GuideSelling equipment12 min read
How to sell surplus electrical equipment
Surplus electrical equipment, meaning transformers, switchgear, circuit breakers, motor control centers and generators that a plant or a project no longer needs, sells to five kinds of buyer: dealers who buy outright, dealers who sell on consignment, auction houses, online marketplaces where you sell it yourself, and scrap yards. A tested, documented transformer of a common voltage sells to a dealer for 15 to 35% of its new price and to an end user for 30 to 60%; an untested unit of unknown history for its scrap value plus a little. What you can send a buyer, the nameplate, photos, test reports and a decommissioning date, is most of what sets the price.
The short version
- Common voltages sell fast: three-phase pad-mounts of 300 to 2,500 kVA at 12.47 or 13.8 kV to 480Y/277 V, 480 V switchgear with Masterpact or Magnum breakers, 15 kV metal-clad with VCP-W breakers, Centerline 2100 and Model 6 buckets, Caterpillar and Cummins sets under 2,000 hours.
- A dealer buying outright pays 15 to 35% of new for a tested unit; consignment returns more, later, less a 15 to 30% commission; auctions are fastest and lowest; a marketplace listing reaches end users at the highest price for the most effort.
- The floor is scrap: the copper or aluminum in the windings, the steel, and the cost of disposing of the oil. A copper-wound 1,000 kVA transformer is a few thousand dollars of metal; an aluminum one less; a PCB unit a cost.
- Send the nameplate photo, four photos of the unit, the test and maintenance records, the oil results, the year, hours or operations, the location and the date it comes free. Offers follow within days.
- Terms: sold as-is where-is, FOB your site, the buyer rigs and hauls, payment by wire before pickup, with a bill of sale and a non-PCB statement.
- Listing here is free and costs nothing until a unit sells; or keep the inventory private and we match it to what buyers ask Magic Search for.
Who buys surplus electrical equipment
| Channel | What they pay | Speed | Who does the work | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dealer, buying outright | 15 to 35% of new for tested, common units; less for untested | Days | The dealer rigs, hauls, tests and resells | Clearing a site by a date; lots of mixed equipment |
| Dealer, on consignment | The sale price less a 15 to 30% commission | Weeks to months | The dealer markets and sells; you keep title until it sells | Good units that can wait for an end user’s price |
| Auction (AllSurplus, BidSpotter, Aucto, IronPlanet) | Whatever the room bids, often 10 to 25% of new, with a buyer’s premium on top | Weeks, to a fixed date | You or the auctioneer catalogs it; the buyer removes it | Plant closures, large lots, equipment with no obvious buyer |
| Marketplace (Surplus Record, Machinio, eBay) | End-user prices, 30 to 60% of new, for a listing fee or a commission | Weeks to months | You answer inquiries, arrange inspection and shipping | Sellers with time and someone to handle the calls |
| Scrap | The metal, less oil disposal | Days | The yard removes it | Untested, damaged, odd-voltage or very old units |
| Listing here | End-user prices; nothing until it sells | Weeks | We list it from your spreadsheet, confirm with you before quoting, and arrange the testing and freight at the buyer’s cost | Units with a nameplate and a story, sold to buyers searching by specification |
Most sellers with more than a few units get an outright offer from two dealers and compare it with what a listing would bring, then split the lot: the common, tested units go to the listing or consignment, the rest to the dealer. A dealer’s offer for the whole lot is also the floor against which the other channels are measured.
What it’s worth
Used power equipment is priced against new, and what fraction of new it brings depends on how much the buyer has to take on trust. The cost guide has the new figures for pad-mounts; the fractions below apply across the board.
| Condition and documentation | To a dealer, outright | To an end user (consignment, marketplace, listed here) |
|---|---|---|
| New surplus: unused, recent, with factory test report | 35 to 50% | 55 to 75% |
| Tested in the last year, with reports; common voltage; under 15 years old | 20 to 35% | 35 to 60% |
| Working when removed, no recent tests, stored indoors | 15 to 25% | 25 to 40% |
| Untested, stored outdoors, history unknown | 10 to 15%, or scrap plus | 15 to 25%, after the buyer’s own tests |
| Bad oil result, odd voltage, obsolete breakers, PCBs | Scrap, or a disposal cost | Rarely sells |
Transformers, switchgear and motor control follow this pattern. Generators are priced more by hours and emissions tier than by age, and motors by HP, voltage and whether they’ve been rewound.
- Tests move the price most
- A transformer with a current turns-ratio, insulation-resistance and oil report sells for half again what the same unit brings untested, because the buyer isn’t pricing in a rewind. Testing before you sell, a few thousand dollars on a large unit, usually pays (the testing guide).
- Voltages and types
- Common ratings sell to many buyers and bring more; see the next section.
- Age
- A 2015 unit and a 1995 unit in the same condition differ by a third in price; a 1980 unit is priced near scrap unless it’s rare.
- Quantity
- Ten identical units bring more per unit than one, to a dealer; and less per unit at auction, where they flood the room.
- Location and access
- A unit on a pad with crane access in Ohio is worth more than the same unit in a basement in Manhattan or a field in Montana, by the cost of getting it out.
- Timing
- With new transformers on 40 to 65 week lead times, used units of common ratings are at the top of their range; a buyer with a schedule pays for availability.
What sells, and what doesn’t
| Sells quickly | Sells slowly or not at all |
|---|---|
| Three-phase pad-mounts, 300 to 2,500 kVA, 12.47 or 13.8 kV to 480Y/277 or 208Y/120 V | Odd secondaries (420 V, 600 V in the US, 2,300 V), 2.4 kV primaries, very large units without a buyer lined up |
| Dry-type 480 V to 208Y/120 V, 75 to 500 kVA, recent, DOE-rated | 1980s dry-types; units with a cracked cast coil; anything that’s been wet |
| Medium-voltage cast-coil and VPI units, 1,000 to 3,000 kVA | Units with a dual-voltage winding connected for the rarer voltage, unless relinked |
| Substation transformers 2.5 to 10 MVA with LTC, common voltages, recent DGA | Units with high moisture or acetylene; 69 kV and up without a specific buyer |
| 480 V switchgear with Masterpact, Magnum, AKR or WavePro breakers and current trip units | Obsolete trip units; makers that have left the market; lineups cut apart without the bus |
| 15 kV metal-clad with VCP-W, ADVAC, PowerVac or GMSG vacuum breakers | Air-magnetic breakers (Magneblast, DHP) unless as cores for retrofits; oil breakers |
| MCC buckets of current series (Centerline 2100, Model 6, Freedom 2100, 8000-line) | Westinghouse Five-Star, Model 4, System 89 and other vintage series, except to the few plants that still run them |
| Diesel sets, Caterpillar, Cummins, MTU, Kohler, under 2,000 hours, Tier 2 and up | High-hour prime sets; pre-Tier engines in states that won’t permit them; sets without enclosures or tanks |
| Medium-voltage motors, 200 HP and up, with recent tests | Small motors (cheaper new); rewound motors without documentation; special frames |
What to send a buyer
One message with these in it gets a firm offer; one without them gets a list of questions.
The nameplate
A photograph of every nameplate, close enough to read: the ratings, the voltages and connection, the impedance, the fluid, the serial and the year (the nameplate guide). For switchgear, the lineup nameplate and each breaker’s; for an MCC, the lineup and a sample bucket; for a generator, the set, the engine and the alternator plates and the hour meter.
Photographs
The front, both sides and the back; inside the compartments with the covers off (de-energized); the bushings and gauges; the base and the surroundings, so the rigger can see the access.
Records
Test reports, maintenance logs, oil analyses, the LTC counter, repair history, the manuals and drawings. Dated. If none exist, say so; the buyer prices accordingly.
Status
Energized and in service, de-energized in place, or in storage (indoors or out, since when). Why it’s surplus: a plant closing reads differently from a transformer replaced after a fault.
Logistics
The address, the floor, crane and truck access, the weight, and whether your site will load it or the buyer must bring the rigging.
Timing and quantity
When it can be removed and whether it must be, how many of each, and whether you’ll sell them separately.
Price
An asking price if you have a basis for one, or a request for offers. A seller who knows the new price and the condition gets a better outcome than one who doesn’t.
The terms to expect
- As-is, where-is
- The buyer takes the equipment as inspected or as described, at your site; you make no warranty beyond the description being true. A buyer who wants tests arranges them before closing.
- FOB your site, buyer rigs and hauls
- The dealer or buyer brings the crane and the truck; the price excludes removal. A site that can load the unit onto a truck itself can ask a little more.
- Payment before pickup
- By wire or ACH, before the truck leaves your yard; a dealer may offer a deposit and the balance at pickup. Never release equipment against a promise.
- Paperwork
- A bill of sale with the serial numbers; a non-PCB statement for liquid-filled units (from the nameplate, or a test); a certificate of insurance from the rigger before they come on site.
- Consignment
- A written agreement with the commission, the minimum price, the term, who insures the unit in the dealer’s yard, and what happens if it doesn’t sell.
- Auction
- The auctioneer’s commission, the buyer’s premium (which comes out of the hammer price in effect), the removal deadline, and the reserve, if any.
Preparing the equipment
- Don’t drain the oil. A transformer sells with its oil in it, sealed. Draining it exposes the paper to moisture and turns a transformer into scrap. Cap the bushings and the valves; close the compartments.
- Keep it dry and upright. A unit stored outdoors uncovered for a year loses a third of its value; one stored indoors on its base loses almost none. Switchgear and MCCs must stay dry above all.
- Keep it whole. Breakers stay in their cells, buckets in their sections, the LTC drive and the controller on the transformer, the enclosure and the tank on the generator. A lineup sold as parts brings less than the lineup.
- Test before you sell if the unit is worth more than a few thousand dollars: a turns ratio, insulation resistance and oil screen on a transformer, a breaker test on switchgear, a load-bank run on a generator. The report is the difference between the two columns in the price table.
- Settle the PCB question on anything built before the mid-1980s (the oil guide): a test costs under $100 and a unit without it is unsellable.
Listing it here
We list surplus transformers, switchgear, breakers, motor control and generators for buyers who search by specification, and we handle the sale end to end: when a buyer asks, we confirm the unit and the price with you before we quote, arrange the tests at the buyer’s cost, with the report going to the buyer, and arrange the rigging and freight. Listing costs nothing; we’re paid from the buyer’s delivered price.
- Send a spreadsheet
- One row per unit: what it is, the kVA or kW, the voltages, the maker, the year, the condition, the location, the quantity, and the asking price or “offers”. Attach the nameplate photos. We turn it into listings and send them back for approval.
- Or keep it private
- If you don’t want your inventory published, send the same spreadsheet and we match it to what buyers ask Magic Search for, and come to you only with a real inquiry.
- What a listing shows
- The nameplate facts, the year, the seller’s number for the unit, the price, the test status and where it is, in the same form as every listing on the site. Your name appears only if you want it to.
Questions people ask
Who buys used transformers?
Electrical surplus dealers (Sunbelt Solomon, T&R Electric, Maddox, Green Industrial, Electrical Equipment Company and many regional ones) buy outright or take units on consignment; auction houses (AllSurplus, BidSpotter, Aucto) sell them for a commission; marketplaces (Surplus Record, Machinio, eBay) let you sell direct; scrap yards buy them for the metal; and we list them here for buyers who search by specification, and arrange the testing and delivery when one sells.
How much is a used transformer worth?
Against its new price, a tested working unit of a common voltage brings 15 to 35% from a dealer buying outright and 30 to 60% from an end user; a unit that hasn’t been tested, or sat outdoors, 10 to 20%; a unit with a bad oil result, an odd voltage or PCBs, its scrap value or less. A 1,000 kVA pad-mount worth $36,000 to $60,000 new is therefore $6,000 to $20,000 to a dealer and $15,000 to $35,000 listed to an end user, and about $3,000 to $6,000 as scrap if copper-wound.
What is the scrap value of a transformer?
The windings’ metal less the cost of handling the oil. A copper-wound distribution transformer is roughly 15 to 25% copper by weight (a 10,000 lb unit holds perhaps 1,500 to 2,500 lb), which at scrap prices of a few dollars a pound is a few thousand dollars, plus the steel core and tank at a few cents a pound, minus draining and disposing of a few hundred gallons of oil. Aluminum-wound units bring a fraction of that. A PCB-contaminated unit costs money to dispose of and has no scrap value.
Is it better to sell to a dealer or at auction?
A dealer buying outright pays less but pays now, takes the unit as-is, and handles the rigging and freight; it suits a plant that needs the floor cleared by a date. An auction is fastest of all but returns the least and adds a buyer’s premium that depresses bids. Consignment with a dealer or a listing on a marketplace or here returns the most, over weeks or months, and suits equipment that can wait. For a large lot, dealers will bid against each other if asked.
What information do buyers need to make an offer?
The nameplate, photographed legibly, which gives everything about the unit’s ratings; photos of the whole unit from the front, both sides and inside the compartments; any test reports, maintenance records and oil analyses, with dates; the year, hours or operations count; whether it’s energized or stored, indoors or out; where it is and how a truck and a crane get to it; and when it becomes available. With those, a dealer can make a firm offer in a day or two.
Do I have to drain the oil before selling a transformer?
No, and you shouldn’t: a liquid-filled transformer ships with its oil, sealed, and draining it exposes the windings to moisture and destroys the unit’s value. The buyer wants the oil in it and a recent sample result. What you do need is a statement of the oil type and that it is non-PCB (the nameplate or a test), since no buyer takes an unknown.
Sources: EPA 40 CFR 761 (PCB transformers and disposal); the listings on this site and the dealers’ and auction prices behind them; ISRI metal grades for transformer scrap.