Hello Forum. I am seeking some advice. I've got an ad running in the classifieds for a speaker hoard of incredible proportions. I do not expect any positive results there.

The advice I am seeking is ... what to do when/if this collection does not appeal to anyone reading the forum. I've searched pretty unsuccessfully (ok, absolutely unsuccessfully) for someone or a company in the USA that might be interested. So I am seeking other ideas. If all else fails, it's worth about $500 in scrap based on the actual scrap we weeded out a few months ago.

I really hate to do that but if they are truly not desirable anymore, not much option left.

Thanks, all comments, even flames lol ... welcome as always

BTW ... anyone that feels like shooting arrows at me for the blaspheme of sending these items back to their maker, might want to consider offering to store them for me first. Just sayin .... So shoot away lol.

What's wrong with them? Are they not operating field coil speakers? Are they all odd sizes or something?

There's a guy in town who buys cheap unwanted consoles with decently large dials, refinishes them, throws an Echo Dot in the cabinet, replaces the dial lamps with wild colored LEDs, and sells them that way. For some reason the speakers are not included. I would wonder what he does with them, but frankly I don't think I want to know.

It sounds like you've already tried all of the "surplus" businesses. How about contacting relevant eBay sellers? There are many and some may be looking for inventory for their eBay store.

As far as I am aware, there is nothing wrong with them. As for odd sizes, I'd venture to guess that EVERY possible size is up there somewhere. Some are field coil speakers, some are pedestal types..... something for everyone!

I may snap a few photos, but it won't really show what's there. They'd have to be unboxed for that and I'm not at that point yet.

!!word!!

My advise with difficult to move inventory. If the net profit is not there to market individually time/money then SCRAP. Puts cash in the bank and makes all other speakers in the realm worth that much more. They are not paying rent!

I consider myself a preservationest first and a profiteer second when it comes to this hobby. If I was confronted with this situation, I'd place them up for free to anybody willing to haul them off and what's left, I'll weigh in wether I'd be better off scrapping them or simply junking them. That's what I'd do.

Keep in mind, some vintage Hi-Fi speakers and some electrodynamic speakers, including pedistal speakers, can be worth insane big bucks. Posting photos of a general view of what you have could be very benificial to many people.

Barry it is a bit unlikely that someone would have a plan to handle a large quantity of items like this on short notice.
A person would not only need a place to store them but have a plan to distribute (sell off or give away) to other interested parties over time. That takes some time to figure out, not to mention the somewhat limited number of people that are aware of the situation.
You did a great service to take the huge inventory of someone else's operation. It certainly is a big job, I hope you can do justice to it.

I want to thank folks for the thoughtful comments. You've given me some things to ponder, and probably some sound (see what I did there?) advice.

Some specifically addressed comments

I consider myself a preservationest first and a profiteer second when it comes to this hobby As do I. However, as the volumetric reality of all this stuff has started to sink in, i've been slowly modifying my thinking. For example, an entity may be able to sell an occasional battery set rheostat. Ok, fine. ... how about a full pallet of them, consisting of thousands? .

If I was confronted with this situation, I'd place them up for free to anybody willing to haul them off and what's left, I'll weigh in whether I'd be better off scrapping them or simply junking them. A great idea, and one I had not yet considered. As I am in no particular hurry, this might be a good solution should no one be willing to buy them outright. I'd like to recover SOME of my costs eventually lol.

Keep in mind, some vintage Hi-Fi speakers and some electrodynamic speakers, including pedestal speakers, can be worth insane big bucks. Posting photos of a general view of what you have could be very beneficial to many people. Noted, and may be done. However, I really have no intention of selling these piece by piece, which is why I'm offering them up to someone that MAY want to do this

Barry it is a bit unlikely that someone would have a plan to handle a large quantity of items like this on short notice. No timeline in mind, as I noted up above, but there will come a time eventually when they just have to vacate the shelves due to no one wanting them

A person would not only need a place to store them but have a plan to distribute (sell off or give away) to other interested parties over time. That takes some time to figure out, not to mention the somewhat limited number of people that are aware of the situation. PLEASE help me find someone!!! I'll work with the mythical individual described here, both as far as cost, and time needed, if there is an end game in sight.

You did a great service to take the huge inventory of someone else's operation. It certainly is a big job, I hope you can do justice to it. Thank you, and I hope I'm able to save most of this.
The sheer volume far exceeded my initial survey lol.

OK, I'll try...here is one example of an eBay seller (near you) that understands our hobby: Leo K8PYD, ~14,000 feedbacks

https://feedback.ebay.com/fdbk/feedback_profile/k8pyd

There are many other eBay sellers that understand our hobby and they are easy to find and communicate with. Perhaps there are some that need inventory at reasonable prices?

Barry:

Do you have any sales records from Gary that indicate how many speakers he moved in a month and if they were major brand or unknown? That should give some idea of the desirability of the unique and varied inventory.

Tim, I have not come across any yet. Good idea however, and I'll take a look in the computer again. I came across a few scattered hard copy sales receipts here and there as I was cleaning up, but i did not keep those few. There were not many.

Barry,

It looks like you don't have the time or space to hold Gary's
stock indefinitely. His inventory is truly overwhelming, and
only he knew what he had, and where it was. We have to
remember he acquired all of it over a span of almost 50
yrs, and was content to sit on it, and sell it one piece at a
time.

I would do what works for you. If no one steps up, scrap
it and get whatever you can. Gary was a unique individual,
as was his inventory. I sincerely don't believe anyone here could take it on and make a go of it. Its just too much.

Having known Gary, he was a great guy. (But a hoarder)
How many rheostats will you sell in a year? How many
speakers?

I sincerely admire you for taking this on, but there's only
so much you can do. Try to recover some of your investment and move on. The demand just isn't there for
a thousand 1920's, 1930's speakers at one clip.

Barry, I do need a field coil speaker for an old Airline. I will measure it, and get back to you.

Have you considered the ebay dump method? Listing for BIN at the very low or ridiculously low price you want to get and have it local pickup only. Toss in some general descriptions, the actual quantity, and a few photos. If the price is low enough the buyer cannot be picky or complain about it being as-is. That would get it exposed way beyond ARF and someone may call and show up with a big truck. Hard to say what their fate will be but you are making your problem someone else's in the process. Better than the big brown dumpster. I had some items I put on the bay for peanuts BIN pickup and it did not take long for someone to show up with their 5 dollar payment or whatever and haul the goodies away. This is of course not a super remote area of the continent or something. If your price is free or like a dollar, that might produce some scrappers but just a little bit more and still get the people interested in speakers, not scrap.

There are several eBay sellers who focus only on selling radio parts. Maybe contact them and see if they are interested in buying the lot? You would likely get more than scrap value and the parts would become available for people to buy again. A win-win for all.

We all have needs lol. I have about as much chance of finding a single speaker right now as there is for gas to go below $2/gal lol

Still appreciating and pondering all the comments

In the meantime I’m sorting about 200lbs of 3AG and related fuses.

That sounds like a goldmine. Priced those little boxes of fuses lately at retail?

As a matter of fact, yes. I think I can settle the national debt now lol

This sort of reminds me of a multi store distributor in West Virgina that was purchased by an accountant back in the late 1960's. One of the first things he did was to look at item sales and get rid of ally items of limited volume. This successful operation failed in a short time. Seems customers came to buy products from the previous owner because he had everything. Does this apply here?