Up for bid: Arizona offers Doug Ducey's border shipping containers for auction

Public auctions will begin Oct. 16 for about 2,000 used shipping containers left over from former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's expensive effort to create an international border barrier.

The state sold 195 of the containers over the summer to government entities and nonprofits, raising about $300,000, said Megan Rose, state Department of Administration spokesperson.

Now the public will get a chance to own one of the enclosed, metal 40-foot-long containers that served briefly to attempt to deter illegal border crossers.

Arizona removed the makeshift barriers in December after the U.S. Department of Justice sued, alleging they were placed illegally and had damaged the environment. The state agreed to pay $2.1 million for remediation efforts in the case. But records reviewed by The Arizona Republic in June showed that Ducey's plan had cost the state $194 million.

The coming auctions will help recoup some of the loss.

How to bid on the Arizona shipping containers

Bidding starts at $2,000 for each of five of the used, 40-foot-long containers, though three will be bundled for one sale with bidding starting at $6,000. It's the buyer's responsibility to pick them up and transport them from their current location on Tucson state prison complex land near Wilmot and Old Vail roads.

They're stacked and packed so tightly on the prison land that "you can't even put a piece of paper between them," Rose said. There isn't enough room on the land to take down more than a few containers from the stacks at a time and store them until buyers pick them up, which is why the state is only auctioning five at a time.

Anyone who wants to get in on the bidding early should register online for an auction account by Oct. 9, to allow for the state's seven-day waiting period designed to combat fraud, Rose said. The site URL to register is: https://www.publicsurplus.com/sms/arizona,az/register/user.

Two weeks after each auction begins, the bidding will close, and the highest bidders will be awarded their items. That will be at 7 p.m. Oct. 30 for the first auction.

Buyers have 30 days to pick up their containers and five days to finalize payment.

The next auction will be posted the day after the first closes, and the cycle will continue for the foreseeable future, Rose said.

Who's bought Arizona shipping containers so far

More than 30 Arizona towns, government agencies and nonprofit groups have purchased or are in negotiations to buy some of the shipping containers after the first round of sales for that began in June.

Prescott police officer Dan Bardon is helping to acquire two of them for his department, but the sales price hasn't been finalized yet, he said. They'd be used for storage.

"We have a shed that leaks and mice get in it," he said. "It would be nice to have something to keep the critters out."

More barriers sought in Texas

Months after the Biden administration pressured Arizona to finally remove the barriers, the federal government is seeking to build new walls on the border. In a Federal Register post Thursday, Homeland Security sought waivers for a number of rules so it could put up barriers in Starr County, Texas.

"There is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads in the vicinity of the border of the United States in order to prevent unlawful entries," said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in the Register.

A Border Patrol representative told The Arizona Republic Thursday no waivers have so far been sought for Arizona border locations.

Reach the reporter at rstern@arizonarepublic.com or 480-276-3237. Follow him on X @raystern.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona offers Doug Ducey's border shipping containers for auction