Fermilab goes eBay

Photo: Elizabeth Clements, Fermilab

Fermilab goes eBay
In need of a computer monitor? How about a forklift? Or maybe a sousaphone? If you are working for the US federal government or an approved agency, all this and more is available to your organization—for merely the cost of shipping a few boxes or a crate. The Web site GSAXcess.gov provides extensive listings of surplus items from various government facilities around the country, including Fermilab and other Department of Energy laboratories. "The program is like a flea market for the federal government," says Eric Mieland, of Fermilab's Environment, Safety & Health Section.

But if you need that sousaphone for your home, there is still hope. If there is no interest in the items at GSAXcess.gov, they become available for the general public to bid on, for example at gsaauctions.gov or at commercial Web sites. "If no one picks up items when they are listed on federal sites, we sell them on Bid4Assets (www.bid4assets.com) or eBay (www.ebay.com)," explains Jack Kelly, the manager of Fermilab's Property and Inventory Control Department. "We try to sell equipment before we recycle it, because it generates revenue for the lab."

Fermilab not only sells items on the Web, it also goes bargain hunting, sometimes procuring top-of-the-line equipment for little cost. Greg Sellberg of the Silicon Detector Facility's (SiDet) Micro Detector Assembly group is especially skilled at taking advantage of government surplus programs, acquiring about 90% of his equipment from them—and saving Fermilab countless dollars in the process. For example, Sellberg routinely pieces together test stations worth $100,000 with equipment he acquired for $35 in shipping costs. "I try to use government resources, especially taxpayer money, in the best possible way," Sellberg says, "and government surplus is a phenomenally good system for doing that." 

Elizabeth Wade