said I'm sure there are plenty of people who can unlock these devices.

forgotmyname

There was a program about this on the TV a while back, The program bought some lost luggage and
the name of the person or contact details were inside the case.

They had no problem tracing the owners. I bet anything worth having will have gone already. Just a pile
of clothes, If they were lost on the return they maybe smelly clothes as well.

soolin

If stuff is being sold as 'lost' or 'left' then the value doesn't really matter. One of the auction houses I go to sells repossessed stuff and ti is literally piled in boxes as it was dragged out of the house. So you might end up with a laptop that is password protected, no instructions no charger etc. Or in the cheaper end boxes several odd earrings (the other one might be in a different box).

Actually it is quite sad as it is all someones life and just sold off for a few pounds because of debt.I've even found personal photos and letters within book pages, bank notes etc hidden in a Bible to stop the debt collectors finding it.

Pembroke

Phones and Kindles can be broken for spares even if they are locked.

Olokia

If the phone has been reported as lost or stolen, then it is illegal to sell the phone.

When I was working in CEX, we put every phone's IMEI into an online lost/stolen phone database and if any came up lost or stolen, then the police were called. The auction house could just hand all the lost/stolen phones into the police and it would be fairly easy for them to trace the owner through the IMEI (if it was a contract phone, not sure about one never having been on contract.)

Obviously the auction house would prefer to deal with the items illegally and get some money rather than give them to the police

shaun_from_Africa

If the phone has been reported as lost or stolen, then it is illegal to sell the phone.

I've bought many phones, most of them were originally lost or stolen, and many of these were locked or blocked.
These are purchased totally legally from an auction house who deals in stolen recovered and unclaimed lost property, and I resold them for use overseas. (again, totally legal to do).

When a phone is IMEI blocked, this block will only prevent it from being used in the UK & some other parts of the EU, so they are fine for use in many other places.

The police themselves also sell phones (on their bumblebee auction site) that have been lost & stolen but not reclaimed by their owners or the insurance companies, and I don't somehow think that they would be doing this if it was illegal.

Olokia

Well I haven't studied law or anything. This is only what I learnt from the internet.

Fair enough if the auction house has tried to chase the owner. They should hand the phone into the police and according to the uk legislation law thingy, the phone can belong to the auction house if the police cannot contact the owner after 28 days.

Without even trying to contact the owner, selling or keeping the phone is illegal as there haven't been reasonable steps taken to contact the owner.

Obviously the police selling phones on their website will be legal but it will only be phones where they couldn't find the owner.