"Ignoramus27098" wrote in message
...
[alt.marketing.online.ebay -- I am talking about an item that I won
on ebay recently, see

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tem=7603382621
]

On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 06:51:39 -0600, Mike Henry
wrote:

"Roy L. Fuchs" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 22:51:35 -0600, "Mike Henry"
Gave us:

Are you sure that Fermilab is the actual seller? Based on what I know
of
DOE labs, it's not very likely that they would be selling direct on Ebay
or
even to the public at large.

snip

However, the seller would not likely be able to get away with using
the moniker either. I think it is legit, and I think they have
SEVERAL "liquidation expediters" in their employ. The prices of these
caps new means that whatever they can recover from the old change outs
is that little bit more toward the whole budget.

It's more likely that lab "junk" is sold off for salvage and that the
salvagers or someone they've sold to are auctioning off the stuff. It
seems
really unlikely to me that anyone at Fermi Lab, or DOE for that matter,
would bother to check Ebay seller names for usurpers of their "name". I
haven't checked, but would guess that Fermi Lab's budget is at least a
few
hundred million dollars per year and technical staff probably bill out at
around $125 and up per hour. They'd have to get pretty good prices for
those caps at that rate to break even - did they?

Mike, I am going to Fermilab to pick up these capacitors on Tuesday
and they want payment in form of checks made to Fermilab. They take my
check on the spot and do not require it to clear. I would be greatly
surprised if that was not a legitimate Fermilab operation.

I think that what we are observing is typical government/public funded
surplus bull****. I see the same stuff all over in military surplus.
Everyone is going through the motions ("we are auctioning surplus to
get highest competitive value"), but no one really cares to even
understand what they are selling or what it costs to sell that
stuff. Some things sell well for them (like high dollar electronic
test equipment sold one piece at a time), some do not.

Now if this item was adequately described with love and care, then, I
would suspect that it was not Fermilab but some private person who
actually cares to get money for his stuff.

Well, it's pretty hard to argue with that scenario.

I work at a similar facility and will have to see if they are doing the same
sort of thing. Just the other day a Hardinge bed was sitting outside
waiting for disposition of some sort. The stuff that gets thrown out there
would make a die-hard scrounger cry, though most of it is probably entirely
used up.

Mike


--
NewsGuy.Com 30Gb $9.95 Carry Forward and On Demand Bandwidth