JOPLIN, Mo. — If you’re looking for chairs, computer monitors, or even a display case the City of Joplin was the place to be today. This was all part of the City’s Annual Surplus Sale held this morning. Basically, when the city departments are able to go buy new equipment they put the old stuff up for auction once a year. Even some objects from the police evidence locker are put up for bid.

As strange as it sounds, this event is becoming somewhat of a family reunion every year.

“You know we have all the interesting equipment and things so, this is what brings citizens back every year. Mallory had said that this is her seventh auction, it’s my tenth auction, we see a lot of the same citizens every year. So, it’s almost like a family reunion when they come back and we’re seeing the same people. And we’re talking gear and equipment out there and the serviceability of it,” said Lynden Lawson, Asst Dir Public Works.

Lawson says around 150 to 200 people show up to the auction every year.