How to sell surplus machined parts?

[Travelover]

This way off topic and a long shot, but there is amazingly diverse knowledge base here, so I'll fish for ideas.

My father in law ran a broaching machine shop and finally retired and sold off the machinery and buildings when he was in his late 70's. He kept boxes of extra parts that he'd made and sold them occasionally. Last spring he died (in his 90's) and my mother in law still has all these boxes of parts in her basement. The parts look like they could fit military or industrial applications - mother in law is not sure. She has some of the drawings, but no idea what these parts fit. My question is, Is there a place like eBay where specialized parts are bought and sold? I hate to sell these parts for scrap prices.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

[Bird]

I would think it might be hard to sell them for anything except scrap unless you know what they are and what they fit. If you knew that, I would then expect you to be able to find a market fo them.

[Frosty2]

You could post a picture or two and see if anyone here knows what they might be.

[Taylortractornut]

try surplus center or a local outfit for the parts.

[2manyrocks]

If she still has his sales records or knows of any former employees, you might check to see who his customers were.

If he made them and he couldn't sell them knowing what they are and what they are used for, then it could be difficult to sell them.

[Travelover]

Thanks for the replies. Mother in law is 81 yo and not too sharp on this stuff, so I'll poke around her records and see if I can figure out if more information exists.

[mostly_gas]

The drawings should have company names in the title blocks. Frequently in custom manufacturing the parts are of interest to the company that originally bought them.

[jmc]

The drawings should have company names in the title blocks. Frequently in custom manufacturing the parts are of interest to the company that originally bought them.

If those parts were made to a customer's specification, it may be illegal to sell them to anyone else, except for scrap. Otherwise you would be using their intellectual property without permission. Also, for a regular company to have excess inventory is not unusual but for a job shop to have parts like that, its very possible that they didn't meet spec and were going to be reworked one of these days... Pure speculation here, of course.

John

[Travelover]

If those parts were made to a customer's specification, it may be illegal to sell them to anyone else, except for scrap. Otherwise you would be using their intellectual property without permission. Also, for a regular company to have excess inventory is not unusual but for a job shop to have parts like that, its very possible that they didn't meet spec and were going to be reworked one of these days... Pure speculation here, of course.

John

Hmmm, interesting point. I believe he made up extras once the job was set up so that when the next order came in, he could just ship them out vs doing a whole set up again.

If this is illegal, how many years do you think my 81 yo mother in law will serve?

[jmc]

Hmmm, interesting point. I believe he made up extras once the job was set up so that when the next order came in, he could just ship them out vs doing a whole set up again.

If this is illegal, how many years do you think my 81 yo mother in law will serve?

Yeah, when I owned a job shop, we used to make that gamble. It was too tempting to resist in some cases and usually paid off even after eating the last increment. As far as your MIL's prison term, it depends on her political contribution history.

John