# Govt as source of e-scrap?



## ilyaz (Aug 17, 2011)

I was recently talking to someone who works for the federal government and when I mentioned that I e-scrap, he said something like "Oh, we have so much old computer hardware laying around". Has anyone who's a small scale e-scrapper ever succeeded in getting stuff from some government office? It seems to me that a lot of them, especially the Fed, can be sitting on piles of old computer equipment. On the other hand, I can imagine that the amount of red tape is probably exponentially proportional to the size of those piles. Is it even worth considering? Or too much of a hassle for a little guy like me taking apart towers in his basement?..


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## Anonymous (Aug 17, 2011)

We regularly get very large quantities of e-scrap from various government and military agencies.I believe we have recieved more than anyone on the forum.We've never had to pay anything for any of the military or govt. equipment.But occasionally we make sure that they know we are very thankful.Dinner for 30 people at red lobster usually does the trick.An $800 check is well worth paying,when they are giving you countless trailor loads of equipment.
Back to what you were saying,there are millions,of tons of escrap within the military alone.The government has multiple times that.The turnover on privacy equipment is mind boggling......literally months sometimes.We have recieved equipment that had purchase histories of less than 1 year.My home computer is a perfect example,although I have had it for some time now,it is a Dell Precision 650 server complete with dual 2.4 xeons and a raid.
When it comes to getting govt escrap,we are the exception to the rule.We have 18 years worth of customers,most of which work for NASA or one of it's contractors.......so it was just a matter of telling our customers what we were looking for,and before you know it we started getting phone calls telling us to bring a trailor.


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## silversaddle1 (Aug 17, 2011)

Funny, I thought all government surplus and scrap was to be sold to the highest bidder. I would be very careful about telling everybody that you are getting all thei stuff free of charge. In fact, I think I would be deleting this post all together.


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## patnor1011 (Aug 17, 2011)

Well... Nothing wrong with his post. There are different rules everywhere. What may be norm in your place might be very different somewhere else. Some agencies not that they do not sell to highest bidder - they even pay somebody to take it from them. Now that is something to be worried about. :twisted:


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## joem (Aug 18, 2011)

I would just jump on the contacts you have and work them. Not all agencies follow the same rules and some just trash the stuff. Go for it. The answer is always NO if you never ask. My recycler would not pay others for low end escrap until I asked him to pay me and he said yes.


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## rasanders22 (Aug 18, 2011)

My dad used to work for the Navy back in the 70's and told me about how hey would dump countless amounts of electronic equipment over the side of the ship. When I was in the Marines we would dig a hole and bury our ammo instead of shooting it because we didn't want to clean our rifles. I was once told to get rid of a old signal generator because it didn't exist on the books so I took it home and made my own radio station for about a week. Military stuff is supposed to go to DRMO but I imagine they havr lots of stuff stuck in warehouses that never sold and they are just looking for a way to get rid of it all. Remember the movie "Raiders of the lost Ark" at the end with them pushing the ark into that warehouse that went on forever. Those places do exist I have been in one.

The military has a relatively high turn over so stuff gets lost so easily. When you have people movie around ever 3 or 4 years you can see why stuff gets lost. However with newer technology and a push to be more efficient I see the days of tons of lost or forgotten about equipment being over.


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## Anonymous (Aug 18, 2011)

rasanders22 said:


> Remember the movie "Raiders of the lost Ark" at the end with them pushing the ark into that warehouse that went on forever. Those places do exist I have been in one.
> 
> The military has a relatively high turn over so stuff gets lost so easily. When you have people movie around ever 3 or 4 years you can see why stuff gets lost. However with newer technology and a push to be more efficient I see the days of tons of lost or forgotten about equipment being over.


So true,So true.Our son was in afghanistan until late last year,and he had told us stories about mountains of old equipment over there,that was set to come back to the states.He used to tell me that,if I could just figure out a way to get the stuff back home,I'd be rich forever.They would deliver updated equipment in tractor trailors,and remove the old stuff the same way.


silversaddle1 said:


> Funny, I thought all government surplus and scrap was to be sold to the highest bidder. I would be very careful about telling everybody that you are getting all thei stuff free of charge. In fact, I think I would be deleting this post all together.


You are correct if it is a direct military agency,like NASA.And we do go to those auctions.But these days,a lot is handled by contractors and subcontractors.Disposal of the old equipment is part of the contracts nowadays,and they are more than happy to have us remove it,and allow them to move on to the next stage of their multi-million dollar contract,as opposed to spending months in time,and labor,just to make a couple thousand dollars.


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## herbbartley (Aug 19, 2011)

The US government regularly auctions obsolete computer equipment and other office equipment. It goes very cheap. I have thought about bidding on some, but the thing is, it needs to be close enough to make it worth the fuel to go pick it up. Hardly anyone bids on this stuff so fuel cost is the main expense.


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## Anonymous (Aug 19, 2011)

herbbartley said:


> The US government regularly auctions obsolete computer equipment and other office equipment. It goes very cheap. I have thought about bidding on some, but the thing is, it needs to be close enough to make it worth the fuel to go pick it up. Hardly anyone bids on this stuff so fuel cost is the main expense.


Very true,however, GSA has auctions all over the U.S. so you may be able to find some good stuff pretty close to you.


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## TXWolfie (Aug 19, 2011)

mic said:


> We regularly get very large quantities of e-scrap from various government and military agencies.I believe we have recieved more than anyone on the forum.We've never had to pay anything for any of the military or govt. equipment.But occasionally we make sure that they know we are very thankful.Dinner for 30 people at red lobster usually does the trick.An $800 check is well worth paying,when they are giving you countless trailor loads of equipment.
> Back to what you were saying,there are millions,of tons of escrap within the military alone.The government has multiple times that.The turnover on privacy equipment is mind boggling......literally months sometimes.We have recieved equipment that had purchase histories of less than 1 year.My home computer is a perfect example,although I have had it for some time now,it is a Dell Precision 650 server complete with dual 2.4 xeons and a raid.
> When it comes to getting govt escrap,we are the exception to the rule.We have 18 years worth of customers,most of which work for NASA or one of it's contractors.......so it was just a matter of telling our customers what we were looking for,and before you know it we started getting phone calls telling us to bring a trailor.


Would love to know what routes you went thru to get your escrap and if it possible still, this I am very interested in.


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## Anonymous (Aug 19, 2011)

TXWolfie said:


> Would love to know what routes you went thru to get your escrap and if it possible still, this I am very interested in.


I guess it would be possible to do,but you need to understand that we have owned our company since 1994.We have done work for thousands of people,most of which work in the aerospace industry.I had 10 years worth of customers before I ever got into escrap.We are extremely fortunate/blessed to live where we live,and know who we know.We also have customers within the school board,and county asset management(resale of outdated/broken equipment).We cannot get anything from them for free,but it's always nice to know if they give anything away we will probably get it.
And of course we go to all of the auctions.


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## TXWolfie (Aug 19, 2011)

mic said:


> TXWolfie said:
> 
> 
> > Would love to know what routes you went thru to get your escrap and if it possible still, this I am very interested in.
> ...


Well that my friend is an awesome thing, you have gained respect and acknowledgement thru your years of being in business. Word of mouth does and says alot for a person and the people who pass it. I hope someday to have the same situation knock on my door, and in time I hope it will. My dream is to own and run a cigar lounge, and to finally have a line of cigars that will be dedicated to my father and my children. But until that day comes I will be doing what I can to make ends meet and to live another day. This is just another hobby to fill up the hours that arent filled with my life and to try and make a buck.

Respectfully
Rich


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## Anonymous (Aug 20, 2011)

You are an awesome person Rich.


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