anorton wrote:

"Ignoramus23509" wrote in message
...
My friend lost his job in San Jose, CA. I am wondering what is the
auction/surplus situation there, with industrial/IT surplus stuff that
can be resold on ebay? I would say stuff under 40 lbs weight.

Thanks

i

Since the begininng of the year high tech companies here in Silicon
Valley have suddenly turned the spending tap wide open again, this is
especially true for semiconductor manufacturing equipment. I would
concentrate on getting a job in those industries if he has any
applicable skills.

As others have mentioned, there is already a lot of competition
recycling used high-tech stuff, including several brick and mortar
surplus outlets.


Buying and selling is like any other business, you have to know the
market and pricing. Scrap business is the easiest if you stick with the
basic metals. Every once in a while you hit it big getting some nickel
alloy from a company that doesn't know or care what the going price is.
A friend of mine pulled a pickup load of Iconel pipe out of a
chemical company that got about 10k at the scrapyard. He had the
contract to remove the piping.
Way back when I was young I would do the scrapyards around the Norfork
area and spend about $ 1000 while in the area. In three weeks I would
triple my money selling off the stuff I bought. Some examples were a
big box of rivnuts for five bucks.. they went for about .50 a piece and
I had ready buyers. New in the box Klixon circuit breakers by the box
and turn them over for 15 bucks each. There was one radar unit that had
a gold seal in it and if they didn't take the seal out you could get
about 50 bucks for the metal. Its all in knowing what you are buying
and where you can market it.

John