Actually they don't sell them off, they destroy them. Any stock that has not traded and has no transfer agent for 6 years can be since 2003. It has been done to get rid of worthless certificates to save the cost maintaining them.
"II. Description DTC filed this proposed rule change to establish a new service, which DTC calls the Destruction of Non-Transferable Securities Certificate Program. The new service will allow DTC to destroy certain certificates that represent positions in securities for which transfer agent services are not available and have not been available for six years or longer. DTC notes that the issuers of the securities in question are often inactive or insolvent and that the lack of transfer agent services generally renders the certificates non-transferable. The new service will reduce DTC’s custodial expenses for such non-transferable securities and will allow participants to avoid certain fees to which they would otherwise be subject for the ongoing custody of the non-transferable issues. The filing also was to implement a DTC fee increase relating to DTC’s custody of such non-transferable securities that are not designated for destruction by DTC participants, but as noted below the fee increase was implemented in a separate filing on December 23, 2003."
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