My Friend's entire Lab

[daveyk]

Forgive me if not permitted.
A close friend, in the same business as me, passed away a few months ago.  His wife wants to sell the house now and does not know what to do with it all.  Dennis's equipment was always kept like brand new.

She is thinking of having a local auction in Lynchburg, VA.  Most of the people that attend would not have a clue what his shop equipment is.

SMT Re-balling and IR equipment
Two Lekroy 7300As
Agilent 8560EC Spectrum Analyzer
Agilent 33250A Gen
Agilent 33522A Gen
Agilent 34401A DVM
Keysight 53131A Freq. Cntr.
Fluke 8845A DVM
Agilent E3645A P.S.
Weinschel Attenuators
Microscope
Two Pace hot air and IR systems
Jovy Systems RE-8500 IR System
A/C Line Regulator
....more


Are there used equipment houses anyone can recommend.  EBAY is too difficult for her.

I would hope some place could show up and make her a decent offer to take all of it.

Thanks kindly,

Dave

[edavid]

1. I'd suggest getting in touch with the local ham radio club to see if someone there would be willing to help sell the equipment:

Lynchburg Amateur Radio Club
https://k4cq.com/

They will have been through this before with assisting the families of late club members.  Hams are usually pretty generous in assisting widows.

2. If she has enough income to benefit from charity tax deductions, she could also donate equipment to the local makerspace:

https://vector-space.org/

3. Ebay is difficult for everyone, but between the two of you, you might be able to sell some items on Facebook Marketplace.  I've had good experiences with it.

[vk6zgo]

I'd suggest getting in touch with the local ham radio club to see if someone there would be willing to help sell the equipment:

Lynchburg Amateur Radio Club
https://k4cq.com/

She could also donate equipment to the local makerspace:

https://vector-space.org/

Yes, even though it is common practice to sneer at hams on this forum, many of them work in the Electronics, Comms or Broadcast industries & have extensive contacts who may well take the lot.

[bdunham7]

I would hope some place could show up and make her a decent offer to take all of it.

The sticking point will be what number comprises a 'decent offer'.  Getting someone to show up with a truck and pack all of it may not yield any more than cherry-picking the lot and chucking the rest in a dumpster. 

Here's a good list of people in the used equipment business.  Alltest out of Farmingdale, NJ would be my first call.  I don't know if any of them will come to you or what they'll want for information ahead of time.

https://www.testunlimited.com/Dealer_List_Used.aspx

[james_s]

Yes, even though it is common practice to sneer at hams on this forum, many of them work in the Electronics, Comms or Broadcast industries & have extensive contacts who may well take the lot.

It is? I'm a ham and I don't recall people sneering at it. It's a pretty broad hobby.

Ebay is the way to get top dollar and sell the stuff quickly with a minimum of fuss. The other option is to sell the stuff as a lot to somebody who is going to resell the stuff they don't want, figure you'll probably get around ~30% of what the gear would sell for individually on ebay. You could also try listing them individually on facebook marketplace and craigslist, it's a bit more hassle but in most areas there will be people interested in gear.

[bdunham7]

Ebay is the way to get top dollar and sell the stuff quickly with a minimum of fuss.

Somebody has to do the work and with the relevant revisions to the tax code (the eBay reporting threshold changed from $20K to $600 and although they held off a year, it appears to be the law for this year) there's likely a lot less people willing to take these things on.  If it were local to me, I would have done it before the tax changes, but I wouldn't now.

[james_s]

Wow, so ebay reports your sales if it's over $600 for the year? They just keep turning the screws and getting less viable all the time. Taxes are getting crazy too, they just keep going up and up and up, you'd think as big as the population is in the wealthier areas like where I live that they would be flush with tax dollars but it's never enough.

[EEVblog]

Wow, so ebay reports your sales if it's over $600 for the year?

Here in Australia, all ebay accountsthat sell more than $5k/year are reported.

[EEVblog]

I would hope some place could show up and make her a decent offer to take all of it.

The sticking point will be what number comprises a 'decent offer'.  Getting someone to show up with a truck and pack all of it may not yield any more than cherry-picking the lot and chucking the rest in a dumpster. 

Here's a good list of people in the used equipment business.  Alltest out of Farmingdale, NJ would be my first call.  I don't know if any of them will come to you or what they'll want for information ahead of time.

https://www.testunlimited.com/Dealer_List_Used.aspx

Yes, Alltest are reputable:
https://alltest.net/trade
Not sure what they'd pay for them though. Probably not a lot. These reseller are used to buying pallet loads of surplus gears from governments and univerities etc. With the huge mark-up's being in the testing and relisting of them.

[bdunham7]

Wow, so ebay reports your sales if it's over $600 for the year? They just keep turning the screws and getting less viable all the time.

It's an explicit IRS requirement, part of the 'American Rescue Plan'.   Not eBay's choice, I'm sure, and they were given a 1-year reprieve for 2022. 

[DaJMasta]

I'd +1 the idea of getting someone at least somewhat local and affiliated with electronics to run an auction - they'd be able to run the logistics of it and likely attract the right kind of buyers, and I'd expect it to net more to her than a reseller buyout of the lot.  There may be some market in the vague area - I know VT runs some auctions with scientific equipment that draw at least some buyers - but I'm not sure how easy it would be to get in touch with them.  There's at least one major ebay test equipment surplus liquidator in VA as well (C2 Management), but I wouldn't expect top dollar from them buying the lot (if they even do that).

I'm about 3.5h away, and while I deal in some refurbishing/testing and reselling, I certainly don't have the cash on hand to make a good offer for a large lot of equipment.

Not to try and put the work on you, but someone like yourself could probably toss equipment up on ebay and sell 'as is' in an auction format for very little time expended beyond pictures and packing, and by listing 'as is', you're not beholden to accept returns.  Maybe there's someone she knows or someone local that would be willing to do the listing/shipping leg work for her or for a fair cut.


And yes, ebay sends you a 1099K for anything over $600 now, government rules.

[james_s]

It's an explicit IRS requirement, part of the 'American Rescue Plan'.   Not eBay's choice, I'm sure, and they were given a 1-year reprieve for 2022.

Never fear, the government is here to rescue you from prosperity and happiness with ever more taxes and rules. 

[coromonadalix]

well Ebay can give you rough estimate prices ideas, remove 10-15% since many are overpriced

You coud try local ads ?

but many people will want some test / power up   ....    if  not and be at ease, and not be bothered  ...  you sell them as is and no returns .... half the price seen on ebay  ...


because if you get too finicky,  people will ask more  and it will be a mess to manage etc ...  like previous thread answer    "logistics"

[EEVblog]

I'd +1 the idea of getting someone at least somewhat local and affiliated with electronics to run an auction - they'd be able to run the logistics of it and likely attract the right kind of buyers, and I'd expect it to net more to her than a reseller buyout of the lot.

Yeah, someone knowledgable might do it for a 10-20% cut?
There are also professional ebay merchants, and given that test gear like this usually has a decent number of people searching for it, even a clueless ebay reseller might get decent results.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Wow, so eBay reports your sales if it's over $600 for the year?

Here in Australia, all eBay accounts that sell more than $5k/year are reported.

Not wishing to derail but I thought it was 10. Do you have a good up to date source?

Best I can find is this.
https://www.etax.com.au/ebay-income/

[Wallace Gasiewicz]

This is not  bad place to post equipment for sale, I have purchased equipment here.But perhaps this group might be better since I think it has more US based readers:
https://test-equipment-for-sale-wanted-or-exchange.groups.io/g/main/messages
You might find someone who would buy everything and pick it up.

[EEVblog]

Wow, so eBay reports your sales if it's over $600 for the year?

Here in Australia, all eBay accounts that sell more than $5k/year are reported.

Not wishing to derail but I thought it was 10. Do you have a good up to date source?

Best I can find is this.
https://www.etax.com.au/ebay-income/

I think you are right, I must have the $5k mixed up with something else.

[CatalinaWOW]

Getting top dollar and doing no work is a tough combination.  The no work part is easy though.  Most places here in the US have auction houses that specialize in buying estates, failed businesses and the like and selling them off.  Just do a Google search for nearby auction houses.  Expect something like 10 to 30 percent of what you might get selling them yourself via here, ham swaps and ebay.  But you will be done in a few days, whereas selling them off for top dollar would take months or years.  You could also sell them cheap on those venues and get faster returns, but still measured in weeks or months and would involve all the work of marketing and shipping and dealing with the occasional crook buyer.

[coromonadalix]

yeah  do a list, 

put it on a well build pallet / skid,  send all of this in one shot to an auction house  ....  you receive what its sold minus the comission and be done

... and with respect  move on to other things

[Ed.Kloonk]

Getting top dollar and doing no work is a tough combination.  The no work part is easy though.  Most places here in the US have auction houses that specialize in buying estates, failed businesses and the like and selling them off.  Just do a Google search for nearby auction houses.  Expect something like 10 to 30 percent of what you might get selling them yourself via here, ham swaps and ebay.  But you will be done in a few days, whereas selling them off for top dollar would take months or years.  You could also sell them cheap on those venues and get faster returns, but still measured in weeks or months and would involve all the work of marketing and shipping and dealing with the occasional crook buyer.

I think if you can somehow space out the work over a certain period of time that that negates the hard work aspect.

My sympathies to the OP. As somebody who has buried too many fellow soldiers, I can appreciate the predicament. Imagine being bound by Australian law and then being named in the Will as the executor. The Will stated that the beneficiaries of all proceeds are named as a couple of step children (girls) whose legal guardian (their mother, not named) has been estranged for some period along with said juvenile beneficiaries.

You, the executor have the legal responsibility to ensure that proceeds of any sale attracts the most amount possible. Yet the estranged guardian (not the not-of-age beneficiaries) insisted on a fire sale/garage sale approach.

As executor, offering to acquire all assets for a sum of cash is considered legally precarious. And any profit from those proceeds of that could be considered challenge-able by the benefactors at some later date.

[CatalinaWOW]

Getting top dollar and doing no work is a tough combination.  The no work part is easy though.  Most places here in the US have auction houses that specialize in buying estates, failed businesses and the like and selling them off.  Just do a Google search for nearby auction houses.  Expect something like 10 to 30 percent of what you might get selling them yourself via here, ham swaps and ebay.  But you will be done in a few days, whereas selling them off for top dollar would take months or years.  You could also sell them cheap on those venues and get faster returns, but still measured in weeks or months and would involve all the work of marketing and shipping and dealing with the occasional crook buyer.

I think if you can somehow space out the work over a certain period of time that that negates the hard work aspect.

My sympathies to the OP. As somebody who has buried too many fellow soldiers, I can appreciate the predicament. Imagine being bound by Australian law and then being named in the Will as the executor. The Will stated that the beneficiaries of all proceeds are named as a couple of step children (girls) whose legal guardian (their mother, not named) has been estranged for some period along with said juvenile beneficiaries.

You, the executor have the legal responsibility to ensure that proceeds of any sale attracts the most amount possible. Yet the estranged guardian (not the not-of-age beneficiaries) insisted on a fire sale/garage sale approach.

As executor, offering to acquire all assets for a sum of cash is considered legally precarious. And any profit from those proceeds of that could be considered challenge-able by the benefactors at some later date.

Your point is well taken.  I have been in that situation.  In the US it is legally allowed for the executor to charge "reasonable" rates for their time.  I initially intended to charge nothing. (Lawyers generally consider $100+ per hour reasonable).  But as the time spent dealing will all of that approached a thousand hours I began to understand charging.  The reasonable fee thing might be a defense of a lot sale approach.  Along with pointing out that the assets are being broken down into like goods to improve value (House, vehicles, electronics, etc ). In addition since it is the spouse selling most inheritance rules are greatly relaxed.  Those are legal questions us sparkies can be aware of, but cannot give advice on.

The bottom line is as always TANSTAAFL.  There ain't no such thing as a free lunch.

[super7800]

I'd find a good local auction house. Here in mn that's k-bid. Many of those are turn key operations requiring very little from you. However you won't get top dollar and they do take a cut, but it is easy. It's what I recommend to anyone who doesn't want to deal with ebay. Ebay also takes 12.5% or so.

[bdunham7]

Imagine being bound by Australian law and then being named in the Will as the executor. The Will stated that the beneficiaries of all proceeds are named as a couple of step children (girls) whose legal guardian (their mother, not named) has been estranged for some period along with said juvenile beneficiaries.

Do you not have the option of declining to serve as executor?  My threshold for bailing out of such obligations is pretty low.  For example if someone names me as executor/personal representative but fails to waive bond, I'll likely decline.  If the beneficiaries are contentious, I'll bail as well. 

[Stray Electron]

Getting top dollar and doing no work is a tough combination.  The no work part is easy though.  Most places here in the US have auction houses that specialize in buying estates, failed businesses and the like and selling them off.  Just do a Google search for nearby auction houses.  Expect something like 10 to 30 percent of what you might get selling them yourself via here, ham swaps and ebay.  But you will be done in a few days, whereas selling them off for top dollar would take months or years.  You could also sell them cheap on those venues and get faster returns, but still measured in weeks or months and would involve all the work of marketing and shipping and dealing with the occasional crook buyer.

   FWIW, the last in-person auction house that I dealt with charged the seller 30% commission and charged the buyer a 20% "Premium" plus sales tax.  There a number of flippers in the area that will take your stuff and sell it on E-bay and charge you 50% commission but in my experience they usually don't know anything about the items that they're selling or how to test them or how to even describe them so they get far less than market value of the items that they're selling.  Also I know several large scale E-bay sellers that get very good TE but that refuse to test it or to even turn it on and the result is that they get FAR less than market value for their items. 

   Catalina is 100% correct;  no work, not willing to ship and getting anywhere near the market value of the item is an impossible combination.

   In my experience and assuming that you're selling on Ebay, anything that turns on and the buttons do something and the display changes but is otherwise untested is worth about 20 to 50% of the market value.  Things that won't even turn on or that the seller won't test the keys are worth about 10 to 15%. And if you don't have a few good photos, the value drops even further. AND if you won't ship; well, the value is near zero. Let me make this 100% clear, there is almost NO market on Ebay for specialized items such as  expensive TE  that can only be picked up in person.   If you're selling anywhere other than E-bay, I wouldn't expect to get more than 50% of the value that you could get on E-bay under the same conditions. That is for individual items, if you're selling it all as a lot them you can expect to get for far less. 

   That's just the way that the market for TE is.

   PS to add, when I was selling TE on Ebay I could get nearly double the price that most other sellers got simply because I was willing to ship things to Europe and other overseas areas when most sellers did not want to go to the trouble of dealing with the additional paperwork.  The point is; you aren't willing to do what's needed then you're not going to get the highest price.

   There is a lot of work involved in getting the best price for TE and if you aren't willing to do them all, i.e. Testing, Photographing, Writing good descriptions, Dealing with Questions, Packing and Shipping (including overseas) and Dealing with E-bay and Paying their fees, and occasionally dealing with the Fraudsters then you're not going to get the full value of the items. 

   My 2 cents worth,

   

[james_s]

   In my experience and assuming that you're selling on Ebay, anything that turns on and the buttons do something and the display changes but is otherwise untested is worth about 20 to 50% of the market value.  Things that won't even turn on or that the seller won't test the keys are worth about 10 to 15%. And if you don't have a few good photos, the value drops even further. AND if you won't ship; well, the value is near zero. Let me make this 100% clear, there is almost NO market on Ebay for specialized items such as  expensive TE  that can only be picked up in person.   If you're selling anywhere other than E-bay, I wouldn't expect to get more than 50% of the value that you could get on E-bay under the same conditions. That is for individual items, if you're selling it all as a lot them you can expect to get for far less. 

That seems low to me. My experience is that gear that won't turn on sells for around 50% of what tested working equipment does, but I guess it depends on just what sort of gear it is. Personally I'm willing to pay more for something that won't turn on but is in good cosmetic condition than I will for something that is fully working but beat up or well worn because I can usually fix the former. "Doesn't power up" is one of my favorite faults because usually it's relatively easy to fix and likely involves jellybean parts rather than custom unobtanium components. I do agree about the shipping though, ebay is not really the place to go if you won't ship, you miss out on the single major benefit of ebay which is the large audience.

[sokoloff]

I will also often take a gamble on "doesn't power up" type of listings, but rarely to a full 50% of claimed-working value.

Because the closing price of an auction is determined by the willingness to pay of the second-highest bidder, you need to find two people who want to take a chance on your "doesn't power up; can't test" listing, which doesn't always happen.

[Stray Electron]

You, the executor have the legal responsibility to ensure that proceeds of any sale attracts the most amount possible. Yet the estranged guardian (not the not-of-age beneficiaries) insisted on a fire sale/garage sale approach.

As executor, offering to acquire all assets for a sum of cash is considered legally precarious. And any profit from those proceeds of that could be considered challenge-able by the benefactors at some later date.

   I agree. I don't know that the OP is considering that but if I were the executor I would be VERY cautious about buying any items from the estate. That opens up a huge possible conflict of interest. All it would take is for any one of the beneficiaries to look at Ebay prices (particularly the ridiculous ASKING prices) for something like an HP 34401 and then complain that the executor cheated them out of that price. 

   In this state and probably most, if not all, states in the US the executor is allowed to charge a reasonable fee for their work and more importantly the estate has to pay them for any reasonable expenses that they incur.   Long story short, the executor can hire an auctioneer or an Estate Sale company or packers or movers to help them sell the items and the executor is entitled to be fully reimbursed out of the estate proceeds. That should include E-bay and PayPal fees, boxes and packing costs, etc for sales on Ebay (or elsewhere) as well.  You just need to keep receipts and records of everything.  In theory, although they are reimbursed for their expenses, the executor makes nothing from handling someone's estate and so they should not incur any kind of tax liability. 

   I've been through this three times in two states in about the last five years.

   " Yet the estranged guardian (not the not-of-age beneficiaries) insisted on a fire sale/garage sale approach."

   Hmm. I'm not sure if the guardian's WISHES or their authority overrides that of the appointed/designated estate executor but I don't think that it does. At least not in the US states where I've been involved. Ask your lawyer. A lawyers fee is another expense that the estate should pay. (Been there done that.)

   Being an estate executor sucks. For a lot of reasons. And you're never going to make everyone happy. 

[james_s]

There are deals now and then, but I've found very few deals on any sort of TE since before the pandemic. Prior to that could get bargains fairly often. Shipping has gotten crazy expensive too so that also limits what deals can be found.

[Stray Electron]

  I've bought hundreds of pieces of TE for E-bay over the years but NONE in the past five or so years. Not only has shipping gotten stupidly expensive but there are a LOT of clueless sellers on E-Greed that start their items at exorbitant prices! Usually items that were very obviously beat up and/or were incomplete and that were almost always untested! The "Reconditioned" category on E-bay is laughable! Almost everything that I've seen listed in the condition has had broken knobs, missing probes, smashed displays and the sellers usually don't even wipe the dirt off or clean off the stickers!  I don't waste my time even looking at anything in that category any longer!

  When I sold on Ebay I always started my items at very cheap prices usually $9.99, or $49 is it was an expensive item, and I always got a lot of bids.  I noticed that some sellers would have high starting prices (but still below what the item was probably worth) but no one would bid on their item.

  Good luck OP.  My advice is to look at the SOLD prices for the same items on E-bay and then derate the value according to the amount of work that you or someone else is willing to do in order to sell the stuff and then price the items accordingly.  Once you have a price in mind, come back to this forum and list the stuff with prices and terms and conditions (such as local pickup only, cash only, etc) ) in the For Sale section. Also post up the list on Facebook Marketplace and on Craigslist in your area.

[james_s]

I've always started stuff cheap too, usually the bare minimum that is worth my time to pack the thing up, sometimes less. I've always found that starting cheap drums up a lot more interest and the final price is much higher than the bare minimum I would have taken for it while if I start something at a higher price it gets no bids at all. If I want top dollar I usually list as buy it now or best offer.

[zzattack]

Sorry for your loss.
Can't help but feel that most of the listed equipment would sell on this very forum both quickly and with very reasonable yield.

[coromonadalix]

For sure it could sell    but it is still the logistic we talked about

just powering the units ?    do some tests ?    sold them as is ?

packaging them ?  shipping them ?    do tell or write  sold / no return

It's a lot of work,  and the OP did not put all the other stuff

Its a very big job .. long process  etc  ....  even not going for "top dollars"   

All given  previous answers are good in their own ways,  but it really depend of HOW the OP want to end this .... fast and simple  or it will  take a long period,   host all the stuff somewhere ?  or keep it where it is, and it could become emotional baggage to see all of this  etc ........


FOR NOW we guesstimate and the OP did not answered anything since ...  must be busy with the loss of his friend .. we simply wait ?

[edavid]

FOR NOW we guesstimate and the OP did not answered anything since

We do know the answers - the widow wants to sell the house, so she needs to get the stuff out.  She wants to get rid of it in one lot.  She doesn't want to ship.  She can't accept returns.

I don't know why people are posting about the ins and outs of eBay when OP already ruled that out.

[sokoloff]

We do know the answers - the widow wants to sell the house, so she needs to get the stuff out.  She wants to get rid of it in one lot.  She doesn't want to ship.  She can't accept returns.

I don't know why people are posting about the ins and outs of eBay when OP already ruled that out.

I agree with you overall, but I think there is one line that dragging in some of these other comments.

I would hope some place could show up and make her a decent offer to take all of it.

Anyone who shows up and makes an offer for all of it is likely to be a terribly low offer. (Which is entirely fair and reasonable IMO, even though it won't feel like it to the person receiving that offer.)

[Bobertsawesome]

Not eBay's fault, it's the tyrannical IRS and government's fault. Personally, they can kiss my ass. eBay has no choice.

[EEVblog]

I don't know why people are posting about the ins and outs of eBay when OP already ruled that out.

I mentioned a professional ebay merchant. There should one local to the OP. They will take and sell your stuff on ebay for you and keep a percentage.

[edavid]

I don't know why people are posting about the ins and outs of eBay when OP already ruled that out.

I mentioned a professional ebay merchant. There should one local to the OP. They will take and sell your stuff on ebay for you and keep a percentage.

You occasionally see one of those, but the idea hasn't really caught on in the US, except for certain specialized areas like designer clothing.  I definitely would not trust one with the equipment that was mentioned.  Also, they give the items back if they don't sell, which is obviously not viable in this case.

[Bobertsawesome]

For test equipment that's probably 80% of eBay listings are buyout/surplus resellers. Not sure if they buy from individuals, however. I'm assuming most if not all of their business is through school clearouts and auctions.

[james_s]

I think it's perfectly reasonable to sell this stuff as-is no returns, just power up the gear, take pictures, post it, sell, done. You won't get as much as you would likely get for fully tested certified working gear but plenty of people like myself will roll the dice on something that looks like it's in good shape. Since the goal is to get rid of the gear and get it to people that can use it rather than maximum profit this should be fine. You could post it on the sale section of this forum too, generally people here tend to be looking for bargains but that may be fine since again you are wanting to optimize for quick low hassle sales rather than max profit.

[alligatorblues]

You could make a deal that you'll get them double what selling it all at once would get, but you take 15% off the top.

[modz786]

just list the whole Lab on ebay as a job lot buyer collects.

simple single listing with model numbers and see the bids

[Zucca]

1) take a lot of pictures and post them here
2) Collect best offers in private messages
3) discuss shipping with potential buyers
4) sell and get the money
5) package it well and ship it to buyer

for international buyers outside US there are reshipping company if you don't want to deal with customs papers.

[CatalinaWOW]

1) take a lot of pictures and post them here
2) Collect best offers in private messages
3) discuss shipping with potential buyers
4) sell and get the money
5) package it well and ship it to buyer

for international buyers outside US there are reshipping company if you don't want to deal with customs papers.

A good way to get relatively good prices for the items.  But items 1-4 take a modest amount of work and a surprising amount of time.  And item 5 is both time consuming and moderately difficult. 

If getting rid of this stuff was really easy and lucrative there would be people going door to door looking for stashes to sell.  And advertisements everywhere by people hoping to find folks possessing these stashes.

Just as a calibration point.  If this was within a couple hundred miles of me I would probably make an offer to buy the lot.  It would be somewhere in the 10-30% of the expected return.  If the offer was accepted I would take a trailer and get it, and then expect to be selling it for a couple of years to reach break even.  That has been my experience doing this on things within driving range of me.  It has left me with some nice gear for my own use, and allowed me to fully cover my costs, but also has left me with quite a few cubic meters of stuff that hasn't and probably won't sell and will eventually go to a dump.  At additional cost to me for the environmental fees.

[james_s]

just list the whole Lab on ebay as a job lot buyer collects.

simple single listing with model numbers and see the bids

You might as well just give it away for free at that point. You'll limit your market so drastically with those constraints that you're virtually guaranteed to get bottom dollar for it because only a handful of people will both be local and able to take the entire lot. Might even lose money by the time you pay the ebay fees.

[james_s]

It has left me with some nice gear for my own use, and allowed me to fully cover my costs, but also has left me with quite a few cubic meters of stuff that hasn't and probably won't sell and will eventually go to a dump.  At additional cost to me for the environmental fees.

Have a garage sale, put that stuff in the free pile. Somebody out there will take pretty much any sort of equipment, if only to do a teardown and salvage a few bits. If it's made of metal then scrappers will want the metal stuff. You shouldn't have to pay to get rid of any of it.

[Bud]

Any metal left by the curb in the evening here disappears before sunrise.

[Chris56000]

  I've bought hundreds of pieces of TE for E-bay over the years but NONE in the past five or so years. Not only has shipping gotten stupidly expensive but there are a LOT of clueless sellers on E-Greed that start their items at exorbitant prices! Usually items that were very obviously beat up and/or were incomplete and that were almost always untested! The "Reconditioned" category on E-bay is laughable! Almost everything that I've seen listed in the condition has had broken knobs, missing probes, smashed displays and the sellers usually don't even wipe the dirt off or clean off the stickers!  I don't waste my time even looking at anything in that category any longer!

A certain well–known nation's eBay Sellers on the eastern coast of the Med. used to be absolutely notorious for this, as has been mentioned by other members as "selling stuff that looks like a tank has run over it!", lately the quality of what's being sold from this direction has showed some distinct signs of improvement, but the shipping and customs are still far from gratifying!

Chris Williams

[daveyk]

I had put her on to a number of resellers and emailed the re-sellers the information.  Not one of them have gotten back to me, or her.

Lynchburg, VA is kind of in the middle of nowhere, VA, and they are in a beautiful three story home up in the mountains.  She needs to move this year.

I wish I wasn't 5 hours away.  I need to plan a trip there to help her out.  I just don't have room for more equipment.  I may grab the parts, some fixtures, and the Fluke bench DVM.  She said I could have that and that Dennis would have wanted that.

I could store the scopes, gens, attens in my shed and try to sell them on EBAY for her.  I don't know what to do.  EBAY selling is a real pain in the ass.  I would take pictures and pre-box the items.  A lot of work and then try to sell them one or two at a time.  That is if she wants and will allow me to do that.

When I go there, I think most of the stuff will end up at Goodwill. So keep an eye out on ShopGoodWill.  There may be some bargains on test gear coming soon.

Dave

[daveyk]

It's just too sad for me.  There a few people on here that messaged me that would like to offer to buy the whole lot.  One out of Indianapolis, One out of Phili, and one out of DC.  Sheila's information has been given to them.  She has not heard from one of them.  The ones in Indianapolis won't respond to me on here via PM any more, life intervened for the one in Philli, and she is still awaiting a call from the one in D.C..

Hopefully "Alltest" will contact her tomorrow.  I was able to email them pictures of all his stuff and lab.

I need to get down there in two weeks, to go over Dennis's fixtures, block sets, and parts (not that I have the room for a whole set of part drawers).  She wants to move and that lab is just stuffed.  She has that to worry about in addition to normal household stuff and she's no spring chicken (and I am not either).

Dennis's equipment is in pristine condition with all the original boxes. Unlike me, he was very particular (my bench is a freaking mess - lol).  Most of the equipment, sans the two Lekroy scopes, still have the peal off cellophane on the screens.

[Stray Electron]

   That's a SAD situation. Growing up, my friends and I would have done anything to be able to get even crappy Radio Shack equipment and there was a big demand for any kind of electronics, TE or ham radio equipment. But today very few people are interested in electronics as a hobby and the ones that are almost exclusively older people that don't need or want any more equipment. One of my local friends just died and his family still hasn't figured out what to do with his radios and electronics and another friend is going blind and literally just trying to give away all of his electronics and we can't find anyone locally that is interested.  I would love to have some of the stuff that the OP has listed but I'm 900 miles from Lynchburg and in addition, my house and garage are PACKED full as it is.

  As much as I hate to say it, electronics as a hobby is dying.

[james_s]

Electronics as a hobby has been on life support for ~40 years. It received a HUGE boost from the Arduino, maker culture and related stuff but it's still kind of a niche thing. That said, test equipment on ebay still gets bid well beyond what it would have cost just 4-5 years ago so clearly *someone* is still buying this stuff. It's not just sky high asking prices, though there is a lot of that, actual bids go pretty high on a lot of gear. Hard to even find an old analog scope for under $100 or so.

[Construct]

Condolences about your friend.

FYI there is a lot of misinformation about eBay and the IRS in this thread. If the sale price of the items is less than what you paid for them, you do not have to pay taxes.

If someone was operating a hobby and using eBay as a storefront to sell their goods (for profit) then they would be obligated to pay taxes on them.

[bdunham7]

If the sale price of the items is less than what you paid for them, you do not have to pay taxes.

But you have to account for everything and if audited, provide proof of the items cost and sales price.  And unless you are setup and operating at least as a Schedule C business, you probably can't deduct any costs or expenses. 

[edavid]

And unless you are setup and operating at least as a Schedule C business, you probably can't deduct any costs or expenses.

For a non-business sale, the costs and expenses do offset the sale price.  You just can't use a loss to offset other income:

Report your costs, up to but not more than the proceeds amount (the Form 1099-K amount), on Part II – Line 24z – Other Adjustments, using the description "Form 1099-K Personal Item Sold at a Loss."

For the details see:

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/form-1099-k-frequently-asked-questions-general