OK, OK...here's the best "deal" that I ever got...kinda long, but good!
This also happened at Ft. Riley, KS.
I was on a detail cleaning-up & moving our Supply Room from one building to another. I came across a MRE box that had been opened. I picked it up & shook it to see how full it was. I immediately knew it wasn't MRE's. I opened the box & found 8 Sony ICF Pro-80 Shortwave Radios. Complete coverage from 150khz(below AM) to 108mhz(top of the commercial FM scale). There were also 5 Frequency Converters, which can be used to expand the frequency range the radio can receive(115.150mhz to 223.00mhz- aviation & public service bands).
"Hey Sarge, I found these radios. Where do you want them?" I said to the Supply Sergeant.
"I've been looking for those." he replied. Crap, I thought. "They don't work, I've been meaning to throw 'em out." he continued.
"Can I 'throw 'em out' into the back of my truck?" I asked.
"I don't give a damn where you put them, so long as they're out of my supply room!" he replied.
WOO-HOO!!!
I put them into my truck and took them home that night. After looking them over, all I had to do was spend about 10 minutes on each one cleaning the battery terminals with a pencil eraser and got 7 of the 8 to work. The 8th one was very corroded inside and I decided to use it for spare parts if I needed any.
I found out that there was a Sony warranty service station a couple of hours away in Overland Park, KS. So I took one of the radios and went there to get an instruction manual and find out what else I could about these radios.
I got there and told the guy behind the counter about how I came across the radios. He took the one I had and looked at the data plate on the bottom of it. He entered the model number in his computer. This is what he told me:
"This is the ICF Pro-80 Receiver. It came out in 1987 and retailed for $540. What probably happened is that Sony came out with these radios and they didn't sell too well because they were so expensive. So Sony has a warehouse full of them that they can't move. Well, Desert Shield/Storm kicked off and everybody wanted to do something for the troops. Sony donated a bunch of these radios to the troops. Sony came out on top 3 ways. 1st, Sony gets a lot of good publicity with the public, especially the guys who get the radios. 2nd, they free up a bunch of warehouse space. 3rd, and most important to Sony, they get a FAT tax write-off."
Needless to say, I felt pretty smug about basically getting about $4300 of radio equipment for free.
Now, can anybody top THAT for a "great deal"?