@begin(rant);
The gear I listed here yesterday came from a workshop full of stuff literally abandoned during a family move. It was going into a dumpster when the next door neighbor, who is not a ham, builder, restorer, or test equipment freak noticed and asked them if he could take it instead. He literally kept more than a ton of electronics from going to the dump. And for this, I am grateful.
How do I know this? Well, he found my "looking for parts" ad and contacted me. When I saw what he had I offered to help him sort and, when i could, sell it in return for getting first picks.
(I know, I am an idiot. Whatever.) After a day of going through stuff, something was nagging at me but I didn't know what. Today I figured it out... where were all the manuals? Turns out he threw three six foot tall cabinets of tektronix and other test gear manuals, including microfiche, into the trash between our first and second contacts. I get it, he was completely overwhelmed and his wife was, understandably, giving him hell about filling the two car garage with crap.
I can't tell you how upset I am right now (
I know, FWP). We lost another treasure trove of probably irreplaceable engineering and design information. And I am pretty sure that the rest of the stuff will still go to the dump if I can't figure out how to move it out of there quickly; he has a full time job, and a family, already sounds exhausted by what he has taken on. So I am trying to figure out if I can just buy the whole lot, rent storage, and then figure what do with it.
Oh, did I mention the sixty foot guyed Rohn tower with a six element HF yagi and 20M dipole on rotators that the realtor is going to have cut down if it isn't out in a week?
@end(rant);
edit: removed non-family friendly cussing and recognized overwrought nature of post.