CHARLOTTE, N.C. — One school's trash is an opportune businessman's treasure.
Louis Sinkoe, the owner of Famous Mart Wholesale, confirmed that he was the highest bidder on a stash of clear backpacks auctioned off by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools earlier this month.
Sinkoe stated he intends to resell the backpacks at his wholesale business.
CMS accepted Sinkoe's bid of $85,000 for the 45,980 backpacks on Monday just a few days after the auction ended. A 10 percent buyer's premium was added to the purchase, making Sinkoe's total price $95,625 for the backpacks.
The backpacks were purchased in November 2021 for nearly $500,000 as district officials planned to hand them out to students to promote school safety.
However, shortly after they arrived at a CMS warehouse, district officials canceled the rollout of the backpacks after learning they had a Proposition 65 label. Proposition 65 is a California law requiring companies to place labels on items made from chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive problems.
In June, CMS decided to auction the backpacks off now that they had no use for them. The resulting auction caused a major loss for CMS.
CMS originally said if they did not reach a high enough bid for the items they could place them back under auction, but ultimately they decided against this.
It's unclear at what price the backpacks will be sold by Sinkoe.