My Friend's entire Lab

[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.