A shutdown window shapes the lot more than the cable does.

Changeover work compresses into a short outage. The crew has days rather than weeks, and everything to be removed comes out early so the installation side can start. Cable landed at the back of a laydown in that first push is often exactly the material left over at the end of it.

That compression helps a seller. The material is already gathered, on a pallet and known to the crew, which is more than most lots can claim. It also means the review has to move at the same pace, so the shutdown dates and the gate arrangements come before anything else.

Cable removed during a changeover has usually been in service, which puts it in a different class from new surplus. It has been terminated, it carries the bend memory of its tray route, and its ends are cut. None of that makes it scrap; it makes it removed cable, reviewed on what is left and what can be reused.

Construction matters more than the panel it came from. Drive cable off a VFD, tray cable from an instrument run and a feeder to a large motor each carry their own shield and jacket, and each is identified by its own print. The line number is useful for the history, not for the description.

A plant holds better records than most sites. Single-line diagrams, panel schedules, cable schedules and maintenance history are usually on file, and any of them identifies a construction faster than a photograph. Sending the cable schedule for the affected line shortens the whole review, and the document is usually already in the plant's set.

Test records matter where the changeover touches medium voltage. A shielded feeder with a commissioning test behind it reads differently from one with no history at all, and the plant electrical engineer is usually the person holding that sheet. Whether those records exist for the line is worth stating up front.

Lots that become available on the last day of a shutdown, and lots ready two weeks before it, are not reviewed the same way. The first has to be loaded inside a window that cannot move; the second can be planned around a crane, a reel trailer or a driver coming from another site.

Say what happens to the cable if it is not collected. Material that would otherwise go into a plant dumpster, or sit on a laydown until the next outage, tells a buyer how much time the review actually has, and that is often the fact that decides whether a collection is arranged.

• Shutdown start and end dates.
• When the cable is expected off the line.
• Gate, induction and escort requirements for visitors.