Posted on 07/29/2017 6:54:51 AM PDT by LostInBayport
Holy cartoon cash, Batman! The Charleston County Sheriff's Office is auctioning off more than 400 comic books seized in a drug investigation.
"It’s entirely possible there may be some treasures in there, and the hunt could be fun," said Mike Campbell, owner of Captain's Comics & Toys in West Ashley.
The online auction, on govdeals.com, runs until Tuesday morning and already has attracted nearly two dozen bids.
Campbell is not among the bidders. He said it sounds like most of the titles are from the 1990s and "most likely, fun books worth $1 to $5."
He said the 1990s were known as the "collector's era" because "people were buying all sorts of things, hoping they would be collector's items. They hid them away in a shoebox and hoped they would turn into treasures."
Campbell said it's clear that whoever created the listing for the Sheriff's Office knows a little about comics because it specifically mentions the complete six-issue Infinity Gauntlet series by Marvel Comics, among other titles.
On the giant online auction site eBay.com, sales of the Infinity Gauntlet series have been regularly fetching roughly $60 to $120.
As of Friday, the top bid for the collection of 400 to 500 comics the Sheriff's Office is selling was $189. Serious bidding in online auctions often doesn't happen until the final hours, or even minutes.
The auction listing includes some photos and mentions a handful of specific comics, but there's not a list of everything in the large collection. Most of the comic books appear to be individually wrapped in protective plastic sleeves. +1 The auction listing
The Charleston County Sheriff's Office is conducting an unusual online auction, selling off 400 to 500 seized comic books on govdeals.com.
Police agencies routinely auction off seized property, typically through the controversial practice known as civil asset forfeiture. The seized property is typically related to alleged drug-related crimes, and the auctions most often involve old cars, like a 1978 Ford LTD the Sheriff's Office also has listed for sale, and television sets (there's one of those for sale, too).
The comic collection was seized after deputies responded to a reported home invasion in 2014 in the Sweetgrass Estates of Ladson mobile home park. Inside a trailer that was the subject of a break-in, deputies found guns, ammunition, pounds of marijuana, and the comic books, according to police reports.
The comic book auction is schedule to end at 11:15 a.m. Tuesday. It's not clear if there are any Batman comics in the collection.
Asset forfeiture in action.
No thanks to Sessions for reviving it and defending it.
I don’t see any safeguards here.
Seized in INVESTIGATION, not via conviction. This is public theft of private property. It is wrong. Without conviction, there is no crime, not right to be taking and selling private property.
They’ve even thrown aside the thin veneer of justification of civil forfeiture that the seized assets were the fruits of drug profits or used in drug production or sales. If you seize millions of dollars of cash from Walter White’s air ducts or his “cooking” RV, maybe you have an argument for civil forfeiture (but I still say conviction first and then punishment). But nabbing a box of comic books? That’s just legalized looting. Did they put up a drawer of used underwear on eBay too? Maybe a half box of Minute Rice?
yup - illegal and immoral taking of property without due process. Soviet Union style
To add insult to injury, the cops were called to the trailer where the comics were found on report of a home invasion (the article unfortunately didn’t give much detail).
I truly hope Jeff Sessions gets moved to DHS or somewhere else. The top AG should not advocate confiscation of property without due process.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.