Lot Auctions

Yesterday I made a quick $20 at a car/lot auction buying a pallet of medical equipment. The auctions in my area sell discarded equipment from hospitals, schools, local government, etc.

So I bidded on a pallet of medical equipment just for grins and giggles. I got it for $1 plus a $10 buyer's fee. The scrap yard let me drop the whole 500 lbs of "miscellaneous metal" on their scale which paid out a little more than $30. I probably could have gotten more from dismantling everything and separating the copper and other precious metals but I really didn't have the time or space. Next time I go, I'll probably clear out some space in the garage to work.

But overall I am learning that what looks like "junk" to everyone else is really free money. I just have to bring a bigger truck so that I can take advantage of the bigger pallets.

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Originally Posted by tedanderson

Yesterday I made a quick $20 at a car/lot auction buying a pallet of medical equipment. The auctions in my area sell discarded equipment from hospitals, schools, local government, etc.

So I bidded on a pallet of medical equipment just for grins and giggles. I got it for $1 plus a $10 buyer's fee. The scrap yard let me drop the whole 500 lbs of "miscellaneous metal" on their scale which paid out a little more than $30. I probably could have gotten more from dismantling everything and separating the copper and other precious metals but I really didn't have the time or space. Next time I go, I'll probably clear out some space in the garage to work.

But overall I am learning that what looks like "junk" to everyone else is really free money. I just have to bring a bigger truck so that I can take advantage of the bigger pallets.

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Wonder what a car lot was doing with a bunch of medical equipment. I once sold a bunch of that kind of stuff on ebay

Well what I meant is that it was a car auction that also had "lot" auctions..aka miscellaneous items.

I am so sad I get that space can be a pain at times but that even with out seeing it or knowing what it was could easily guess would have been $300 on a low side

If that had stuff like machines like ultrasound. That **** is worth far more on ebay or even broke down for high grade boards than 30 bucks. You just threw a ben franklin in the garbage..maybe a couple!! Live and learn!!

Kinda harsh, Oz...

Could have been medical beds/IV rack etc. Not all medical equipment is worth handling for the resale value. Just make sure to look out for things like ultrasounds, CT Scanners, MRIs, mammograms, and radiology equipment. If you see any of this stuff, shoot me a PM or email and I will buy it off you.

Yeah.. anything that remotely resembled an Xray machine would have been something different. But this was primarily lab equipment. It consisted of scales, some kind of heater/crock pot looking thing.. and then there was this thing called a centrifuge that was about the size of a shoe-shine box and had what looked like a bucket strainer recessed inside of it with some refrigerator coils surrounding it.

Maybe there was much more money hidden in those boxes but I had 2 issues-

1. nowhere to dismantle it
2. I was a little paranoid about pathogens and any other diseased particles that might have been lurking inside of this stuff.

I drove to the yard with BOTH windows down to avoid breathing any harmful bacteria.
:)

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1. nowhere to dismantle it
2. I was a little paranoid about pathogens and any other diseased particles that might have been lurking inside of this stuff.

I drove to the yard with BOTH windows down to avoid breathing any harmful bacteria.

Full article at Scrap Metal Forum: http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...#ixzz2I0uBWmJ1

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Ha! I hear you, you definitely have to be careful with medical equipment. We brought in a load and didn't have the equipment for half an hour before a mercury blood pressure gauge had busted, spilling mercury everywhere and putting the company in a panic over safety hazards! We called the local environmental agency, though, and were informed on how to clean it up. To think, children used to play with the stuff!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Noqd5fvY0i0