Any MEP 002A and MEP 003A Generataors Left?

[cuad4u]

Two months ago I was fortunate to acquire a MEP 002A and a MEP 003A at a GL site. At that time I honestly had no idea what I was buying or why. After two months getting them up and going I have learned a lot. Thanks to all who helped.

This week I went back to the GL site and asked the person in charge if he ever saw any more 002A and / 003A generators made available directly from military sources, because I would like to bid on some more. He told me the 002A and the 003A generators I acquired had been sitting on his yard (out in the weather) almost 3 years before I got them. He said a lot of people looked at them, but nobody bought them until I showed up.

He also said he had not seen any 002A or 003A generators come through his usual military surplus channels in over a year, but he had not been specifically looking for them. He told me he would be on the lookout for some, if any more were surplused in the region he covers.

My question......Are they all gone except from people who bought them from GL sales and now re-sell them?

 

[MWMULES]

A quick mep search shows that 12 are coming up and at least 7 are in states that borders yours so I would say they are still out there.

 

[johnray13]

I have been watching GL for over a year at the base that is close to me, and they seem to come in fits and spurts. For a while, they were only getting a few sets every auction and the final sales price was way to high. Then around last fall or so, a large batch of about fifty 002 & 003's landed. The final sales price was about a third of what they had been going for.

My advice (and my own my strategy) is to be patient and wait for a large batch to land at the auction site(s) near you and you should be able to get a decent set for a good price.

John

 

[johnray13]

And to your other point, when Uncle Sam finally sells off all the 002 and 003's, they will transition into selling off the newer and quieter liquid cooled 5 and 10kw sets.

 

[Isaac-1]

I have been following GL somewhat regularly (at least when I had money to think about spending) for the last 4 or 5 years, and I agree with Johnray13 about the random spurts, sometimes one or two will be listed, sometimes a handful, and occasionally a large batch of 30-50, even larger larger batches are possible at some of the major depot sites. While it is often true that the average price may tend to be lower in the large batch sales, some of the best deals I have seen have also occurred in these smaller batches when only a few were up for sale, it all depends on how many people are bidding, as the small lots don't tend to attract the big truck load buyers that tend to buy out all of the mid and larger lots. As to how many are left, I have no idea, I can say that fewer seem to be listed lately, and the dry spells between listings is getting longer, but there do seem to still be plenty left, but don't wait too long to buy. Personally I don't think we are going to see the day any time soon that MEP-002a and MEP-003a are no longer listed by GL, since we still see gasoline powered MEP-015 - MEP-018's listed with some regularity and the military has not used gasoline as a primary fuel source for over 25 years. Also the eventual end of MEP-002a - MEP-003a common availability will not mean the end of military surplus generators, instead we will likely be bidding on MEP-802, MEP-803, and of course MEP-831.

Ike

p.s. one final note on availability, in my watching of GL it seems that the MEP-002a's outnumber the listings for MEP-003a's by around 8 to 1