Dan,
Did you find that the Sig auction sold the important central tools like the laser cutters, or more like the boxes of mismatched wrenches you'd find in a garage sale?
thanks,
Peter
The auction site had photos of everything . In these types of auctions, they sell EVERYTHING!! Anything that is between the walls and under roof. After my younger brother passed away, my sister in law liquidated his machine shop business the same way. It was a live, in person and on line auction as most of these are these days, and it is a very fast paced affair. They sold everything right down to the really old vaccum cleaner that was in his bathroom! Small items are put in parts boxes as a lot. If a lot doesn't draw a bid in the first few seconds, they add something else to it until it does. The company that did the SIG auction had hundreds of photos on their website leading up to it. They showed everything, including the rugs on the floor and office furniture. The desks where Mike Gretz and Mike Pratt probably sat at looked like they did the last time I say them in person. All the machine shop equipment was pictured. Shelves in the balsa cutting building that still had some balsa stacked on them. It was the entire contents of the entire building complex. Keep in mind that all of this equipment was pretty old, and who knows what kind of operating condition it was all in. Glenn built a lot of it himself from scratch. Die cutters were converted old letter printing presses. The previous owner installed a new dust collector system and some saws after a fire in 2019, I think it was, and then the two previously owned laser cutters were probably the most modern machines they had. It was amazing what SIG could produce at their peal with what they had for equipment but it took the right people to do it. BYU says the return address is still the old one on Front Street, so either the building hasn't sold or they are leasing back some warehouse space. That part of the Iowa is farm country, and Montezuma is a typical small farm town. It was where Hazel and Glenn lived and worked at first. That's why SIG was where it was. The lot where the building complex is located is also a residential area. The buildings are a patchwork of additions added on over time as SIG grew and might be attractive to everyone that looks at it. It might not even be feasible to tear it all down and build new houses on the site because the market there couldn't support it , or building a new commercial building. Lots of complications in that respect, and I imagine the first domino that has to fall to allow SIG to move is the sale of the old property. We are 8 months down the line from the time SIG shut down and laid off the staff and Herb Rizzo put the announcement on the web site that SIG was not for sale or closing, but would be moving. The fact that this hasn't happened yet leads me to believe that he doesn't have the capital to do it
Thanks for the information Uncle Bob!! Interesting that you got a Skyray .35. The website doesn't show C/L kits on the drop down menu, but if you scroll down on the home page the usual offerings are there but almost all are "SOLD OUT." And now we know the web site works, but I wonder if anyone answers the phone? I might test that out sooner or later.
I really wish this all wasn't happening. I love SIG products and loved going to the contests and considered everyone there friends. In retrospect, it was almost inevitable. When Hazel and Maxey wanted to retire and sell the company, that didn't go as smoothly as you might think and the deal with the first buyer fell through, and they resumed ownership. It has changed hands several times since then, with the most promising one being the guy from New Zealand, Chris Lehay or something like that, but he had sudden health issues and had to sell again.. Like I said earlier, it's August now, so we'll see what develops by the end of the year.
Type at you later,
Dan McEntee
Topic: SIG (Read 2282 times)