Our museum is a state agency and serves South Dakota under the Board of
Regents university system.  We recently requested permission to sell
properly deaccessioned items on ebay from South Dakota's property managment
system and are currently waiting approval.  State rules require us to sell
our surplus/ deaccessioned material at public auction.  In the past, the has
meant putting the less valuable items in boxes and selling them with the
rows of $1 computer shells in the parking lot by the univerity motor pool.
Large items have been sold by sealed bid at tremendous advertizing costs.
EBay provides the world to sell to.  If it is ethical to dispose of any
collection item, why would not be ethical to sell it by the internet ?  Are
folks opposed to eBay because they don't know how to use is OR is there
really some ethical concern ?

John Awald, Director
State Agricultural Heritage Museum
Brookings, SD

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of Kara J. Hurst
Sent: Friday, June 23, 2000 10:31 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: online auctions and museums


Amanda,

Another avenue to consider is whether museums are disposing of items over
eBay or online auction sites.  Another museum was interested in a small
collection we are trying to deaccession that no longer fits our scope and
when this museum declined our artifacts, they suggested
selling them on eBay, saying we could get a nice price for them.  So I'm
curious whether other museums are deaccessioning on eBay or not.

(In case anyone is curious, we did not feel we could ethically sell them on
eBay and they are still in our collection.)

Kara J. Hurst
Registration Intern
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History



Amanda Kraus wrote:

> Dear Colleagues:
>
> I am interested to know whether museum staff are using eBay or similar
> online auction sites to acquire objects for their collections. I'd like to
> hear museum professionals'  thoughts about these sites. I have listed a
few
> specific questions below, but I welcome all comments relevant to the topic
> of how the Internet is affecting object acquisition in museums.
>
> Questions
>
> 1) Are museums/historical societies purchasing through eBay and other
> auction sites? Why or why not?
>
> 2) If so, are museum staff finding material they might otherwise never
see?
>
> 3) Are online auctions curbing donations from individuals to museums? Do
> curators fear that objects will leave the public domain because private
> collectors are buying them online?
>
> I appreciate your input.
>
> --Amanda Kraus
> Publications Department,
> American Association of Museums
>
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Kara J. Hurst
Registration Intern
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History
2401 Chautauqua
Norman, OK   73072

405-325-5481 (telephone)
405-325-7699 (fax)

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