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Disposing of a LOT of parts quickly

To the conspiracy theorists among you, this post may look like an attempt to slip in a commercial message. Heaven forfend! It's a genuine request for information. (Although if you ARE interested in buying... :-)

I have a large quantity of electronic parts: discretes, ICs, connectors, cabling, tools, etc. etc. left over from a business. This was a retail store specializing in electronic stuff; kinda what we all wish RS would be. Anyway, I had to close the store and have had the leftover inventory squirreled about the house for several years.

Now we're moving to a smaller house and this stuff simply has to be gone.

Some time ago, I listed a few lots on eBay. A couple of things brought decent money but most of the bids were ridiculously low. For example, a

60-drawer cabinet filled with IC chips drew a single bid of less than the price of the empty cabinet.

At this point my main goal is to get this stuff into the hands of somebody who will appreciate it. But I'd still like to get a fair price for it if possible. (Plan B is to donate it to the local community college) So, does anybody have suggestions on how to broker this mess? It's all boxed up, but not really boxed in a UPS-able way, plus it would fill a UPS truck or two. So the best thing would be, I guess, to find somebody local (Chicago) who can come over and load it up.

Any ideas?

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Gordon S. Hlavenka           http://www.crashelectronics.com
        If your teacher tells you to Question Authority
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Reply to
Gordon S. Hlavenka
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Have you considered a small website to list everything? I have been moving few parts from my website, but I'm not pressed for space so I don't promote it. It doesn't have to be fancy to do the job. There is a link in the header to show a very simple and easy to maintain website, if you are interested in the idea.

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Michael A. Terrell
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Michael A. Terrell

Reply to
Mike Berger

There are also electronics recylers around. Check around.... Where I live there is an outfit that recycles stuff and provides computers to the needy for free, complete with free internet access. You may be able to horse-trade for a new computer or just some good karma. :-)

Reply to
Captain Dondo

Some items with collector's cachet or high demand will sell well, but random junk usually won't.

Too bad you sold the "sellable" stuff early... a good trick is to mix in a lot of the less desirable stuff with the good stuff and insist that it all go together. (Of course you don't always know what's "sellable" in advance!)

In general the bids will be puny compared to the effort to list it well and package it up and ship it.

Posting on usenet, links to pictures, very definite terms ("must show up with a panel truck and take it all" is what I did). Craigslist works well in some urban areas.

Do not impose terms about the future disposition of the stuff... you couldn't use it, the taker probably won't be able to use it all, if they want to E-bay all/some of it then let them make the effort.

Desiring it go to a community college is a noble goal but realistically most of them are disposing wholesale of their equipment/instruments/components too (if they didn't do it a decade or two ago.)

I got rid of about 12 tons of stuff over the past year using this method, mostly to good homes, with no cost to me other than helping them drag it out of my basement and into their truck. In most cases it's just sitting in the recipient's attic/basement too, but in a couple of cases they're making good use of it.

Tim.

Reply to
shoppa

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