Book and Clothing sales every month!

UPDATED with summer sale days!

Clothing Sales

Tuesday, May 13, 7:30am-5:30pm

Friday, May 16, 7:30am-3:30pm

Tuesday, Jun. 10, 7:30am-5:30pm

Friday, Jun. 13, 7:30am-3:30pm

Tuesday, Jul. 8, 7:30am-5:30pm

Friday, Jul. 11, 7:30am-3:30pm

Tuesday, Aug. 5, 7:30am-5:30pm

Friday, Aug. 8, 7:30am-3:30pm

A special selection of clothes will be prepared near the Customer Pick-Up area (through the bay door) for the prices below on Tuesday, and then reduced prices on Friday. After the Friday sale day, all remaining clothes will be donated to a nonprofit, and a new selection will be prepared for the next month's sale.

T-shirts $.25

Sweaters $.50

Hoodies $2

Skirts $1

Dresses $2

Pants $1

Shoes $1

Coats $3

Blankets $3

Book Sales

Tuesday, May 27, 7:30am-5:30pm

Friday, May 30, 7:30am-3:30pm

Tuesday, Jun. 24, 7:30am-5:30pm

Friday, Jun. 27, 7:30am-3:30pm

Tuesday, Jul 22., 7:30am-5:30pm

Friday, Jul 25., 7:30am-3:30pm

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 7:30am-5:30pm

Friday, Aug. 22, 7:30am-3:30pm

On Tuesdays, a special selection of books will be prepared near the Customer Pick-Up area (through the bay door) for $.50 per book. On Fridays, the same selection will be $.25 per book. After the Friday sale day, all remaining books will recycled, and a new selection will be prepared for the next month's sale.

Book stock rotation returns

Now that we've finally made it through 60,000-80,000 pounds of books (sorted, sold, recycled), we can settle back into the regular stock rotation that we had last year. There are four sections of books on the sales floor, and the oldest selection will be replaced each Public Sale day. The two-week cycle will look something like this (the colors and order may vary):

Tuesday: Blue mark ($2/book), Green mark ($1/book), Purple mark (50 cents/book), Orange mark (10 cents/pound)
Friday: New Orange ($2/book), Blue ($1/book), Green (50 cents/book), Purple (10 cents/pound), old Orange (chopped, recycled)
Tuesday: New Purple ($2/book), Orange ($1/book), Blue (50 cents/book), Green (10 cents/pound), old Purple (chopped, recycled)
Friday: New Green ($2/book), Purple ($1/book), Orange (50 cents/book), Blue (10 cents/pound), old Green (chopped, recycled)
Tuesday: New Blue ($2/book), Green ($1/book), Purple (50 cents/book), Orange (10 cents/pound), old Blue (chopped, recycled)

And so on. The rotation started this week, so what's left of the $2 books after tomorrow will be $1 each on Tuesday. This allows us to constantly put out new books, while still having a bulk per-pound selection for the best deals.

"What's with the skull?"

January 19th marked the one-year anniversary of when Jabber Jaw started appearing in all of the pictures of Sales Floor items for the social media. In that time, he's received reactions ranging from love to hate to utter confusion. So, not that this is an exhaustive list of answers, but here are some things I've been meaning to say on his behalf:

1. Jabber Jaw is in the photos for size reference.
2. He's about 8.5" tall, 4" wide, and 5" deep.
3. He is not a rock.
4. He is not for sale, nor does he come with any of the items pictured.
5. As far as we know, he is not related to the cartoon shark that plays drums for The Neptunes.
6. Extensive searching seems to indicate that he originally captured voice recordings then played them back while moving his mouth.
7. Unfortunately, he has not done that, or much of anything, in the time that we've had him.
8. In fact, he's mostly held together by super glue (and he's missing a few more teeth) these days.
9. Because of that, it would not be safe to keep him out in the open on Public Sale days, no matter how gentle you swear you'll be.
10. In case of an emergency, or perhaps retirement, we do have another skull set aside (who still needs a name--suggestions?).
11. Barring one of those scenarios, he's not going away, no matter how weird you think he is.
12. Primarily, that's because the number of people who love him outnumber the people who dislike him about 3-to-1.
13. Although he's not always a pleasure to look at, he's much more fun than a ruler.
14. We'll resume the Friday Find-it photo hunts again in the spring.
15. And most importantly: Thank you! The people of the Surplus Store are a unique bunch, and you guys make this job fun.

Treasure Hunt

The MSU Surplus Store treasure hunt is not exactly geocaching, but it’s close. We are conducting a series of GPS oriented treasure hunts for gift certificates as a fun way to interact with our customers and encourage reuse of MSU owned property. The first treasure hunt produced a $10.00 gift certificate for the lucky winners who found it under a fallen tree in the Baker wood Lot. Clues for our second hunt were posted on Twitter Monday. A $25.00 gift certificate awaits the next person to follow the clues: $25.00 Gift certificate. N 42° 43.679 W 084° 28.759 Elev:865FT There are at least 38,000 miles of bike paths and trails in the U.S. Happy hunting!

Dan and Josh show off the DVD player they
purchased with their $10 gift certificate.

Last Sale Day in Old Building

As a send off for the last sale day in our old building we will be having a one time special:

Everything $10 or less will be Free, starting at 11 am today (Friday, Sept 4th)

There are a few restrictions: All items must be removed immediately (we will not hold any free items). Bid items, Compost, Online Items, Mattress, and Batteries are excluded from this offer. Athletics items Limit one per person, and price tag in hand claims ownership as our normal rules apply.

We have hundreds of items that will be made available all over our store, from Furniture, Electronics, Computer Equipment, Lab Equipment, Office Supplies, and more!

Closed for Moving Dates

The move to our new facility has begun! We will be closed September 7 through September 10. Our first sale day in our new building will be September 11th with no preview.

We will not be selling on the 8th, and we will not be accepting drop offs or customer pickups available that week. If you purchase items this week please plan in advance to have your items picked up before the end of the week. If you are unable to pick your items up they will be made available again starting the 11th.

If you have any questions or need to make special arraignments please contact us immediately.

New Building First Sales Day and Grand Opening Dates

Our first sale day in the new facility will be Friday, September 11. Normal business hours will apply throughout the rest of September.

Our grand opening event, where you'll get free stuff and other surprises will be Friday, October 2. You can RSVP on Facebook for the grand opening event. As the day gets closer we will have more information about the event, so be sure to check back for more information.

REUSE, Save and Have Fun at a University Surplus Store

We’re trying something new. We think REUSE is very important to a sustainable future and want to promote the idea as much as possible. Squidoo gives us this opportunity. We’ve created a lens that provides information about college and university surplus stores all over the country. It shows a Google map of the different stores, links to web pages, eBay sales, etc… If you know of other surplus stores please drop us a line and we’ll add their information.

http://www.squidoo.com/msusurplusstore

Check it out and let us know what you think.

MSU Journalism Report on the MSU Surplus Store

Check out a MSU Journalism students report on the MSU Surplus Store.

See link above for more information includes video, audio and photos of the MSU Surplus Store.

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.

Fair? You be the Judge

One thing I hear quite frequently is "you guys keep all the good stuff for yourselves". Meaning: my staff steals all of the good stuff or at best cherry picks it before it goes out to the sales floor. This couldn't be further from the truth. We have to come through the door on sale day mornings just like everyone else. A few weeks ago a "regular" customer complained that one of my employees cut in front of them in line and bought the item he was waiting for. First of all, there really isn't a line outside, more like mob rules. Also, it turns out there were 3 lamps, he got 1, the employee got 2 and gave 1 tag to a new customer who wasn't so quick and didn't know the system. Everyone paid full price. 3 lamps for 3 people, sounds fair to me.

I put heavy emphasis on maintaining a system built on integrity and fairness for all customers regardless of them being a "regular", staff or a newbie.

Get Up to the Minute Product Updates

One of the questions we get most frequently is, "how will I know when you get something in?" Historically, you wouldn't without stopping in during our "viewing hours" twice a week before public sales to review the sales floor. Our first step in addressing this question was to start placing certain items on eBay. We began this process in 2001 and it has been a good way to advertise. Currently, our eBay store catalog contains about 1400 items. Next we added our own online store (http://www.msusurplusstore.com/). This provided us the opportunity to list items online at a lower cost than eBay, with more flexibility. Our online store catalog has about 1000 items in its catalog. The newest addition we are adding is Twitter. Twitter is a free online service that will allow us to post quick updates about what we are putting up for sale. By signing up, you can receive the updates via e-mail, text message on your phone, or instant messenger. You can also just check this blog as our Twitter posts can be found on the right side menu. Watch for this new feature to expand over the next several months. We hope you find it useful.

Sohmer Piano

Do you need a piano for a good price? Check out the Sohmer piano that is at the MSU Surplus Store. With a little tuning it would be a nice piano. $300.00

Let's Make a Deal!

Have you ever had a garage sale? If you have, someone has inevitably approached you with an offer of $.25 for an item marked at $.50. If you are like me, you politely turn away, roll your eyes, turn back and say “sure.” The MSU Surplus Store doesn’t quite work that way. We have a fiduciary responsibility to students of MSU and the State of Michigan to attain maximum value for their financial investment into the items we sell. This doesn’t mean we can’t discount prices, or offer incentives to purchase an item. There are a variety of factors that go into our pricing, and after a time of not selling most prices can be adjusted. Here are 9 tips on how to make a deal at the MSU Surplus Store:

1. Never ask for more than half off.
2. Give it a week. Items are almost never discounted on the first day.
3. Come prepared. Offer to take large items with you. We would rather not move and store large sold items.
4. Wait until the end of the day to ask for a deal.
5. Buy things in bulk. In most cases, there is a 20% discount if you buy 5 or more like items.
6. Don’t disparage the item. Asking the sales person for a deal because the item is “junk” is not effective.
7. Be sincere. Don’t exaggerate details about how long an item has been for sale, or claim you are the only person in the world who would ever buy it.
8. Know what the item is worth. We look up values for a lot of our items through a variety of resources. Since we do not test most items, in many cases our prices are comparably lower. Sometimes the asking price is already a great deal.
9. Watch for upcoming events. Large event sales, like bike sales, mean we need to move inventory fast in order to make room.

New Year's Resolution

My name is Kris Jolley and I am the Store Manager for the MSU Surplus Store. Today marks the start of a new fiscal year for us. With a new building on the horizon I hope to make some significant improvements in several areas to help usher in a new era for the MSU Surplus Store. One major focus will be improving our web presence by enhancing this “blog”. The fact is, this has been more of a general announcement board than a true blog. That’s not a bad thing, but I think I can provide you with a lot more. I have over 17 years of Surplus experience, a passion for the business and a great staff of engaged Surplus professionals. My staff and I receive dozens of phone calls and e-mails annually from colleges around the country inquiring about using eBay, on-line stores, computer recycling and data security. I hope to add value by discussing topics of e-commerce, reuse, sustainability and recycling. I hope other colleges, state agencies and non-profit organizations can use this as a resource to build their programs. I also hope to enhance the customer experience by offering more information about our sales and services as well as local and national Surplus news and events you might find interesting.

My goal is to build a network of Surplus professionals and customers. To this end I encourage readers to help spur lively conversations by commenting and asking questions. If you run a Surplus program, feel free to send me information about your program. I would be happy to help promote all the good and new things you are doing. If you are a customer, send me information about all the cool things you are doing with your Surplus acquisitions. Last but not least, send me all of your funny or interesting Surplus stories, as we all have them.