50 ways force helps community through eBay store sales

There is everything from a mail room-style pigeonhole rack to an unseen copy of a Fifty Shades of Grey DVD – all you might expect to find at a bank holiday boot fair.

But these two items and dozens more can now to be found on an eBay auction page – the first of its kind set up by Sussex Police.

The online site is selling off recovered and seized property from the force’s lockup that would otherwise have been thrown away.

This is not the first time the force has sold items on an auction site, having previously sold through another site since the early 2000s, but this is the first time an eBay store has been opened.

The shop is being run from John Street police station in Brighton but items will be sold from across the county.

All the monies raised from the sale of the items at the eBay shop – named Sussex Police Property Disposals – will go to helping community projects through the force’s Police Property Act Fund.

Natalie Tipler, the property team leader at Sussex Police, said: “We are selling some really unusual items – like paintings, Victorian brass doorknobs and we have a vintage brass coal scuttle – which are due to be listed over the next few days.

“We’ve also sold a street sign, boot scraper and garden ornament; it’s amazing what people want to buy, and what is one person’s junk is another person’s treasure.

“We have crates of brand-new clothes, perfumes, books and toiletries, which we will put on to the site over the coming months.”

The force is unable to sell items such as tobacco and alcohol and takes measures to ensure goods are not counterfeit, such as designer clothes, watches and perfume.

Sussex Police Property Disposals auction page