There has been a significant increase in high quality, barely used materials handling equipment available for sale as a result of large dot coms going bust.

"This is the most I've seen in 17 years," says Stafford Sterner, vice president, marketing at SJF Material Handling Inc. (www.sjf.com), a liquidator of materials handling equipment.

In addition to dot bombs, there has been a general trend of businesses shutting down non-essential facilities. The effect is, "you can equip a warehouse for half price and receive new equipment," says Sterner. "Before, you were getting equipment that was 5 or 6 years old."

To try to help the flooding market, SJF has introduced The Unfair Advantage program. This new service provides individuals with an opportunity to benefit from equipment that is not going to be used.

"We have the largest inventory of materials handling and warehouse equipment in the country, but even we don't have room for the volume being created by today's economy," says Sterner.

Customers can sign up for the free program through the Unfair Advantage link on the company's Web site. Members receive a monthly newsletter called "Industry Insider" that alerts them to equipment opportunities.

"People want to know about deals. The new Red Alert service gets them on the ground floor," says Sterner. Members can select the type of equipment they would be interested in. When that type of equipment becomes available, they receive notification via e-mail.

Sterner says that while he believes the dot bomb market has reached its peak, it will take awhile for all the equipment to filter through the system.