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Aged Inventory Management Policy

This document defines how Scott Recycling handles inventory that doesn't sell quickly. Electronics and recyclable materials both lose value over time — but in different ways and on different timelines. This policy sets consistent rules so that aged inventory gets marked down, moved, or cycled out on a calendar, not on judgment.

Why Aged Inventory Matters

An item that doesn't sell today is worth less tomorrow. For electronics, depreciation is steep: - A laptop listed at $400 today may be worth $350 in 30 days, $275 in 60 days, $200 in 90 days - A CPU that's hot today may be obsolete in 18 months - A phone model in demand today may be superseded next quarter

Holding aged inventory has real costs: - Storage space that could hold faster-moving items - Opportunity cost on the capital tied up - Depreciation that erodes margin - Listing fatigue — marketplace algorithms deprioritize stale listings

The discipline of aged inventory management is the recycling equivalent of a used car lot's 30/45/60 day markdown rules. Enforced on a calendar, not on judgment.

Categories and Timelines

Different inventory types age at different rates. Each category has its own markdown schedule.

Category 1: Electronics — Refurbished / Retail-Ready

Items listed on eBay, Amazon, Walmart, or the website store for individual sale.

Age Action
0–30 days Full price. Listed at market.
31–60 days First markdown: 10–15%. Refresh listing photos if possible. Check description for accuracy.
61–90 days Aggressive markdown: 25–40%. Also: relist on a different channel (if on eBay only, add to Facebook Marketplace or Walmart).
91–120 days Deep discount or bundle. Consider bundling with similar items (e.g., "lot of 10 used laptops"). Move to wholesale channels.
120+ days Liquidate or part out. Sell to a wholesaler at bulk pricing, or break the device down for component harvest (CPU, memory, drives, screens sold separately).

Category 2: Electronics — Components / Parts

Individual parts harvested from devices: CPUs, memory, hard drives, GPUs, power supplies.

Age Action
0–60 days Full price.
61–120 days First markdown: 15–20%.
121–180 days Aggressive markdown: 30–50%. Consider bundling (e.g., "lot of 50 DDR3 sticks").
181+ days Scrap for precious metal recovery. Circuit boards go to refiner, metals to scrap.

Category 3: Scrap Metal / Commodities

Steel, aluminum, copper, brass, stainless steel, circuit boards. Sold by weight to commodity buyers.

Age Action
0–30 days Hold if the price is below your floor. Commodity prices fluctuate.
31–60 days Evaluate market. If prices haven't improved, sell to the current buyer. Don't wait indefinitely for a peak.
60+ days Sell at current market. Storage space has higher-value alternatives.

Special rule: Do not hoard in anticipation of a price peak. Commodity price prediction is speculation, not operations. Sell on schedule.

Category 4: Cables & Wire

Copper wire, network cables, power cords.

Age Action
0–90 days Accumulate. Larger loads get better per-pound prices.
90+ days Sell. Whether you've hit target volume or not — don't let cables age indefinitely.

Category 5: Focus (Hazardous) Materials

CRT glass, batteries, mercury lamps, refrigerants. Compliance-driven schedule.

Age Action
0–9 months Normal storage per environmental compliance
10 months Warning. Begin active disposal process. Document in compliance.focus.material module.
11 months Critical. Storage duration approaching regulatory threshold (typically 365 days). Dispose within 30 days.
12 months VIOLATION. You are now out of compliance with most state/federal focus material storage limits. Dispose immediately and document.

See Environmental Compliance for the regulatory specifics. The sr_ewaste_compliance module tracks these alerts automatically via the daily cron_check_storage_alerts job.

Category 6: Returns and Damaged Items

Items returned from customers or damaged in processing.

Scenario Action
Returned, resalable Re-inspect, re-grade, re-list. Start the aging clock over from day 0.
Returned, damaged Evaluate for component harvest. Do not re-list.
Damaged in processing Component harvest or scrap based on condition. Record the damage cause to identify training opportunities.

Category 7: Items Waiting for Data Destruction

Items holding data that cannot be listed until destruction is complete.

Age Action
0–7 days Normal queue. In the destruction workflow.
8–30 days Investigate. Why hasn't destruction happened? Resource constraint, paperwork issue, customer consent pending?
30+ days Escalate. Data-bearing items sitting unresolved create HIPAA / security risk. Get it destroyed or return to customer.

Markdown Approval

Who can approve markdowns, and at what levels?

Markdown Approver
Up to 10% Sales/listing user
10–25% Sales lead or manager
25–50% Manager
Over 50% Dan
Scrap / write-off Manager + documentation

This prevents ad-hoc discounting while allowing the daily flow to continue without bottlenecking every markdown on Dan.

Process — Who Does What

Daily (automated)

  • sr_operations_kpi tracks aging automatically
  • Focus material cron fires daily to flag items approaching storage thresholds
  • Multi-channel ecommerce repricing runs automatically (smart repricing per channel)

Weekly (Sales Lead / Manager)

  • Review the Aging Report in Odoo (filter by days on market)
  • Identify items crossing into the next markdown tier
  • Approve markdowns on items in the 10–25% tier
  • Note any items that look stuck (still listed, no views, no offers)

Monthly (Manager)

  • Full aging review across all categories
  • Approve 25–50% markdowns
  • Identify liquidation candidates (90+ days)
  • Review scrap/write-off candidates
  • Report to Dan on total aged inventory value and trend

Quarterly (Dan)

  • Review aged inventory as a business metric
  • Adjust the markdown schedule if market conditions warrant
  • Identify buying patterns that are creating aged inventory (should we stop buying X?)
  • Check: is aged inventory growing, shrinking, or stable?

Warning Signs

Any of these should trigger a deeper investigation, not just a markdown:

  • Aged inventory grows two months in a row → we're either buying too much of the wrong thing, or we're not listing/selling effectively
  • Specific category ages faster than others → that category's pricing or demand has shifted
  • Same items aging across multiple cycles → listing problem, not pricing problem (bad photos, wrong category, wrong title)
  • Aged inventory is concentrated with one vendor/customer source → quality problem with that source
  • Returns are contributing to aged inventory → grading problem at intake, not sales problem

Measurement

Track these metrics monthly and report to Dan:

Metric Definition Target
Aged inventory % Items over 60 days / total items listed < 20%
Deep aged % Items over 90 days / total < 10%
Average days to sale Weighted average across all sales < 45 days
Markdown write-off % Dollars lost to markdowns / total revenue < 5%
Focus material violations Items over 365 days in storage 0

Enforcement

The key to this policy working is that it's enforced on a calendar, not on judgment. Every Monday morning, the weekly review happens — regardless of whether anyone "feels like" marking things down. Every month-end, the monthly review happens.

A manager who thinks "I'll wait one more week and see if it sells" is creating aged inventory. The markdown exists precisely because we already know it's not going to sell at the higher price — that's what aged means.

What NOT to Do

  • Don't skip markdowns hoping a buyer will show up
  • Don't mark down quietly without documenting the decision
  • Don't manipulate dates to make things look newer (this is fraud)
  • Don't scrap without documenting — every write-off is a data point for buying discipline
  • Don't ignore focus material alerts — these are regulatory, not optional

Review Schedule

  • Weekly operational review
  • Monthly management review
  • Quarterly policy review (adjust markdown schedules if needed)
  • Annually full review with Dan