Hospital liquidation sales can lead to bargain buys.

For 10 years, Alan Stankus and others in his profession have traveled across state lines searching for used medical equipment at bargain-basement prices.

For more than a quarter century, helping stock that basement has been National Content Liquidators (NCL), a Springboro, OH-based business that manages hospital liquidation sales.

Converting debt to cash for more than 60 bankrupt hospitals in the United States, NCL's staff of 30 typically "moves in" to a vacated hospital, appraises the equipment, affixes permanent sale tags to each item and settles on a sales…