What to do with all this stuff ????

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-marty

Senior Member
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Alaska
My father started our ec business in 1971. He gave the business to me in 2003.
I'm real close to being finished. I don't consider the business sellable.

I have acummulated literaly tons of stuff. All with some value to the right person. At 10 cents on the dollar I would get $1,000 just for all the caddy clips. I have boxes of fittings for 2-1/2 to 4" that I would never use.

How to dispose. I hate to take it to the landfill.

What would you do?

e-bay ? I'm in remote alaska and shipping is spendie.

garage sale ? few people would come to my location.

auction ? that would work if there were a bunch of ec in the audience and not diy ers. Probably don't have enough for a private auction.

habitat for humanities ? donate?

craigslist?

invite ec's to my shop and give a bid?

sorry for the long post
thanks!
 
I would think if you listed a electrical contractors auction in the local paper you would probably have lots of contractors show up. You could also sell alot of the bigger stuff on ebay if not all of it but then you are giving them a cut on each item
 
List the more expensive stuff on ebay (the buyer pays for the shipping).

Look up all the electrical contractors and send them a personal letter advising them of what you have and make a personal invitation for a garage sale. Be sure to mention that this is from your dad's electrical business and mention him by name. It would be nice to have him attend the garage sale since most of the ECs would probably know your dad. Also, keep a pot of coffee going (if you have donuts, I might stop by). :smile:
 
ebay is actually a good choice to auction this kind of stuff off. usps priority mail allows you to ship a fixed size box without regard to weight. they call it flat rate. and they provide the boxes.

i know you can ship 50 pounds of lead across the county for like $10 in one of the boxes.

I think they will even ship the free boxes to you for free. and they will pick them up from your house for free mostly.
 
And in the end find an EC to give it to, try to keep it out of the landfill.

Oh cast and steel fittings have scrap value.
 
Put everything on on pallets, estimate a cheap price for it (pennies on the dollar as you said) and then advertise it. Someone will buy it all if the price is right.
 
EC's always want a deal. Offer to sell the the materials at something worth their time. Say 50% of retail value. I'm sure they will show up in droves.
 
Ebay sounds like a lot of work for this sort of problem. I like the "letter to the neighboring EC about the yard sale" approach. When the pickings get slim, gift the remainder to the guy who bought the most material.
 
Somewhat similar situation

Somewhat similar situation

First post, hello everyone.
Am in a similar situation, but do not want to dissolve everything. I 'inherited' a mess by default, (pop) passed away and I kept it running for six years. Just not to adept at the business end and a few other circumstances. Hind site is a great thing if you could see it coming :roll: .
I have "stuff" I know I won't use, but not sure on how to get something for it? Lost a lot during this Junes' flooding, not the way I wanted that to happen :mad: . I may try Ebay as suggested I guess, thanks.
 
i retired two years ago and am in the same boat. i have sold some bigger tools on craigslist--about $25k worth, but the material mainly is "big industrial" and isn't in demand in this area. i have heard about suppliers buying up materials just to prevent it from flooding the market--but that was years ago. if you come across a solution please lets us know. thanks tuna
 
eBay is a lot easier than you might think. I would not give up half or more of the value of the items just to avoid a few days work on eBay. But that is just me.
 
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