ORLANDO, Fla. – Collectors and the curious showed up Friday to preview Florida’s Unclaimed Property Auction in Orlando.
The auction will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday at the Holiday Inn & Suites located at 5916 Caravan Court.
More than 58,000 items are available from the contents of abandoned safe deposit boxes.
Phillip Carlton is the assistant director of Florida’s Division of Unclaimed Property and said there is a wide variety of items that will go to the highest bidder.
“High-end jewelry, baseball cards. We have collectibles, silverware,” Carlton said. “Pretty much anything of any value that’s in abandoned safe deposit boxes could be here.”
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Some of the highlighted items included a 2-karat diamond platinum ring and a rare 1934 US $1,000 bill.
Carlton said the proceeds generated by the auction are used to help fund education in Florida, adding unclaimed property owners can still claim the value of the sold items at any time.
According to the state, unclaimed property assets are held by business or government entities for a set period of time, usually five years.
If the holder is unable to locate and re-establish contact with the owner to return the asset, it is reported and remitted to the Florida Department of Financial Services’ Division of Unclaimed Property.
Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said that since 2017, his office has returned more than $2 billion in unclaimed property to the pockets of Floridians.
An estimated one in five Floridians has unclaimed funds, which can be searched for at FLTreasureHunt.gov.
For further details about Saturday’s auction, click here.
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