University of Cincinnati
OP-T2-38: Materials Exchange

In early FY08, Surplus Management changed the format for reutilization of UC assets from charging departments a per item price to a 'free-to-department' format. All a UC department needs to do to receive unlimited assets at no cost is to come to the weekly viewing, fill out a basic information form along with their UC id. and simply pick out what they can use. Surplus Management takes care of the processing and tracking of all assets and works with Central Receiving to arrange the free delivery of the assets selected. Surplus Management tracks each item individually and assigns a 'retail' price for each item that would be charged at the monthly public sales. Additionally, through the use of new cost estimates derived from the Guy Brown catalog, Surplus assigns an approximate replacement cost of each item that is recycled back into the university. As an example, for FY13 the Free-to-Department program recycled approximately 3700 items back into the UC community at a retail dollar of approximately $83,000 if sold at the public sale; but more importantly, an estimated replacement purchase value upwards of $740,000. The top priority with the Free-to-Department program is getting absolutely as many items as possible back into use at UC and out of the trash. After the UC departments have had to chance to get what they can use, public sales are conducted at the beginning of each month. As successful as this program has been, we believe there is even greater growth potential as more outreach efforts about the program are conducted.