Pottstown Mercury
Montgomery County auctions three fire trucks through Municibid
POTTSTOWN — Montgomery County has put three of its fire trucks on the auction block through online auction marketplace Municibid.com, Municibid announced. The trucks are being decommissioned after many years of service and the revenues generated from their sale will ultimately increase the county's non-tax revenues and save taxpayer money.
The trucks are being listed as three separate auctions and are dated 1971, 1973, and 1983 with a starting bid range from $3,000 to $5,000. All have low mileage and would be a smart purchase for a smaller city to cost effectively add to its already existing fleet, and can be found at municibid.com.
"We are really excited to have such a unique multi-list by Montgomery County, who are continuously one of the most successful government entities selling on our site," said Greg Berry, CEO and founder of Municibid.com.
All three auctions are currently open for bidding and each closes on Monday, Dec. 28, 2009 at 1 p.m.
"This auction is opening up the sale to areas we wouldn't normally reach," said Tom Snyder of Montgomery County.
Municibid is specifically designed for local and regional government entities to compliantly sell their surplus goods over the Internet, as well as to support redistribution of excess assets within public institutions for a low fixed cost. Pennsylvania and other government entities have been selling on municibid since 2006, and many with great success. The platform is currently being used by over 150 government entities within the state alone.
Municibid, LLC is a privately owned company enabling government agencies to market and sell surplus assets quickly and conveniently using online auction marketplaces and value-added services. The company is headquartered in Pottstown.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Towns put items up for auction on Municibid site
http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/local/courier_times/courier_times_news_details/article/28/2009/july/17/towns-put-items-up-for-auction-on-municibid-site.html
By: CHRISTIAN MENNO
Bucks County Courier Times
Bucks municipalities are taking advantage of an Internet auction site to sell used equipment and vehicles.
Municibid.com can best be described as an eBay for municipalities.
The Web site allows municipalities across the country to put outdated or unused vehicles and equipment up for public auction.
Upper Makefield has just begun taking advantage of this site, while Newtown Township has six vehicles listed, with the auctions ending today.
One vehicle, a 1998 Chevrolet dump truck, received 48 bids as of Thursday afternoon. It was posted on the site July 1 with an opening bid price of $1,000. The highest bid so far is $3,554.
"We used the site earlier this year to sell some police cars and we got good results," township Manager Joe Czajkowski said Thursday.
"Our public works director, Gary Crossland, came upon it and recommended it. We can't see exactly who is making the bids, but the site allows us to monitor the progress as it goes along."
In 2006, the state passed a law that permitted the use of Internet auction sites by municipalities.
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According to Czajkowski, Municibid does not charge a fee, and using the site takes some of the burden off taxpayers.
Townships are required to notify the public of the items to be posted on the Web site, however.
Upper Makefield supervisors on Wednesday approved the sale of a 1999 Chevy Tahoe, which was posted on Municibid.
The bids started at $1,000 and climbed to $2,560.
Township Manager Stephanie Teoli said that eight bidders made offers.
"Usually when we go through the normal process + we get about two sealed bids," she said Wednesday. "This time we got eight and the offers kept increasing."
Both Czajkowski and Teoli said their respective municipalities likely would continue to use Internet auction sites whenever it comes time to sell equipment and vehicles.
"I don't see why we wouldn't," Czajkowski added. "In this day and age, with the economy the way it is, every penny counts."
By: CHRISTIAN MENNO
Bucks County Courier Times
Bucks municipalities are taking advantage of an Internet auction site to sell used equipment and vehicles.
Municibid.com can best be described as an eBay for municipalities.
The Web site allows municipalities across the country to put outdated or unused vehicles and equipment up for public auction.
Upper Makefield has just begun taking advantage of this site, while Newtown Township has six vehicles listed, with the auctions ending today.
One vehicle, a 1998 Chevrolet dump truck, received 48 bids as of Thursday afternoon. It was posted on the site July 1 with an opening bid price of $1,000. The highest bid so far is $3,554.
"We used the site earlier this year to sell some police cars and we got good results," township Manager Joe Czajkowski said Thursday.
"Our public works director, Gary Crossland, came upon it and recommended it. We can't see exactly who is making the bids, but the site allows us to monitor the progress as it goes along."
In 2006, the state passed a law that permitted the use of Internet auction sites by municipalities.
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According to Czajkowski, Municibid does not charge a fee, and using the site takes some of the burden off taxpayers.
Townships are required to notify the public of the items to be posted on the Web site, however.
Upper Makefield supervisors on Wednesday approved the sale of a 1999 Chevy Tahoe, which was posted on Municibid.
The bids started at $1,000 and climbed to $2,560.
Township Manager Stephanie Teoli said that eight bidders made offers.
"Usually when we go through the normal process + we get about two sealed bids," she said Wednesday. "This time we got eight and the offers kept increasing."
Both Czajkowski and Teoli said their respective municipalities likely would continue to use Internet auction sites whenever it comes time to sell equipment and vehicles.
"I don't see why we wouldn't," Czajkowski added. "In this day and age, with the economy the way it is, every penny counts."
Friday, June 19, 2009
Philadelphia Business Journal featuring municibid
http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/blogs/technology/2009/06/municibid_markets_govt_stuff.html
Friday, June 19, 2009, 8:00am EDT | Modified: Monday, June 22, 2009, 9:42am
Municibid markets gov’t stuff
by Peter Key Staff Writer
As a member of the Pottstown Borough Council, Greg Berry used to get frustrated when the borough would conduct a sealed-bid auction to sell something and get far less than the item was worth.
When he found out people at other municipalities were feeling the same frustration, he started a company to enable local governments and government agencies to sell things online.
Berry, who runs his own information-technology firm, PointSolve, launched municibid.com LLC in January 2007. Since then, about 200 government entities, mostly in Pennsylvania, have signed up to use the company’s Web site to auction off goods they want to get rid of. (Pottstown doesn’t use it to avoid a possible conflict of interest.)
Municibid charges a flat fee for a one-year membership that allows members to sell as much or as little as they want to over its site.
Anyone can register to bid on the site, but they must abide not only by its rules, but by the rules of the government body whose items they’re bidding on. That means they may have to put up deposits for expensive items and agree that even if their bid wins, it may have to be voted on.
If a bidder wins an auction and tries to avoid paying for the item, municibid works with the auctioning agency to get payment from it.
“We have a zero tolerance policy in place for those bidders who decide not to come forward after they bid and it’s pretty aggressive,” Berry said.
Berry runs municibid from his home in Pottstown. The company has one other employee and uses a data center in Michigan to host its site.
“The site is designed to be as automated as possible,” he said. “We’re here for customer service and working with the municipalities and that sort of thing.”
Springfield, Delaware County, was one of municibid’s first members.
It has only sold vehicles on the site, said Susan Warner, the township’s assistant manager, but it does get better prices for them than it used to get through sealed-bid auctions.
“It’s been great,” she said. “I’ve written a lot of things supporting them.”
Berry’s goal is to get 6,000 members for municibid by the end of 2012. That would be a dramatic expansion for the company, but it still only amounts to 6.5 percent of the 92,000 local government entities that Berry says exist in the country.
Berry also wants to enable the site to do reverse auctions so that government entities can use it to bid for services, as well as sell things.
“Our plan is to develop the auction side first, which is a little bit more comfortable for municipalities to wrap their head around,” he said.
Berry hasn’t figured out a revenue model for reverse auctions yet. He does have ideas for ways other than memberships of getting revenue for municibid, but wouldn’t disclose them, except to say that they would come about as the site adds members.
“The biggest thing is helping these municipalities increase their non-tax revenue, which is very important in these times,” he said.
Friday, June 19, 2009, 8:00am EDT | Modified: Monday, June 22, 2009, 9:42am
Municibid markets gov’t stuff
by Peter Key Staff Writer
As a member of the Pottstown Borough Council, Greg Berry used to get frustrated when the borough would conduct a sealed-bid auction to sell something and get far less than the item was worth.
When he found out people at other municipalities were feeling the same frustration, he started a company to enable local governments and government agencies to sell things online.
Berry, who runs his own information-technology firm, PointSolve, launched municibid.com LLC in January 2007. Since then, about 200 government entities, mostly in Pennsylvania, have signed up to use the company’s Web site to auction off goods they want to get rid of. (Pottstown doesn’t use it to avoid a possible conflict of interest.)
Municibid charges a flat fee for a one-year membership that allows members to sell as much or as little as they want to over its site.
Anyone can register to bid on the site, but they must abide not only by its rules, but by the rules of the government body whose items they’re bidding on. That means they may have to put up deposits for expensive items and agree that even if their bid wins, it may have to be voted on.
If a bidder wins an auction and tries to avoid paying for the item, municibid works with the auctioning agency to get payment from it.
“We have a zero tolerance policy in place for those bidders who decide not to come forward after they bid and it’s pretty aggressive,” Berry said.
Berry runs municibid from his home in Pottstown. The company has one other employee and uses a data center in Michigan to host its site.
“The site is designed to be as automated as possible,” he said. “We’re here for customer service and working with the municipalities and that sort of thing.”
Springfield, Delaware County, was one of municibid’s first members.
It has only sold vehicles on the site, said Susan Warner, the township’s assistant manager, but it does get better prices for them than it used to get through sealed-bid auctions.
“It’s been great,” she said. “I’ve written a lot of things supporting them.”
Berry’s goal is to get 6,000 members for municibid by the end of 2012. That would be a dramatic expansion for the company, but it still only amounts to 6.5 percent of the 92,000 local government entities that Berry says exist in the country.
Berry also wants to enable the site to do reverse auctions so that government entities can use it to bid for services, as well as sell things.
“Our plan is to develop the auction side first, which is a little bit more comfortable for municipalities to wrap their head around,” he said.
Berry hasn’t figured out a revenue model for reverse auctions yet. He does have ideas for ways other than memberships of getting revenue for municibid, but wouldn’t disclose them, except to say that they would come about as the site adds members.
“The biggest thing is helping these municipalities increase their non-tax revenue, which is very important in these times,” he said.
Friday, February 6, 2009
Internet Bidding, Townships Embrace It
Please see the article featuring municibid in the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors' Township News Magazine:
http://www.municibid.net/articles/onlinebidding-feb09.pdf
http://www.municibid.net/articles/onlinebidding-feb09.pdf
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