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Surf's up for eBay Hawaii buffs

State's constitution listed for $30,000 by QuikDrop store

Darrell Proctor, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 12, 2006 at midnight

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A piece of Hawaiian history is in Highlands Ranch, but it could be hanging on a wall in your house.

If you've got at least $30,000.

A purported original signed copy of the Hawaii Constitution, already framed, is being listed on eBay by the QuikDrop eBay Drop-Off Store in Highlands Ranch. The auction ends Wednesday.

Griffin Anderson, district manager for Costa Mesa, Calif.-based QuikDrop, said the seller - a metro-area resident who wishes to remain anonymous - has owned the document for the past 30 years. The document has spent most of that time in the seller's law office in Honolulu.

Anderson said the owner, who set the eBay selling price, saw an article in the Highlands Ranch newspaper about a previous QuikDrop auction and decided to bring in his document.

The constitution is hand-signed by 63 individuals, elected members of the constitutional convention that ratified the document. Some of the signatures have faded in the nearly 56 years since it was signed.

The last line of the document reads: "Done in Convention, at Iolani Palace, Honolulu, Hawaii, on the twenty-second day of July, in the year one thousand nine hundred fifty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-fifth."

Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959.

Anderson acknowledges that some people might question the authenticity; it's not known how many original signed copies of the constitution exist. The store does allow folks to come in and give the document the once-over.

"Yes, absolutely. We do that for people all the time," Anderson said.

"We try to do quite a bit of research, especially on an item like this," he said. "Something like this is more difficult than, say, if someone just brings in a camera to sell. We put as much information in the listing as possible."

The document is the highest-priced item, other than a vehicle, ever listed on eBay by a QuikDrop in Colorado. The Highlands Ranch store, open since mid-August 2005, is one of four in the state. Others are in Parker, Arvada and Wheat Ridge, with another coming soon in Colorado Springs.

Anderson said he expects most of the bidding on the constitution to come next week.

"Out of a seven-day auction, we usually see the most bidding in the last few minutes," he said. "The first six days we'll probably mostly get people just watching the auction."

Anderson said QuikDrop charged the seller $14.95 to list the auction. The final selling price will determine how much more the store will make. Anderson's store may take as as much as 38 percent of an item's selling price as its premium. That drops to 25 percent for items over $1,000.

Anderson says business is good. His store has about 200 items listed on eBay, from used golf clubs to new scuba gear.

"We do store liquidations," he explained.

With June approaching, Anderson noted that his store also is happy to sell other items.

"Unwanted wedding gifts, things like that," he said.