My county has started their computer auctions.

I have never bought anything at this type of auction, need some advice.
This one is: Lot of 25 Used Dell OptiPlex 7010 Computers (Group 4)



I drove the price up to $100 someone has proxied more but don't know how much.
Here are some specs.

Twenty Five (25) Used Dell OptiPlex 7010 Computers
Memory: Mix of 4 and 8 GB DDR3
Processor: Intel Core i5 mix of CPU speeds
Hard Drive 250GB

I know I can sell the RAM for between $3 and $10 each
But I have no idea on what i5 CPU is in there. I could make a few $$ each or much better.



When I buy computers at yardsales I always pay $1 each or get for free. So right now $4 each is worrying me.

250GB hard drives are just going to be scrapped. I have no way to test or guarantee if they take a dump. Pull the board and cast AL.

The case to me is trash. I am a two hour drive to the closest scrap yard that pays. There is a Ferris yard in town but he does not pay. (I have a deal with him I get every TV dropped off at his yard, so far over 125)

My pic only shows the front. On the back I can see only one slot card, probably for monitor.

My question is how high would you go?

3rd gen i5....i'd say they will go $50 each if not more

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

3rd gen i5....i'd say they will go $50 each if not more

how can I tell if these are 3rd gen?

what would cheapest CPU go for? these are all government computers.

Model 7010 is 3rd gen....you can either look it up on google or if you have handled enough you just know

In my humble opinion these will go high because they are complete units....fairly easy for someone to get up and running again....keep us posted on what they go for

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

In my humble opinion these will go high because they are complete units....fairly easy for someone to get up and running again....keep us posted on what they go for

I do not know if I have scrapped these before. In 2021 & 22 I have only scrapped maybe 50 PCs and 50-60 laptops of all makes and ages. I still have 20 or so laptops in my shed just waiting.

The hard drives have been completely wiped clean. Would someone have to buy new licenses for windows or can they use the serial number label on the case to reinstall?

I don't understand this county. It is a poor county. Our schools need better computers. Until the covid hit I taught computers to 1st graders at my local elementary school. My computer room had a big mix of computers. Before class would start I had to get at least 15-18 up and running. (I had two classes) I would go down the isle and turn on 25 or so and wait till they booted up. I then went to everyone and made sure they worked. Always several that had problems. Why can't my county just take some of these Dells and put them in place of the ones I had to use? Then auction off the mixed lot of computers.

I just went on the auction site and saw they have a dutch auction for up to 25 of the same computer. It ends this monday. (the others end next Friday) So I placed a bid on one at $17.50

Most likely I will win one. So I will tear down and do the math to see what I could possibly make buying 1 or 2 lots on the other auctions. There are 5 lots of 25 each. Hopefully some of the bidders are out of towners and they need to think about shipping in their bids. I am a 5 minute drive from the storage.

I also bid on one big size photocopier. It is broken. My bid was first at $1. The auction has been on for one week. I just want to have fun tearing something like this down. No idea what is inside.

Optiplex 7010 are from 2012 (10 years old). If one wants to get them running, IMO the biggest issue would rather be the O/S, not the hardware.

What if you buy them and give them to the school in exchange of a tax credit? Let them deal with the Windows license (schools can get an education version for less, if I correct) or just install Linux (free - just one version with a good graphic interface, maybe Ubuntu). Otherwise, have you tried to sell them AS IT on Craigslist or Marketplace? I think that you can get more money than scrap value that way. My two cents.

Originally Posted by greytruck

If you get this, i recommend removing the toner before you load it.

thanks, never thought of that.

Originally Posted by CopperMiner

What if you buy them and give them to the school in exchange of a tax credit?

Today (Sunday) I emailed the guy in charge of the county tech. and asked about the schools getting some of them. (he got back to me already) He had already thought about it and made an offer. Most were turned down. Who turned them down? My principal is great at running the school but she knows nothing about the computer room. Because of covid I have not even been on campus in over one year. Last year I did zoom with 2nd graders but they are back in the school now. I do not have the right credentials to go back.

Now about the tax credit. No matter how much I donate I will not get more back in refunds. You need to be a big corporation to do that. Before I moved up here I donated a lot of books to the library and things to goodwill. When I put the total into turbotax nothing changed.

I just won one computer and payed $15.50 + 10%. I will try to pick up tomorrow and tear it down.

Still no one has out bid me on that copier. Still at $1.00, auction closes tomorrow evening.

The IT guy told me soon they will do several misc. servers, switches, routers, etc. Those are completely out of my league. Only seen teardowns on youtube. But since I live so close I can come down and inspect them.

It didn't cost ya nada to ask. Just too bad for them.

Originally Posted by greytruck

If you get this, i recommend removing the toner before you load it.

I won the copier and before putting it in my car I looked for toner but could not find.

This thing weighs 220 pounds. I pushed it (it has a cabinet on wheels under it) out to my car that was parked right at maintenance dept and two younger guys (by at least 4 decades) picked it up and pushed it in my car. When I got home I was not even going to try and take out of my car. So for 1.5 hours I removed everything I could. I probably pulled over 100 pounds of shred and plastic. There were a couple nice circuit boards too.

This is a duplicator and does not use toner. There was a big tube of black goo. This is what they use for ink. I did pull that and put in a garbage bag.

Tomorrow I will pull more shred and any circuit boards and put all back into my car to take to me shred dump. He gets for free and I get all TV sets he gets. Got 4 flatscreen and 2 CRT yesterday.

This copier is the largest electronics piece ever for my SUV.

So how much did the towers go for?

Originally Posted by cyberdan

I won the copier and before putting it in my car I looked for toner but could not find.

This thing weighs 220 pounds. I pushed it (it has a cabinet on wheels under it) out to my car that was parked right at maintenance dept and two younger guys (by at least 4 decades) picked it up and pushed it in my car. When I got home I was not even going to try and take out of my car. So for 1.5 hours I removed everything I could. I probably pulled over 100 pounds of shred and plastic. There were a couple nice circuit boards too.

This is a duplicator and does not use toner. There was a big tube of black goo. This is what they use for ink. I did pull that and put in a garbage bag.

Tomorrow I will pull more shred and any circuit boards and put all back into my car to take to me shred dump. He gets for free and I get all TV sets he gets. Got 4 flatscreen and 2 CRT yesterday.

This copier is the largest electronics piece ever for my SUV.

I do ok with selling working parts from tv's. Like everything else it takes research, youtube primarily. I really love cracked screen tv's because I could turn them on and take photos of the cracked screen "working" and list the parts on ebay using those photos. I would also include photos of the back panel with the part number of the screen and photos of each part for each listing. This system works but does leave a lot of left over plastic with the rest to the Al or shred pile. Also I learned how to repair some tvs and was able to give myself some nice used 55" for very little money, sometimes under $5. 73, Mike

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

So how much did the towers go for?

I tore down one and I estimate the resale at about $26 times 25 = $650

There were four lots of 25. The went up to $700 to 850 the morning of closing so I just ignored the whole thing.

Now waiting on servers and other stuff the IT guy said is in the works.