Re: RE: Re: RE: Re: RE: No more $50.00 starting bids for Dem
dm22630 said:
This is a rare example of the govt NOT wasting $$$! Think of how many manhours would be used to sort/itemize/list/load/move all that stuff! By shredding it & selling what comes out of the shredder, the taxpayers are SAVING much more than they would gain by selling it by the lot.
Actually, the sad thing is that I don't think that they really saved a lot of money... The stuff all got removed by hand (by six soldiers), cataloged (by two other soldiers), seperated into different shred bins (depending on material), then shredded.
The Gov't (ie, the soldiers involved) did as much manual labor and paperwork as they would have done if they had been turning in the stuff for sale "as is" by GL.
DRMO saved some (perhaps) in the review and filing of the paperwork as opposed to review and pass on to GL...
GL saved having to list the items for sale, and in moving them to the sales line, and in processing the sale, and in loadout... But they just raised the minimum bid...
I would have paid more than scrap prices for the cables, mounts, and holders that I saw...
So, considering that the folks involved in the shredding process are doing what appears to be similar work, I'm not sure in this instance that the taxpayer bottom line was greater.
I'll admit that my earlier post made it appear as if the material was tossed in the truck, and that it was then just shredded and sold by the pound. Would the reduction in effort ((by folks that are still getting paid, but whom would have been doing other work one would suppose...) be enough to offset the decrease in the price per pound paid for some items in the mix?? Who knows...?
I saw the same things today when I went to snag another truck... Wish that they would take the scrap bins and let them sit for a week or so before they shredded them and alowed me to do a little dumpster diving.
I'd happilly give them scrap price plus a percentage to pick some of this stuff out before the rest went into the machine... And, yes, I agree that somebody likely would want me to fill out an EUC on the stuff, and wait, and that would be another reason to kill this idea... Then again, I like that idea that has been floated (but that we also will not see) of a "blanket" EUC that was good for some time period... I've had enough of them cleared in the last six months to have somebody very familliar with my name, and I know several folks who are at least as prolific...