Could be! Do they say it is “collecting” or do they want spare parts or is there any articulated logic behind it?
they use this term called scrapping. the idea is when you find something you can recondition it and sell it for a profit. Im actually all about this. Ive done it myself. however they have never finished any reconditioning or reused any of the items.
Ooh, I relate to this (at a much smaller scale on tinkering projects). Great concept but yes dangerous if the second half of the process isn’t happening!