Huuuuge lot of test gear, should I nab it?

[joshhunsaker]

http://medford.craigslist.org/ele/4545113336.html

I'm really leaning toward taking a chunk out of my savings account to pick this up.  I'm not sure what to do.  Looks like some fantastic pieces of kit in there and parts and components like you wouldn't believe.  Ugh.  I'm totally torn.  I need someone to talk me into it or out of it lol.

Talked to the guy on the phone already to get a general idea of his angle.  He's a nice enough guy.  He was totally adamant that it would take 2 people an entire day to move all this stuff into a huge trailer or moving truck.   

[Vgkid]

That is a huge amount of test gear, you could easily make your money back on the test gear alone, not familiar on the ham gear. You would need alot of space to store it though.

[joshhunsaker]

That is a huge amount of test gear, you could easily make your money back on the test gear alone, not familiar on the ham gear. You would need alot of space to store it though.

I could totally stash it both at my work and massive spare bedroom that's basically empty (tons of the pieces I would put into immediate use in my R&D lab).  There are some very interesting pieces in there.  And the antennas...!  Man, I'm still having trouble putting up that kind of cash though (not that it's not worth it, just I want to make sure I have a fair amount in savings all the time).

[gaijin]

If I was in the area I would already be there with a truck.

[dfnr2]

Josh,

At one time, perhaps up until about 10 years ago, about the golden age for buyers at internet auctions, for a lower price, this would be the start of a nice lab setup. However, today, you can take that $2900 and put together a very capable, very nice lab setup that will have exactly what you want in it, and will take up much no more space than you need.

I do love those Tek mainframe scopes--they are superbly engineered.  They are also obsolete.  I have two, and keep them in running condition, only out of love.  They take up too much space, and I never use them.  For those who argue that analog scopes are somehow less tricky or reveal more information than digital scopes, I would say that if you don't know how to look at the signal on a digital scope, then you probably aren't fit to interpret one on an analog scope either. 

I say don't do it.

Dave

[rstoer]

If I was in the area I would already be there with a truck.

Me too. Go for it!

[mikeselectricstuff]

If everything is pictured I'd give it a miss - a lot of it us very old, don't think it's a spectacular bargain

[AndyC_772]

It looks like quite a good way to take a lot of valuable empty space, and turn it into a millstone around your neck.

What would you actually do with all that stuff? Sell off a few items that are still vaguely useful on Ebay, and then what?

All my lab equipment, parts and projects between them occupy the space of one cupboard, a few drawers, a set of shelves, and a modest bench. That's it - and it's not just for hobbies, it's how I make a full time living. I just can't fathom how anyone could need, or really benefit from, that sheer amount of stuff, even if it was all new and useful.

I guess the clue is that the guy who owns it all has found no better option than to sell it all in one go to some other poor devil, who has too much storage space and not enough useful things to do with it.

[zapta]

One man's trash is another man's treasure. I prefer to buy things that I need and when I need them.

[free_electron]

In my opinion : junk. But, who am i ...
All old stuff for very old machines. Working state unknown....
You could sell some stuff off on ebay but most of it will fetch 50$. So 30 plugins. That fetches 1500$ not accounting time and shipping..
So you give 1500$ for a bu ch of old aluminum, coax wire and so e miscellaneous old instruments.

It's sort of a fair price for the volume, but you will end up with a lot of stuff that will collect dust for a long time.

Spend the 2900 dollar on new stuff. You can get a really nice scope, multimetr, power supply and soldering station for that. Far better investment than a truckload of scrap.

[Refrigerator]

So much test gear.....god...DAMN!

[nanofrog]

At one time, perhaps up until about 10 years ago, about the golden age for buyers at internet auctions, for a lower price, this would be the start of a nice lab setup. However, today, you can take that $2900 and put together a very capable, very nice lab setup that will have exactly what you want in it, and will take up much no more space than you need.

I say don't do it.

Excellent point IMHO.  $2900 can allow for one heck of a nice lab these days.

There's also the issue of how much physical storage space would be needed, and transportation to shift all of that stuff (seller mentioned a 48 ft. semi trailer to move all of it to it's current location). Just don't think the financial aspects work, particularly once these two factors are considered along with the purchase price.

[joshhunsaker]

It looks like quite a good way to take a lot of valuable empty space, and turn it into a millstone around your neck.

What would you actually do with all that stuff?

Well, that's actually the big part of the thing that colors this deal... with the R&D lab I run at work, I have a room completely chock full of gear and honestly it's not nearly enough.  We're going to be hiring more employees and people to handle quality control and extraneous development so having as much equipment as humanly possible can only become more and more useful as time goes on (for my position in the business).  Just the parts, ICs, passives and antennas alone would be invaluable for the design work I'm doing currently...

<sigh>

I can tell you, a massive amount of this stuff would immediately start getting daily use.  But I also totally get what people mean about how much $2900 will buy for a modern lab anyway going the piece-meal route through ebay (that's what I've been doing up to this point). Hmmmm 

I've already got a great rework station, a decent DSO, numerous multimeters, high-end measurement microphones, anemometers, accelerometers, lux meters, etc. etc.  But I need enough so people under me can be doing simultaneous development and research.

[RRobot]

Reading the sellers description, I get the impression this stuff has been picked over since 2010, leaving the bits people didn't want.

From what I can tell its basically a ton of obsolete, possibly non-working equipment, a small handful of very specialized equipment, also in unknown working order and a quite a pile of parts and rf connectors. It probably worth whats he's asking. But if there was much gold in them thar hills a large reseller would be buying it.

Its not something I would do unless collecting/selling old equipment was my hobby. It will take forever to sell that stuff.

[Alex Eisenhut]

This isn't so much "test gear" as much as a hoarder's life-long work.

Too many bits and pieces, not enough actual working stand-alone test gear.

It's all junk. Seriously. The logistics alone of moving so much crap should worry you.

2900$ and an afternoon on eBay will get you far more capable and small modern supported test gear and enough coin left over for a superb single malt.

At which point you email me to invite me for a sip...

[jucole]

i'd say  ;  you could easily buy lots of real nice stuff on Ebay with the same money;   also those tubes might contain just shift registers -  left over after he finished his 20ft led cube!  ;-)

[joshhunsaker]

Well, I talked him down to $2500...?? 

[nctnico]

It might be a nice lot of equipment to piece out and sell on Ebay. But the price has to be right. Around $500 or something like that to make another $500 in profit. I think you'll make more money by working the same amount of hours at Wall-mart.

[Electronics-Repairman]

Yep  think I'd buy and keep it as a ham some nice gear there, and the tower if it working OK worth a fortune, and I'll bet there's a yagi beam or two with it, if it's a mosley your in the money

[AndyC_772]

with the R&D lab I run at work, I have a room completely chock full of gear and honestly it's not nearly enough.  We're going to be hiring more employees and people to handle quality control and extraneous development so having as much equipment as humanly possible can only become more and more useful as time goes on

Well, OK, but I'm still reminded of a history teacher I had back at school... I swear he used to weigh homework rather than actually read it. Quantity was king.

If I were working in an R&D lab, I'd know what I was working on and would have clear, specific requirements for the gear that was needed to get the job done. It might not have to be new, but it would have to be well suited to the task at hand, and above all else, reliable and functional.

If my manager dumped a pile of obsolete gear on me which he'd bought as part of a job lot, and expected me to sort through it to pick out anything that might be useful, he'd get a short, clear and unambiguous answer - shortly followed by a new vacancy in his R&D dept.

[joshhunsaker]

If my manager dumped a pile of obsolete gear on me which he'd bought as part of a job lot, and expected me to sort through it to pick out anything that might be useful, he'd get a short, clear and unambiguous answer - shortly followed by a new vacancy in his R&D dept.

haha    Yeah I know exactly what you mean.  I had to build our R&D department from scratch within the past year and half.  There's very little formality in my area because everything that I've introduced the company to is so incredibly new and foreign to all the other employees.  I have a lot of freedom, but sometimes I have to work from shoestring budgets and buy my own gear because no-one else properly understands how important it is to have the right tool for a specific job.  A tremendous amount of my job is actually R&D in its most pure form, wherein I basically spend a ton of time doing ultra obscure kinds of tests and learning things like crazy until I stumble across some gem I can use for future development or to fix a major problem in our product lifecycles.

I can't say I'm a trained professional, and the people I work with are young and in it to learn and discover too.  Me foisting a huge lot of potentially not quite working equipment is less an experience of "wtf why can't we have nicer things" and more like "holy crap let's test everything and see if we can use it or cannibalize it".

I guess in a way that's why I love my current job so much.  The environment is radically different from anything else I've even heard of.

[nctnico]

I very sure the people you work with will have much more fun using more modern equipment. Good equipment gets the job done faster. In some occasions I even took my own equipment to my work for certain measurements just to show my boss how buying equipment is done properly 

[joshhunsaker]

I very sure the people you work with will have much more fun using more modern equipment. Good equipment gets the job done faster. In some occasions I even took my own equipment to my work for certain measurements just to show my boss how buying equipment is done properly 

I know, that's been one of the big frustrations.  At the end of the day I end up just having to tell myself that I'm still very lucky to have this job and it will be a springboard to better things in the future if nothing else...

[KJDS]

That lot? in a pro R&D environment?

You're aving a laugh.

I've no objection to having one old high speed tek scope about, if it's been taken care of and is working properly, great for high speed switch measurements, but most of what is there is junk, or outdated, or in need of repair or all three.

[EEVblog]

So this is for your company in a pro R&D lab?
In that case I'd give it a complete miss. Go buy what you specifically need, either new or 2nd hand if really needed.