Items for sale here and on ebay without remotes....

I don't know what kind of area you guys live in but to me the whole idea that a significant percentage of items sans remotes are stolen is bizarre. I've picked up a large number of receivers for instance at garage sales. Very few have remotes. Are they therefore suspicious? Get real.

Before you sneer that I mentioned garage sales, I did find a nice set of Quad ESL 57's on custom hardwood Levinson stands for $300 once in the Haight by the Panhandle. Yes, I did. No, I didn't think that somebody
had broken a window, grabbed the speakers and gone a running to then sell them at a garage sale.
Ever been to a thrift shop and seen a bin full of lonely remotes? No?Seems like all Thrift stores have a bin like that. Because of all the thugsthat are too lazy to hunt down the remotes?
I just don't see it.

Think I'll check some conspiracy websites now...

Clean up day? Heck yes! A guy at work some years ago gave me a huge Klein & Hummel amp and preamp that he had picked up at his neighbors on one of those pick up days. He knew I was an audio guy so he just grabbed them and said here you go. The amp was massive, big meters and everything. The preamp didn't work correctly. The amp sure did.
He was a Science Fiction type so I gave him a big stack of Scifi that I had already read.
Everybody was happy.