On Wed, 6 May 2009 12:49:30 -0700 (PDT), Too_Many_Tools
wrote:

In the past I usually found the best quality buys from schools that
were selling off shops.

Is anyone seeing this happen any more or has it become stuff for metal/
woodworking legends?

Also I would like to hear of some of your experiences...the gloats,
the losses, the memories.

Thanks

TMT

I go to our local school district auction every year. The amount of
shop-related stuff has been dwindling each time, and I suspect that a
lot of the cool machinery that is available exists at the schools only
because of inertia - when they need the space, out it goes. The
auctions used to be a major pain, as you had to wait for all the
surplus computer crap to get sold off (by the pallet load) before they
got to the good stuff. Lately, though, the privacy issues (hard drive
contents) have removed that junk from the sales.

I've gotten good commercial-grade kitchen appliances cheap. I even
bought a brand-new 6 burner gas range/oven combo (convertible between
NG & LP by flipping a lever, no less) for 5 bucks! I get cool
equipment from the science labs, which I collect & restore. Lab
benches, stills, balances. Got 3 industrial sewing machines for my
wife (no one wanted them 'cause of the 3 phase motors). Musical
instruments - A Rhodes piano, xylophone, last year 4 tympani (for $12
total). The one year I didn't go (my sister was visiting), they let a
grand piano go for $100 - no one wanted to move it. Turned out that it
was a 19th century rarity, and was worth in the 10s of big ones. I
know I would have snapped it up, since we rarely turn down any music
makers. Also, last year I bid on the wrong pallet, and got "stuck"
with a power stapler that can staple through over 200 sheets (big
German thing), 5 digital cameras, a camcorder, and an LCD projector. I
sold the 5 portable phonographs to a guy for the $10 I had spent on my
"mistake". Another load contained several boxes of high-quality
mounted microscope slides, and several platinum-wire inoculating
loops. Not a bad day.

That's how it is in South Carolina, at any rate.

Joe