Who Buys Switchgear
Who Buys Switchgear
Four kinds of buyer exist, and they pay very differently for the same lineup. Knowing which is which is worth real money.
- Paid before pickup
- No testing required
- Freight and rigging covered
- Any amperage, any condition
Request a Quote
Send a nameplate photo and receive a firm number, usually the same day. There is no obligation.
Funds change hands before a single section leaves your property. There is no consignment and no waiting on a downstream resale.
You are never asked to test, energize, clean or repair the gear. Our team evaluates it from the nameplate photos and our own inspection.
Lowboys, flatbeds, cribbing, section separation and permits are billed to us. That cost is already priced into the offer you receive.
Disconnection coordination, dismantling, rigging out of the electrical room and loading are performed by our crews at our expense.
The first group is general scrap yards. They will take almost anything and they price by the pound, deducting their hauling cost. They are the fastest option and almost always the lowest number, because they have no resale channel for working gear.
The second group is brokers. They do not own the equipment; they find a buyer and take a cut. That can work, but you wait for the sale, the price is not firm, and you may end up covering freight and rigging if the deal is structured loosely.
The third group is electrical equipment dealers who handle everything. They understand resale, but switchgear is one line among many, so their pricing tends toward the conservative and their rigging estimates tend toward the cautious.
The fourth group is switchgear specialists who buy with their own money. That is what we are. Because distribution equipment is the only thing we buy, we know precisely what a given amperage, voltage class and breaker combination sells for, so we can commit to a firm cash number immediately and still cover the teardown and the freight.
How the four compare
- Scrap yard: fastest, lowest, priced by weight only.
- Broker: no money at risk, no firm price, you wait for resale.
- General equipment dealer: fair but conservative on switchgear.
- Switchgear specialist: firm cash offer, freight and rigging covered, paid before pickup.
- Only the last two will tell you honestly whether your lineup is resale-grade or scrap-grade.
Request a Quote
Send a nameplate photo for a same-day number.
Every class of switchgear we buy
Distribution equipment only — that is the whole business
Low Voltage Switchgear
600V class drawout and fixed-mounted lineups pulled from indoor electrical rooms.
Medium Voltage Switchgear
5kV and 15kV class metal-clad lineups with vacuum or air breakers, indoor and outdoor.
Switchboards
Front-accessible service entrance and distribution switchboards from commercial buildings.
Unit Substations
Close-coupled primary, transformer and secondary assemblies from industrial plants.
Motor Control Centers
MCC lineups with starter buckets, VFDs and combination starters from plants and utilities.
Circuit Breakers
Loose air, vacuum, insulated case and molded case breakers, individually or by the pallet.
Panelboards
Distribution and branch panelboards, loadcenters and column panels in bulk lots.
Outdoor Switchgear
Walk-in and non-walk-in weatherproof enclosures, pad-mounted and skid-mounted lineups.
Arc-Resistant Switchgear
Type 2B arc-resistant lineups with plenums and pressure relief, low and medium voltage.
Metal-Clad Switchgear
Compartmentalized drawout medium voltage gear with grounded metal barriers between sections.
Bus Plugs and Busway
Plug-in and feeder busway runs, elbows, tees and bus plugs from industrial ceilings.
Switchgear Scrap
Burned, gutted, flooded and unrepairable gear bought for copper and metal content.
What happens after you accept
We confirm the pickup window against your schedule, send our own crew and equipment, and pay you before anything moves. If a utility or licensed electrician disconnect has to happen first, we coordinate the timing. If the sections have to come apart to clear a doorway or an elevator, we do that work rather than asking you to arrange it.
Medium voltage lineups are treated with the care they require. We verify the gear is de-energised and grounded before our crew touches it, and we work to your site's lockout procedure rather than our own.
Browse by amperage, brand, state or topic
Find your gear
Amp ratings
Manufacturers
- Square D
- General Electric (GE)
- Eaton
- Cutler-Hammer
- Siemens
- ABB
- Westinghouse
- Allen-Bradley
- Federal Pacific
- Challenger
- Schneider Electric
- Powell Industries
- Mitsubishi Electric
- Toshiba
- Russelectric
- ASCO
- Zenith Controls
- S&C Electric
States
- California
- Florida
- Georgia
- Illinois
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Missouri
- New Jersey
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
- Virginia
- Washington
Guides
Questions we get asked
Straight answers
Do you charge anything to quote or to remove the gear?
No. Quoting is free and removal is our cost. If you accept our number, nothing comes out of your pocket at any stage.
How quickly can this happen?
A number usually comes back the same day you send photos. Pickup is typically within one to two weeks, and faster when you have a demolition date or lease deadline driving it.
What if I only have one section or a few breakers?
That is still worth a call. Small quantities are frequently best combined into a lot, but we buy single sections and loose breakers routinely.
Do you buy switchgear in every state?
Yes, all 50 states and the District of Columbia. We stage freight regionally, so location affects our scheduling rather than your price.
Ready for a number?
Call or text a nameplate photo. Same-day offers.
Request Your Quote
Nationwide. No obligation.