What is the dumbest items you've seen someone else sell for scrap?

So I came across 100 or so of these items recently and thought to myself someone may buy these for more than scrap. They're about 4" long with what appears to be gears on each end. I've done some research on them but have come up with absolutely nothing. So I come to pick the brains of the various experts this forum has. I would rather not scrap them but sometimes that's what happens to stuff that falls into a category known as oddball.



That wasn't the title i put in! I'm a bit confused as to why that was put in.

It might help to know what kind of place you got them from.

Could they be clock parts? Just guessing.

Well, where i got them doesn't help much in this case as it was a large amount of very different items ranging from resistors to gi joes.

A dude who DROVE a Chrysler Concord with Alum Rims off at the yard.. and got paid .11 cents a lb for it!

I'm with parker look like clock parts

I've seen things kinda like what you have associated with industrial chart recorders. They were the shafts that either held the paper roll or rolled up the paper after it had been marked by the recorder pen. Since these items are prone to be handled by ham-fisted operators, spare shafts are something that would be a common item.

Can you see any name at all on any of the parts?

Jon.

They're all in nondescript clear bags no names or part numbers. My thoughts were that they are either parts from an assembly line or a part that breaks often as you describe Jon. Either way I will probably never know exactly what they were used for but I figured it was worth a try to put a couple pictures up on the off chance someone knew.