hardware appraisal

[Keith Mastin]

How does one valuate used hardware and servers, as well as tools and
materials? My company has been bought by another company that requires a
third party valuation of all the equipment and inventory that I have as a
condition of certain government funding arrangements (it's an indian band
in B.C.). I have also been hired to run the new company, and so am too
close to provide an accurate accounting of the equipment as is.

Some of the servers are very dated (p120, p150, etc.) but still perform
specific and valuable tasks such as archiving backups or monitoring the
network. Rather than going through the hassle of re-programming the same
functions into fast and furious hardware (new aka overkill for these
functions) I would rather keep the current hardware and just plug it into
the new location, at a considerable cost savings to the new company.

Simply amortizing the cost of the hardware will not work, as it is the
specific functions that they perform or the fact that a lot of it is hard
to find now which makes them worth keeping.

I have sale and purchase prices on all of it, including inventory, some of
which is refurbished or used. I also have some very dated inventory that I
keep 'just in case' it's needed somewhere, and it has proven to be very
valuable for repairs or replacements on client's systems in a number of
cases (replace a EDO memory stick rather and get them back up and running
NOW rather than sell them a new server and have them go through
considerable downtime while I program the new hardware for it's specified
function).

There are also tools that have no end of life, and so I'm reluctant to
value them at purchase price less amortization. The replacement value of
the tools is now considerably more than it was when I bought most of them,
but I feel it would be unfair to stick the appreciated price on them
rather than the purchase price.

Any ideas or advice on this would be greatly appreciated, as I can't go
ahead with the sale until I can find a correct formula for the appraisal
that can be applied by an appraiser.

Thanks in advance...
-- 
Keith Mastin
--
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