Your both probably right on uses. And more.
My first thought was light refiners for lasers. But that’s because I have experience and such blocks are used. Could be any number of things.
Auctions are your best bet.
My suggestion is to look through some of the eBay sponsored auctions and pull company names from industrial and scientific.
And start calling.
These companies do live, usually invite only, auctions. So you have a company that handles it for you, knows exactly what they are doing, and only brings in actual bidders from known track records interested in you lots and nearly guaranteed to pay, not shill bid or dump.
I’ve been both a bidder and supplier for these type of auctions. They usually sell really well.
They’re fast too, they post an item, take bids, and allow 30 seconds to 5 minutes of dead time before closing and item and moving on. Bidless items get reposted 1-3 times during the show.
and payouts are usually completed in a week to 10 days.
https://pages.ebay.com/live-auctions/about.htmlAs a side benefit: they allow buyers and sellers to negotiate post auction at sellers offer. As long as they get their fees paid in cold hard dollars, euros, etc, they don’t care.
I’ve ended up doing many trades with buyers and paying the fees myself. I got both my Atari Samantha and Commodore 65 via post auction trades.
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Down sides:
These houses know exactly what they’re doing and aren’t easy to control if you have different ideas.
They usually want buyers to lock escro accounts. Which isn’t good in the price range here.
They nearly always want seller platform fees up front (partly refundable).
They charge considerably more for non escrow auctions.
Up sides:
Knowledgeable selling staff knows what you have and posts it correctly.
Invite auctions guarantee the right audience.
Hands off. They do all the work from sorting, to photos, listing, shipping, taxes, everything.
Lightning fast payout vs street auctions. 7-10 days on average.
Options for hard cash, deposits, foreign currency, and usually some crypto choices.
Many more buyer payment options.