The closure earlier this year of a Kansas City, Mo., auction service may cause Douglas County government to turn more often to the major online auction service of eBay to unload old vehicles and equipment.

“I think that’s probably a resource we’re going to use more in the future,” said Jackie Waggoner, the county’s purchasing agent.

The county recently filed a lawsuit against Nationwide Auction Services, of Irvine, Calif., seeking the recovery of $22,800 from the auction and sale earlier this year of six cars and a pickup truck.

The old county vehicles had been turned over to the auction firm’s Kansas City office, which closed on short notice in late April.

The auction service called the county one day and said it should come over immediately and pick up two vehicles that did not sell during the auctions, Waggoner said.

Since then, the county has made repeated phone calls to the California office and has sent a letter requesting payment, all without success, Waggoner said.

The lawsuit was filed Aug. 23 against the auction company and directs it to the attention of Bill Rivard, a corporate officer. Rivard couldn’t be reached Wednesday by the Journal-World. His phone message machine said he was out of the office.

The company, which also goes by the name Nationwide Auction Systems, has until Oct. 1 to file a response to the lawsuit, said the county’s attorney, Brad Finkeldei.

Douglas County also uses Affiliated Auctioneers, another auction firm in Kansas City, Waggoner said. Future auctions will probably utilize Affiliated as well as eBay, she said. The drawback with eBay is the time it takes staff to handle the details of the auction, such as taking the photographs and putting them online, Waggoner said.

“There’s a lot of time involved when you do your own sales,” she said. “I do think it is a good method of selling in terms of bringing in revenue. We’ve done rather well, usually.”