OK, perhaps you don't qualify for any TARP or other government stimulus funding. But there still a way your red, white and blue Uncle can save you money. All you need to do is bid on and win any of the mountains of surplus parts and equipment that the government doesn't want anymore. It's patriotic, it's "green" since you're recycling this unused equipment, and it's often a huge bargain.
When we think of government military surplus, things like jeeps, boots and tents come to mind. Oh, you can still get those if you want them. But the inventory of government surplus now in warehouses nationwide goes far beyond those usual military items. How far? How about high technology parts and equipment like computers and telephone gear?
Let's have a look at some of the items up for bid as of this writing. Would you be interested in a lot of 100 telephones that include some Nortel Network model M3902 phones? How about a pallet or so of telephone wire?
Do you find fiber optic equipment a tad expensive? Would you be interested in a Cisco LightStream 1010 ATM switch? There's one available.
There's test equipment, too. How about a Packeteer PacketWise Technology Packet Shaper 6500 protocol analyzer? Looks like this one cost $19,000 to acquire. I'll be you can get it for a lot less.
On a more mundane level, there are 9 pallets of printers and fax machines from manufactures like HP, Xerox and Lexmark awaiting your perusal. Why just go out and pick up a printer when you can have a truck load of them?
Well, maybe you'd just like a nice video projector. Or 4 pallets of Pentium IV desktop computers. Or some IBM ThinkPad docking stations.
Where did I find all this stuff? It's online at Government Liquidation. This is a site where you can register to bid on official U.S. government surplus equipment and supplies.
They also have a selection of items you can just buy outright. Most of these are clothing, but they did have a couple of types of computer speakers available the last time I looked.
If you've ever enjoyed browsing in local surplus stores, you'll find yourself spending a lot of "coffee break" time looking over the latest offerings online. Just tell the boss that you're researching ways to save the company a bundle and perhaps nobody will look closely enough to see that you are really checking out aircraft parts or inflatable boats. Who knows, you may just stumble across a great deal on a PBX system or some expensive fiber optic routers that you can get for a song.
