"Greg G." wrote in ignorance:
snip
Electronics manufacturers started doing this years ago, and will place
dates on the microfiche and computer parts lists. To the day that the
parts are no longer required by law to be stocked, they are loaded
into garbage rams and crushed. Employees are not allowed to take them
home, they do not donate them to a worthy cause, and you cannot buy
them as surplus. They are after the tax write-offs and accelerated
obsolescence of equipment in the field.
snip
Greg G.


Not quite.
Decades ago I worked for an electronics manufacturer and
we surplused off some obsolete product inventory to the bottom
feeders. They did not take adequate handling measures and
introduced Electro-Static Damage to the parts (ESD does not
always cause immediate failure and often results in infant mortality).
The customers they sold the damaged parts to looked to us, as the
manufacturer, to provide warrantee replacement/refund. Of course
we wouldn't do this and explained why. The end result was that
our reputation got tarnished. Ergo everything was crushed from
then on. The tax write off was incidental. The accelerated
obsolescence statement is pure bull**** as we informed all our
customers (who had purchased any parts over the past 5 years)
of the impending End-Of-Life for the parts and gave them 1 year to
order parts for their lifetime repair needs. This is now pretty much
standard procedure for EOL'ing a part in the electronics industry.

There are also no laws which I am aware of which require stocking
of electronic parts. Military suppliers excepted.

Art