When the university cleans house, students have the opportunity to make some big gains.

Every Wednesday afternoon, Asset Recovery Manager Wayne Stensland and his crew watch about 250 to 350 people rummage through used university furniture, computer equipment, books and odds and ends at the Wednesday sale.

The sales contain the discarded items Stensland gathers from various departments during the week.

“This is an outlet for all the excess property the university owns,” Stensland said. “We have desks, chairs and a great deal of scientific equipment, including microscopes.

“[We sell] the things that are obsolete … lots of computers,” he said.

Stensland said the sale must get rid of 80 to 90 percent of the merchandise per week in order to have enough room for the next week’s load. Low prices are the result of this necessity, Stensland said.

“The money raised goes back into the cost of putting the sales on,” he said.

Stensland said the sale has a lot to offer students.

“A little while ago, students were all we had here, looking for desks and chairs, furniture for their apartment, computers … We have art and design students that come in and look for unique things they can use for projects,” Stensland said.

Laura Steele, senior in art and design, said she bought materials at the sale to use for art projects.

“I’ve gotten overhead projectors, lab stools and telephones there,” Steele said. “Every week, they lower the prices of the stuff that didn’t sell the week before.”

Jennifer Nieland, graduate assistant in art and design, said the sale is a great place to find used computer equipment for very low prices.

“I recently found an older Macintosh computer for $7.50, which we are using at the New Art Basics Office as a drop box for co-workers to send files over the Ethernet,” Nieland said. “These are machines that would sell for a minimum of $200 on the regular market.”

Nieland said a lot of people buy non-working machines to get older parts that are expensive or are no longer available.

“It is a really good source for students who just need something to do word processing,” she said. “With the lab overcrowding problem, the … sale is a big help in getting people good computers at garage sale prices.”

Among the most unusual things he has sold at the sales, Stensland lists airplanes, propellers and wings of airplanes and guided missile computers.

The sales are held every Wednesday from noon to 3 p.m. at the Purchasing Warehouse, across the street from the Printing and Publications Building on Kooser Drive.

Stensland said most of the merchandise sells in the first hour of the sales, and frequent shoppers come early and wait in line.

“You have to be quick to get the really good equipment,” Nieland said. “Sometimes they have video cameras and VCRs, TVs and other equipment besides computers.

“You can always find something good,” she said.