By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – You can get just about anything you want at the New Hampshire State Surplus Auction, which will be live and in-person on Saturday June 26 at White Farm.
There are guns, kayaks, motorcycles and used school buses, vacuums, dust collectors, and rolling hospital chairs on the auction block at 144 Clinton St. in Concord, but sadly this year, no more roadkill.
Gov. Chris Sununu and the Executive Council were recently made aware of the upcoming annual auction which brings in many thousands of dollars to the state when department heads push the used stuff out the door.
Cruisers, arrows, tractors and bandsaws, and coin-operated washing machines are on the auction block, too.
Through the Department of Administrative Services, the thrifty Yankee event was supposed to be online-only for the first time this year, Executive Councilor David Wheeler told the Council recently, but an online posting by auctioneer James St. Jean on Monday indicated that there has been a change and the auction will be live-only with pre-bid webcast bidding taking place this year after the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have passed.
“ATTENTION: THIS IS NO LONGER A WEBCAST AUCTION***Auction has been changed to LIVE IN-PERSON on Saturday, June 26, 2021 @ 8:30 AM Pre-bidding is open and will last until noon Thursday, June 24, 2021,” the notice says.
There are rifles for sale this year and the state is selling such weapons contingent on all “federal and state laws pertaining to the sale of firearms,” and they may be picked up on Monday, June 28, at The Barn in Salisbury prepaid with cash, credit card or check.
In all there are 534 items for sale, mostly rolling stock vehicles, which will be sold “as is,” “where-is” and all sales are “final.”
For municipalities looking for another plow or some brine containers for pre-treating roads before winter storms, there are a lot of items to pick through. Take a look https://www.auctionguide.com/auction/new-hampshire-state-surplus-live-webcast-auction-2021-6-25/62418/.
There are plows, cruisers, fire trucks as well as many items for sportsmen. Look for fishing boats, and trailers, even a ceremonial dagger that somehow made it to the state surplus auction. There are hard-to-find items right now, like kayaks which have been selling like hotcakes during the pandemic and boat motors and trailers, too.
The event became world-famous by Yankee Magazine when it wrote in the 1980s that the state was so frugal it was auctioning off its roadkill.
Frozen bears, bobcats, and beavers were on the block for the annual auction as a way for the state to cash in a bit on the animal’s misfortune, supposedly to benefit “natural history education” but it was also a deal for taxidermists and those who wanted to mount the heads of the critters on their camp walls.
In 1981, the state raked in more than $3,000 on the carcasses which were kept in Fish and Game freezers, the Dublin-based magazine reported. But in 1990 the “rabies scare hit the roadkill auction,” and that was that. The state discontinued the practice of selling roadkill but it kept other frugal aspects of the auction.
Now, state residents who hit a critter can take it home if they want, but not out-of-state drivers. They can’t have the roadkill to protect from the spread of disease, according to Fish and Game.
The state does donate thousands of pounds of roadkill meat to the New Hampshire Food Bank and encourages hunters who have more food than their fill to offer it to the hungry in its “Hunt for the Hungry” campaign.
Bidding begins Saturday at 8:30 a.m. sharp.