How to Save on Filing Cabinets at a Surplus Store

If you need a filing cabinet for your home or office, you may have noticed that new filing cabinets tend to be either expensive or of shoddy construction.

One great alternate to buying one new, is to buy a filing cabinet from a surplus sale. Many colleges and some large businesses hold regular surplus sales to clear out their warehouses of older office furniture and equipment. Filing cabinets are usually a major item at these sales, and you can find all types.

Selection varies, of course, but whenever there are renovations, important administrators tend to get new furniture. You may find fine wood file cabinets as well as lateral files and other variations. And you will almost always find lots and lots of sturdy steel filing cabinets.

Instructions

1. Call around to find surplus sales in your area. Government offices tend to hold auctions instead of sales, but most colleges are a prime source of surplus used filing cabinets. If you can't find a college, you can try large companies that have offices in your area, and ask what they do with their surplus furniture and equipment.

2. Ask about hours. Most surplus is only available for sale on certain days, because the sale is staffed by the regular warehouse workers. They have other work to do most of the time. However, they will often let you drop by on non-sale days to inspect the merchandise. This is a good idea, because you will know if there is something special. If you are looking for something very specific (like that fancy wood file cabinet), you can save yourself the trip by asking. Sometimes they have a manifest and can tell you. Or sometimes they keep the list on a website, and can refer you to that.

3. On sale day, get there early to get the best chance at the best merchandise. You'd hate to get there and find that the one that was in the best shape, and the perfect color was just sold.

4. Inspect the merchandise carefully. These will be used filing cabinets, and some will be very heavily used. Is it rusty or stained? Do the locks work, and if so, is there a key? Do the drawers roll out and in smoothly? Was it used in chemistry lab and smells of sulphur? (You can usually catch something like that by opening the drawers.)

   Remember that all sales are final at surplus.

Tips & Warnings

• If there are flaws in the merchandise that don't bother you, you may be able to bargain on the price.

• While staff may help you load your filing cabinet into your car or truck, you will need to get it home and wrestle it into place. Plan ahead for that.