07 June 2002

Outfitting Your Laboratory Part IV: Auctions and the Internet

By David Dechant

Another source of laboratory equipment for the amateur scientist is the Internet. Here you can get information on government surplus auctions, web based auctions, and website locations specializing in equipment information and sales. The government surplus sales are held regionally and can take the form of public auctions, and/or sealed bid auctions. The sales I attend are public auctions, which are held at a Center for Disease Control surplus warehouse near my home. The auctions are also held at military bases, NASA surplus centers, and other government installations across the United States. The website address for finding one of these auctions in your region is www.surplussales.gsa.gov. Click on "regional sales" from the menu and then click on your state from the displayed map and you will see the locations of auctions and the type of surplus being sold. For example, since I live in Georgia I would click on it and the auctions listed for all the states in the southeastern region would be displayed with the location and time of auction with a brief summary of the sale items or lots. By clicking on the sale you may be interested in attending you will see a few more details of what is being sold along with the merchandise viewing time and auction start time. The auctions are fun and a great deal can be learned just by looking at all of the different equipment and supplies used in research laboratories. Credit cards, cashiers checks, and of course cash are the standard forms of payment for the merchandise. I always leave my credit card at home and take a set amount of cash. I do not deviate from this pattern as it is very easy to get into a bidding war over a lot that contains some piece of equipment you suddenly feel you just cannot live without.

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I recommend that you arrive at the auction early. You must register at the door, which involves filling out a form with your address and phone number. You will then receive a bidding number and an inventory sheet of the lots (a "lot" is one or more pallets of merchandise with a number on it) and a description of what is in each lot. During the viewing time, you are free to look at what is in each lot. Never, ever take anything from one lot and place it with another as you will be escorted out of the facility. Be very careful when looking through the merchandise as there may be broken glass or other sharp objects protruding in unsuspecting places, a small flashlight and a pair of gloves can be of great use here. Look at the lots you are interested in and fix a dollar amount of what you are willing to spend on that lot and record it on your inventory sheet. It helps to have some idea of what the items sell for new to assist you in determining the amount of money you want to invest in that lot.

For example, the first auction I attended I went prepared with a list of items on a clipboard that I wanted to purchase for my laboratory. After registering and viewing all the lots, I realized that I wanted almost all of the lots being auctioned off and that I clearly did not have enough money to make that happen. So I went around about half a dozen times reexamining all the lots until I had the number of lots and the money I was willing to spend on them evenly matched. When the auction started the auctioneer explained the bidding rules and how the dollar amounts would be incremented and she also gave a reminder that if you are a successful bidder, you are required to take everything in that lot, not just what you are interested in.

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At my first auction, one of the first lots auctioned off contained a Mettler research grade cantilever balance, a Fisher Acumet research grade pH meter and a small amount of other equipment that I decided I would pay no more than $25 for. The auctioneer started the bidding at $50 and no one bid on it so she lowered the bid to $25 and I bid, as it turned out I was the only bidder on that lot so I became a successful bidder. It was also the last bid I ever won even after attending dozens of auctions since then. I paid my money and returned early in the afternoon to pick up my merchandise. A major pitfall to buying any type of equipment other than glassware or small laboratory items at an auction is that you will not likely ever receive an owner/operators manual with it, or a necessary cable or sensor may be missing. This can be very discouraging. I lucked out and both Mettler and Fisher still had owner’s manuals on file for the equipment, and they gladly sent me a photocopy of each at no charge. I could also easily obtain a pH probe for this particular meter. So realize that a gas chromatograph is not worth a hill of beans without a manual unless you already know how to use it.

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What I did not realize at the time of that first auction was that many of the people bidding on this equipment were professional resellers of used laboratory equipment. They purchase the equipment at auctions or at liquidation sales all across the country, sort out the junk from what is good, and market the good equipment. So they have money to spend at these auctions, and can accept the fact that occasionally what they purchase is really junk. But they can make a real profit by spending $1000 to buy a lot with a certain brand of microscope that can be cleaned up and resold for $15000. Believe me, they know what they are doing. There are also folks who buy the lots just for the scrap value of the merchandise. I made friends with a man who did this and began giving my scrap to him. After setting a barter value on my scrap, he let me wander around his facility. This is how I obtained my vacuum pump and large centrifuge, which I paid him $50 for. This was in addition to a large amount of small items such as lenses that I bartered for.

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After attending several auctions and not obtaining any equipment, I decided I would try another technique. I introduced myself to the gentleman who typically purchased most of the lots of small laboratory equipment (after a while you get to know the regulars), explained to him why I was attending the auctions and would he sell me the small amount of the equipment that I needed. He told me I should visit his facility and I could purchase what I wanted. I took him up on the offer since his warehouse was only a one-hour drive from my residence. We made arrangements and I met him the following week. Once again I planned ahead and listed all of the equipment and glassware I wished to purchase and included the new price so that I knew whether I was getting a fair deal on the used equipment. I spent about three hours in 85° F heat rummaging through his nine tractor trailers of equipment. It was like letting a small child loose in a candy store--in short, I had fun. We became good friends in short order since we were both scavengers and amateur scientists. In the end we decided on a price that was more than reasonable for the equipment I chose to purchase and he even gave me a micro-centrifuge and a number of other items at no charge.

One week later I received a letter from him with a check for the money I had spent at his facility. In the letter he stated that he knew how hard it was to come by money when in college and said he wished to donate the equipment to me. Flabbergasted over the generosity of this man, I asked him he could use some help, he said he did and I started working for him organizing his storage trailers and helping him in any way I could. In return, I bartered for more laboratory equipment and good junk. I worked with him several days out of the year and have been able to establish quite a nice laboratory that unfortunately I do not get enough time to use just yet. About a year ago he became seriously ill and will soon be retiring from the business and I am still helping him get rid of the stuff that he cannot sell for one reason or another, but which is not entirely junk. I will have a lifetime of memories left for reflection as I use this equipment and hope that one-day I may be as kind-hearted to someone else as he still is to me.

So if you want laboratory equipment from government auctions, make a friend while you are there. Tell them you will take the junk they do not want from their lot to save them from having to haul it away and remember to offer him or her something for it even if it is junk, and you will be rewarded later on down the road.

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Another source of equipment on the Internet is e-Bay which is like an online auction or general selling place of merchandise and laboratory equipment can be found here on occasion. Also go to www.labx.com to find good used laboratory equipment at fixed prices. The sellers are usually the people you saw at an auction who are reselling the good equipment they purchased. I have never purchased any equipment on-line as I feel I must touch and personally examine any type of used equipment I purchase. But it is an option if you find a really great deal on something you really need. I typically go to labx.com to find out what current pricing is for certain items and also to keep up with what is currently on the market. To find suppliers for anything you could possible imagine, visit www.thomasregister.com. Once registered you can conduct a search on the particular item you are interested in and will be presented with a list of suppliers of that item. The company name, address, and phone number will be given and sometimes there is a direct link to their catalog. This is a good place to start if you are trying to track down an owner’s manual or parts for an old piece of equipment.

This is about it for options regarding obtaining free or inexpensive laboratory equipment. However, a few final notes are in order on how to go about organizing all of this equipment or scientific raw material that you will be acquiring. Almost all of my shelving and storage cabinets came from dumpsters or businesses that were discarding them. I worked in a metal fabricating facility for a number of years before I became a full time student and with proper approval was able to obtain scrap metal to build some customized shelving using the fabricating tools at my residence. Keep in mind when you are planning your storage needs that the more empty space you have the more stuff you will find to fill that space. Of course you will ultimately run out of room and have to refine your storage area or discard some of your less essential supplies (not likely). It is quite likely that this process will not stop until you are satisfied with the amount of equipment and supplies you posses (is this a joke?). Parts cabinets can also be used for storing small items in a compact and orderly manner. The cabinet shown and the parts it contains all came out of a dumpster, I cleaned it up and repainted it so it looks brand new.

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For larger storage containers I purchased varying sizes of cardboard boxes designed for this purpose from www.uline.com who make it their business to see that you have everything you will need to organize your raw materials. One day I happened upon a dumpster full of plastic storage bins and with a little cleaning they were quite suitable for my needs. It is absolutely amazing how all of your needs can be met when you have a goal to accomplish. For those of you who are really compulsive, and have more room than you probably should have, you could end up having a roll off scrap dumpster delivered to your own doorstep. Here my good friend David Purdy stands in a partially filled thirty cubic yard scrap metal dumpster which we filled as full as we could from my excess metal inventory. I estimate that over the years of collecting equipment and raw materials I have recycled over twenty two tons of various materials and have filled four five-gallon buckets just with screws saved from all the equipment I have stripped down (talk about compulsive). I probably still have over five tons of materials at my disposal, which saves me many trips to the hardware store. This greatly enhances my creativity as when I get an idea to build something, I can just collect what I need from my available materials and start the project. Having these items also allows me to keep home repairs and equipment maintenance costs low, since I have accumulated the materials to fix most small problems that will occasionally pop up around the house.

You now have information on how to acquire a fair amount of raw materials for your various scientific endeavors with little or no cost. I hope you have enjoyed this series of articles and that the information provided helps some of you get to where you want to go with little or no hassle. Now that you have all this stuff and it is well organized, what can you do with it? I will illustrate the types of electronic equipment and projects I have built thus far with freebies in my next article.