"Rotary hopper" style vehicle cash drop box safe, $10.

The guy I got this drop box safe from told me that his father had worked in the route truck department of Coca Cola some years ago, and had somehow ended up with this, which came out of one of the route trucks. The driver drops the cash (or checks or whatever else) right into the top, and then rotates the drum until the deposit falls down into the box.

This box measures 12" square by 20" high, and weighs in at around 60 pounds. It has holes through the bottom so that it can be bolted securely into place, and is made entirely from 1/8" thick welded steel. Like so many other items you'll find here in the Auctionbandits gallery, it's a nice profit opportunity if you know what you're looking at!

Notice that there are two separate locks on the front of this box. Each of these locks takes a different key, which means that you need both keys to open the box. This is known as a double custody system, which is designed to ensure that no single person has access to the goods inside. This makes perfect sense, for a couple of reasons. First of all, it ensures that what goes into the box stays there until the end of the day, when everything is removed from the box in the presence of both keyholders. This helps removes the temptation from a driver who may get the end-of-the-day idea of running off with the day's deposits. This setup also reduces the possibility of an impromptu robbery, since the driver can't get the box open to hand over the goods. The bad guy will have to either steal the truck, or shoot the box open to get at the loot, neither of which options could be considered a crime of convenience.

Although this box was originally used in a Coca Cola route truck, it could naturally be secured pretty much anywhere a secure drop box was needed. An important factor to consider in this case is the fact that there haven't been many technology revolutions (sorry!) in the field of drop boxes lately that would render this box obsolete (read: unwanted) by your eBay bidders. On the contrary, boxes exactly like this one currently being manufactured sell for around $500 to $600.

Finally, notice the ugly brown rust stains in the photos of this box on the left. These stains tell me that this box has been wet at some point in its past. When iron rusts, all that nasty brown iron oxide runs all over the place and stains everything around it, which makes things look much worse than they really are. I'll just remove all the ugly staining with Sno Bol toilet cleaner, which won't remove the rust from the metal itself, but it will make this box look much better by removing the rust stains from the surrounding paint. Notice the contrast between the picture of the cleaned box in the upper right, and the other pictures of the box before cleaning. 

This rotary style cash drop box sold on eBay for $135.