Answer: There is a set of CD-ROMs called "FED LOG" which contains
logistic info about everything the Federal Govt buys, which is damned
near everything. Is that everything?? That set of CD-ROMs is
supposedly "For Official Use Only", but I have seen it advertised for
sale in at least one obscure publication we electronic nuts know about:
"Nuts & Volts", out of California. I'm sure the CD-ROMs must be
available from more than that one source, which I don't have at my
fingertips just now. If anyone is interested, I can go into the
"archives" and find that source, I think. NOT CHEAP, as I remember the
ad. The problem with the CD-ROMs (at least the set I have) is that it
wants a minimum of two CD-ROM drives to function. I'll not go into the
whys and wherefors of that, but it's true. Two discs of the four disc
set must be on line or nothing works. I don't know of a readily
available source of hard-copy listings of stock class 2XXX (vehicles &
accessories, etc) which the public could readily obtain. If anyone else
out there knows, don't keep it a secret!
Question: "...how to pull up the abstract after the sale?"
Answer: Pull up the DRMS home page ( http://www.drms.dla.mil )
Click on "Public Sales Information"
Click on "Unofficial Abstracts"
Scroll down to find the sale number you want
Download the abstract to the directory
on
your hard disk you use for downloads
UNZIP the compressed file using
PKUNZIP.EXE (see my previous post)
As you see, you must know the number of the sale you want to find out
about, and you must have (and know how to use) PKUNZIP.EXE to decompress
the file so you can read it. The abstract will reflect every bid on
every item on the particular sale. The "Unofficial" business just means
that the list is compiled before any potential bid disputes, protests
about misdescribed property, etc. are resolved. For practical purposes,
you can accept the abstract as gospel as far as giving you a good feel
for what a particular type of item is selling for. Hint: look for
company names on the abstract; that will give you some idea of what the
dealers are paying for stuff they expect to pass on to you with a nice
mark-up! Another hint: some of the individual names you will see on
the abstracts are "shade tree" dealers d/b/a under their own names.
Watch for them to appear regularly on the various abstracts.
Again, hope this helps.
Ed Greeley
Mobile, AL
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