There is an interesting article in this month's issue (August 2002) of Police Chief magazine that talks about the online auctions held by the US Marshall's service. Not only do they talk about the interesting items they seized, like the 1998 Dodge Viper seized in Nevada Fraud case, but they also talk about the fact that the proceeds from the auction go directly into law enforcement programs, a win win for the government and the public. It was also interesting to note that on some of their items auctioned there were only a handful of bidders. For example a convenience store and its land were auctioned in Texas and there were only 3 bidders. Seized Real Estate seems to be the most common item. You can check out some of their recent sales and new items avaible for auction at: