Lot of 10 knives...

I didn't really understand it until I saw the ebay listing Carlos gave me. They sell them by the pound, or in lots of completely identical knives. Other stores simply have "grab bags."

While the TSA may not be the most vigilant organization, they do confiscate a lot of stuff. Apparently in 2006 over 13 million items were confiscated. Atlanta apparently pulls in about 1000 pounds of contraband a month. These are not items which frantic travelers pitched into the trash cans before security checkpoints, these are items which a guard found and had to remove from the luggage of a traveler. Such items include...

Regional interests

• Agencies who collect near Florida complain of an excess of fake children's plastic swords from the Disney theme parks
• An agency who deals with Kentucky says they have collected 500 mini Louisville Slugger bats bought at the Louisville Slugger Museum

Generally humorous things

• Stolen silverware from restaurants
  
• A chainsaw
• A bowling pin
• "A few circular saws"
• Fuzzy hand cuffs and various other S&M accessories
• An auto transmission
• Sausage grinder
• Large artificial palm tree
• 18-inch mounted fishing hook

These way these items are handled varies state to state, but the general formula is about the same. The TSA doesn't directly make any money off this, as a matter of fact a lot of the material is hauled away by contractor Science Application International, who has a 17 million over five year contract where they are payed to deal with the excess or unwanted material. Most of that consists of liquids and other things which can't be resold or donated. Firearms and weapons considered particularly dangerous are turned over to law enforcement.

"Believe me, just about everyone in Arkansas who wants a scissor has been given one over the last three years,"

James Smith Jr. manages one of the agencies in Arkansas which handles the more valuable items in 60 airports for 20 states. His agency, like most, it is required by law to try to spend a year trying to donate the supplies to governmental agencies and approved charities. Some of it is a touch heartwarming: scissors for school kids, mace for training policemen and the like. The rest is sold on a GSA-run website. The GSA and the state split the profits.

Some of the agencies get rather creative in their salesmanship.

"We've received hundreds of pairs of fuzzy handcuffs and other S&M paraphernalia — I wanted to create funny Valentine's Day kits, but folks here thought taxpayers wouldn't like it."

Other themes have successfully been made into kits. Ebay shows supplies for a "women's fashion emergency" kit and a Pennsylvanian agency sells a one-package solution for deer-hunting.

"I'd love to go to eBay, because we'd make a tremendous amount more... my hands are tied by state law."

Smith and many others are tied to rather bizarre distribution methods. Many are required by law to use a special government only auction system. Maryland centers literally pack boxes of stuff in a warehouse and sell items by the pound to whoever comes by with a truck. The confiscated items wind up on ebay via small resellers who frequently break up the bulk a bit.

The MSNBC article listed a number of ebay sellers from Alabama, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. A current selection of what those sellers are offering can be located here. As more people locate those resellers and email their usernames to me the list should grow. Even at these low prices for lots the ebay sellers are making a tidy profit: 50 bucks for 50 pounds of knives is a usual deal for the Maryland warehouse where many buy the items in bulk. This seems like quite a business to get in to.

Happy hunting!