Construction Progress - Part VI

• Construction Progress: Part I
• Construction Progress: Part II
• Construction Progress: Part III
• Construction Progress: Part IV
• Construction Progress: Part V

Construction at the MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center continues. Unfortunately, we missed last week's update so this week we can see quite a bit of progress. The entire building's outer wall foundations are now finished and the retaining walls by both the Recycling and Surplus docks have been completed. Work has begun on the inner portion of the building with the pillar footings inside of the Surplus Store being placed. Most importantly, the water mains have been run to the building so this facility will have running water! Work has also started on the water retention pond that will be located on the southeast corner of the site for which water drainage and pipes are now being installed.

Remember to keep checking back for more updates! Also don't forget that we have a compilation of all of the constructions photos available.

MSU Bike Service Center

As students return to campus, one of the most common questions we receive at the MSU Surplus Store is, "Do you have any bikes for sale?" Recently the demand for bikes has increased even more as students, staff and local residents have started to see the numerous advantages bikes have to offer. The MSU Campus and surrounding community covers a huge area and bikes can be one of the cheapest and fastest ways to get around. The growth of bike usage locally has been in large part due to the efforts of the MSU Bike Service Center, its staff, and volunteers.

Tim Potter, coordinator of the MSU Bike Service Center, has been at our previous bike sales to offer the resources and services of the Center to our customers. The Center offers a number of different services from the sale of bikes and bike rentals to bike repairs and servicing. The Center "...offers all types of repairs like any bike shop," Mr. Potter told us, and it is a great place to take bikes purchased from the Surplus store for maintenance and routine repairs. They also offer many of the parts you may need from tires, tubes, lights, fenders, helmets, tools and oils. They have a full time staff of nine, as well as 10 to 20 additional volunteers that help out with all of the available services and repairs. In addition, the bikes that are sold directly through the MSU Bike Service Center are generally sold for "...$150 or so on up...All the bikes we sell are repaired and ready to go. Anyone can purchase stuff from us (or rent, etc.)." Check out some of past bikes sold through the MSU Bike Service Center.

In addition to servicing, you can also lease or rent a bike from the Service Center. Hundreds of these bikes were first reclaimed or donated to the Center and then repaired and put back into use for the MSU community. These bikes can be rented out hourly, weekly, by the semester or yearly. General maintenance from adjustments, oiling chains or air for tires are all included during the lease period.

The good news is that on August 18th, the MSU Surplus Store will be picking up another batch of bikes. These bikes will be ready for sale starting the 19th at 7:30 am, get there early, there will be a line! This should also be the last batch of bikes that we will see this year, so be sure to come to the MSU Surplus Store to buy a used bike and then visit the MSU Bike Service Center to get your new purchase in top working order.

For more information about the MSU Bike Service Center, please visit them in the basement of Bessey Hall or online at www.bikes.msu.edu and remember to register your bike online with the Department of Police and Public Safety (DPPS).

Extended Store Hours August 19-22

The MSU Surplus Store will be extending it normal hours the week of August 19th through August 22nd, to the following:

• Tuesday August 19th from 7:30 to 5:30
• Wednesday August 20th from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm
• Thursday August 21st from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm
• Friday August 22 from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm

During this time we will be attempting to restock our sales floor with items that are commonly available through the store (desks, chairs, tables, file cabinets, etc.). Any specialty or rare items coming to surplus during this period will be held until the week after and we have resumed our normal sales hours.

MSU Computer Store Electronic Product Environmental Assessment

In the latest version of Footprints: The Official Newsletter of the Office of Campus Sustainability it was pointed out that the MSU Computer Store (http://cstore.msu.edu/) has posted the Electronic Product Environment Assessment for many of the desktop and laptop computers that it sells on campus. The results are broken down by manufacturer, with their products awarded levels of distinction based on criteria they were are able to meet. The standards used are IEEE 1680, which identifies 51 environmental criteria to evaluate products. According to those results, products are placed in one of three tiers of environmental performance - Bronze, Silver, or Gold.

Currently the MSU Computer Store offers 47 Silver products and 9 Gold level items. Silver level consists of 23 required criteria and 50% of optional criteria, Gold level meets 23 required and at least 75% of optional criteria.

These criteria cover a number of different areas such as: limiting the amount of hazardous materials used, cadmium, mercury, lead, etc. This greatly reduces the possible environmental impact of disposal of these items (see previous articles on e-waste). In addition, the use of post consumer recycled content and designs that are able to be easily disassembled for recycling are also rewarded. One area or critieria that is especially important to the MSU Surplus Store customers is increasing the lifespan of the product by allowing the item be upgraded easily instead of being replaced.

Some of the other criteria:

• Energy Star Compliance
• Manufacture Product Take backs
• Offered Recycling Services
• The Use of Rechargeable Batteries
• Overall Corporate Environmental Performance
• The Reduction of Packaging Materials
• Reuseability of Products and Packaging Materials

Many of these standards greatly improve our ability to re-sell and if needed recycle items that come to the MSU Surplus Store. So the next time you are shopping for a new computer product be sure to check out its rating before purchasing, you will be making a sound environmental choice.

Construction Progress - Part V

• Construction Progress: Part I
• Construction Progress: Part II
• Construction Progress: Part III
• Construction Progress: Part IV

Construction continues on the new MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center and this week we saw the continuation of the wall placements. We were fortunate to see the actual pouring of the walls into the wall molds. Most of the southern portion of the wall base has been completed and is gradually moving northward from the Recycling side of the facility into the Surplus side of the building.

Remember to keep checking back for more photos and updates on the progress of construction.

The Three R's: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Current economic conditions have hit everyone hard, it seems nobody has escaped the latest economic downturn. Oil prices are sky high, the dollar is down, and unemployment is up. However, there are some positive unintended consequences to these conditions which are very closely related to what we do here at the MSU Surplus Store. During times of prosperity, there is no need to think twice before replacing furniture, buying a new desk, or investing in a new vehicle. However, the current reality has forced us all to take a serious look at our consumption and think of new ways to reuse, recycle, and cut costs. The MSU Surplus Store is a great place to save money on a variety of affordable as well as higher end items for your business or home!

At a basic level, the MSU Surplus Store takes items that are no longer needed by the university and finds new uses for these items. Our goal is to create revenue for the university by selling products no longer needed to people that do have a need for these products. The great appeal of this system is that our customers can find very unique items at very reasonable prices. This also has significant environmental utility, as these items are being reused and kept out of landfills. Ultimately, this helps to reduce the environmental footprint of both the university and the community.

At the MSU Surplus Store, we work very hard to prevent items from ending up in landfills. In the event that items cannot be sold, we have a number of methods of reuse and repurposing that can prolong the lives of various products or even give them new life in different forms. The American economic decline has not only brought new perspectives to the ideas of reuse, but also has caused the prices of raw materials to increase significantly.

We are avid recyclers of not only of paper goods, but also metals, freon, wood, and plastics. Last fiscal year alone one million pounds of metal was sold by the MSU Surplus Store for recycling into new and useful products. Additionally, we also responsibly recycle E-Waste (previous post by Tim on this process) which helps keep thousands of computers from ending up in landfills and gives obsolete computers new life as useful components are stripped from the old machines and the raw materials are reused in newer components.

Hopefully, as economic conditions improve we will not lose sight of the importance of reducing, reusing and being conscious of our impact on the environment. While the economic advantages of reuse and recycling might become less relevant as the economy rebounds, the ecological advantages of these practices will remain relevant for generations and the MSU Surplus Store will continue with its core goals of accomplishing these things for Michigan State University.

Online Shipping Costs

Recently eBay has started a new system to track the efficiency ofsellers called Detailed Seller Rating (DSR). DSR's are made up of four categories: Item as Described, Communication, Shipping Time,and Shipping Costs. eBay sellers generally receive their lowest rating in the shipping costs category, including our own MSU Surplus Store eBay store.While paying for shipping has always been one of the downsides of shopping online, recent developments have put greater stress on both buyers and sellers and caused shipping costs to elevate significantly.

Major online retailer Amazon reported a 47 percent increase in its' shipping costs in the last quarter alone. Much of this increase can be traced to the rising cost of energy. The cost of diesel fuel, the major energy source for all shipping services, has more than doubled in the last year. As the price of fuel has increased, the cost of shipping has followed.

As gas prices have skyrocketed over the past few years, the American dollar has seen a steady decline. This fall of the dollar has brought some unexpected benefits for American online vendors. International customers have flocked to American online stores where their currencies have increased buying power. Unfortunately, this dramatic increase in international sales coincided with the elimination of some of the most economical forms of international shipping. Therefore, while international consumers are enjoying increased purchasing power, they are also facing the new, more expensive reality of international shipping.

We currently have two main market places, eBay and Prostores, both of these services offer a shipping calculator to determine shipping costs. The shipping quotes that are shown at checkout are taken directly from major retailers such as USPS, UPS and Fed Ex. They are calculated based on the weight & size of the item and the distance the item has to travel. The quotes that are shown on the site are the actual shipping costs that will be charged for the shipment of the item.

Unfortunately, many buyers are understandably not closely following the steady increases that shipping companies have faced and are unaware of the rising costs of shipping. Additionally, in the past many sellers have inflated shipping costs to increase profit margins on their items. Therefore, many buyers see these increased shipping costs as a tactic on our part to increase profits by overcharging them for shipping. This is generally why eBay sellers receive lower DSRs for Shipping Costs.

While estimating shipping costs can be an imprecise art until items are actually packaged, we usually come very close to charging what it costs us to ship the item. We also offer a wide variety of shipping services in an attempt to meet our buyer's needs based on the speed and costs of different shipping services. We have also moved to using USPS postal services online shipping solutions where the rates for shipment are lower then shipping from a postal retailer. Our goal as a seller is to charge buyers exactly what it costs us to ship the item.

Construction Progress - Part IV

• Construction Progress: Part I
• Construction Progress: Part II
• Construction Progress: Part III

Construction continues on the new MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center and this week has marked the first appearance of the outer walls of the building. While these are only the footings for the walls you can start to see the outline of the facility and the location of many of the features of the building. Also included below is a photo of a cross section of the footings that were shown last week. You can see how the small pebbles were injected down into the soil to provide the foundation footings of the building.

Remember to keep checking back for more photos and updates on the progress of construction.