State Auction Includes Stamps

The Providence Journal reports several hundred people attended a unusual day-long state run auction Saturday.

Among them was Jack Nalbandian, a stamp dealer for six decades.

Reporter G. Wayne Miller writes, "The crying of Lot 5 began with an opening bid of $100. When it ended a few moments later, Jack Nalbandian of Warwick had prevailed and was the owner of some 1,000 American stamps, many almost a century old, that had spent years in the dark quiet of a safe deposit box."

He won with a bid of $1,350.

“I think I was pretty much to my limit,” he said as he waited to pay, Visa card in hand. Friday night, as he reviewed the inventory of unclaimed property that the state treasurer’s office was auctioning, he had penciled in $1,500 as the highest he was willing to go. Yesterday morning, he dropped his limit to $1,400.

The property came into state hands from bank safe deposit boxes whose owners or heirs have failed to pay the rental fees. The boxes were drilled and the contents moved to a vault controlled by the treasurer’s office. Those items that are not claimed after advertising and other publicity are made available for auction.

Shown above, potential bidders look at a variety of items being auctioned off.

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