Too_Many_Tools wrote:

I've noticed that also...the more manufacturing goes off shore, the
less quality surplus there is.

Boeing Surplus is a good example of this trend.

I have also noticed that the consumer goods available today offer
little to salvage even as the volume of the goods headed towards the
landfill increase.

There are actually three other reasons there is less industrial/military
surplus these days, and at least for military surplus offshore
production isn't one of them:

1. The gobment is mandating more and more of the "retired" components be
destroyed, rather than liquidated, because of its sensitive security
issues. Even when there are no secret mechanisms to protect, the gobment
feels certain individuals could purchase Uncle Sam's discards to use in
terrorist devices.

2. The core materials in some of this stuff is worth more as salvage
than as surplus, and the money gets paid faster. Prices for copper is
going through the roof.

3. New state and federal laws regarding disposition of anything with
lead has surplus dealers not as willing to purchase palettes of
miscellaneous junk. They used to just throw the extra stuff out; now
they can't do that, because of the lead content in everything including
old IBM PC motherboards. They have to pay to have it recycled.

-- Gordon