The stars are lining up.

Took a couple vacation days off from work this week hoping to get my garage cleaned up. I have at least 100 computers in there right now. Put an ad on CL on sat to buy old computers and the phone lit up. I have 2 large pickups to do tomorrow. THen my scrapper contact calls me and says hes has 45 computers for me to pick up as well. I get to go get them on thursday. So much for me getting everything caught up in the garage. Going to be a busy next 5 days. Ill post some pics of the garage before I takle it. Feels good to be back on the forums full time.

On a side note. I got direct with a manufacturer of ram in hong kong so if anyone needs ram for desktops or laptops let me know. I can get pretty good prices on new ram with warranty. ddr1 ddr2 and ddr3

Originally Posted by freonjoe

Sounds like it's time to really put the kids to work.

Yep they going to be helping me for sure.

I'm surprised you haven't quit the post office yet.

Originally Posted by freonjoe

I have never heard of anyone quitting the post office.

I did. Hated the system and how the supervisors pushed people. As soon as I earned a Master's degree, I took a $10,000/yr CUT just to get out. Never looked back.

Originally Posted by curlzcopper

PTS & others who are cycle through large amounts of towers & laptops - How much time do you spend testing units that look like they might work? I've had success reselling a few towers, but now find myself constantly searching for those working items while the ones I need to rip open are piling up in garage. Just looking for some guidance from you seasoned vets lol. TIA

In weeks past ive been introduced to 3 different guys who refurbish computers. I use these guys to determine for me whats good and bad. I dont have too much to test or even the knowledge to plus the additional time to market it all. Whenever i have a good load i call these three guys, sometimes they show up all at once and end up bidding eachother up on units. I had multiple towers sell from $40 to $60. I tend to come across units that are leass than 5 years old and my computer guys tend to take about 40% of my towers and all of my LCD monitors. I average about $25 per tower and $10 per monitor. I consider this to be twice the value of scrap and i dont have to spend anytime breaking them down. I consider my situation rather good right now. I have one guy promising to pay premiums if i call him first.

Be careful on procuring memory from HK. Mayn dealers are notorious for moving product with counterfeit components on the secondary market.

Originally Posted by curlzcopper

My loads have been the exact opposite lately. Tons of older stuff. Vintage. I'm talking Kaypro, late 80's early 90's Macs, IBM suitcase models, & numerous others. Obviously there's value in these - be it vintage, for parts, or as scrap since the contents are usually sweet. It just so tedious for me to research, clean, and test each model. Feels like I'm turning circles. I picked up about 50 towers/laptops last week half of which were vintage. I'm half tempted to just start popping screws on them all but figure I'll kick myself later if I do.

I think id be willing to trade one or two of my loads for one or two of yours. I hardly come across vintage or old. I already know i would gut those babies before i even got them loaded into my truck. I have a sickness when it comes to breaking open the old stuff.

Originally Posted by Ewasted

Be careful on procuring memory from HK. Mayn dealers are notorious for moving product with counterfeit components on the secondary market.

No i checked them out first. THey are all good and its just new in box ram chips for me to sell on ebay. The black chips even have the kingston label on them so I dont think they are fake. You never do know though.

As far as testing out the old stuff. I dont bother it get scrapped. I do sell the 5.25 drives on ebay. I also test and sell any memory stick 1gb or larger and any hard drive 80gb or larger to sell on ebay. I dont bother checking if the system works as a whole unless its a dual core or better.

Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

As far as testing out the old stuff. I dont bother it get scrapped. I do sell the 5.25 drives on ebay. I also test and sell any memory stick 1gb or larger and any hard drive 80gb or larger to sell on ebay. I dont bother checking if the system works as a whole unless its a dual core or better.

PTS, pardon the ignorance, but the 5.25 drives are the floppys (disks) right? If so, i have a few of those.

Also, what do you use, to test the ram and hard drives? I have several of each.

I need to learn about testing out memory. I have over 30 pounds of it and I'd say a good 3rd is 1gb. I was thinking they are small even if grouped in a lot, shipping wouldnt be a pain. All of this is still rather new to me. Still trying to figure out the best way to make my dollars. So far I've discovered, it's better for me to go to my local yard versus by scrap buyer with heat sinks. Just make sure to separate them properly in order to maximize pay out. In the past 2 to 3 weeks I've learned to chill out before breaking down all of my units. A lot of times I'm sitting on computers and monitors that are worthy of refurbishing and there are people willing to pay 3 to 4 times the amount I would have gotten in scrap. now I need to figure out a better outlet for my memory and maybe even my processors. I feel like I'm improving in my game every single day. And I contribute a lot of that gained knowledge from right here on this forum. If it wasn't for this forum, I'd be outside in my garage in the 100 degree weather breaking down a $25 tower so I can scrap it for $12. This forum has doubled my profits and decreased my labor. Sounds like I should go ahead and cough up the membership fee, it's the least I could do for this forum. Thanks everyone!

Originally Posted by Scrapcrazy

I need to learn about testing out memory. I have over 30 pounds of it and I'd say a good 3rd is 1gb. I was thinking they are small even if grouped in a lot, shipping wouldnt be a pain. All of this is still rather new to me. Still trying to figure out the best way to make my dollars. So far I've discovered, it's better for me to go to my local yard versus by scrap buyer with heat sinks. Just make sure to separate them properly in order to maximize pay out. In the past 2 to 3 weeks I've learned to chill out before breaking down all of my units. A lot of times I'm sitting on computers and monitors that are worthy of refurbishing and there are people willing to pay 3 to 4 times the amount I would have gotten in scrap. now I need to figure out a better outlet for my memory and maybe even my processors. I feel like I'm improving in my game every single day. And I contribute a lot of that gained knowledge from right here on this forum. If it wasn't for this forum, I'd be outside in my garage in the 100 degree weather breaking down a $25 tower so I can scrap it for $12. This forum has doubled my profits and decreased my labor. Sounds like I should go ahead and cough up the membership fee, it's the least I could do for this forum. Thanks everyone!

Check out my buyer thread if you want to sell the ram and hard drives for better than scrap value.

Originally Posted by GeorgeB

PTS, pardon the ignorance, but the 5.25 drives are the floppys (disks) right? If so, i have a few of those.

Also, what do you use, to test the ram and hard drives? I have several of each.

Yes 5.25 drives are the old floppies. I buy them for $3 each. If you want to do the ebay thing you can usualy get $10 for them untested.

As far as what I use to test them. I have a test bench set up to test all the ram and parts. Basicaly just three diferent motherboards ddr1 2 and 3 boards so I can test the ram. You could buy a ram tester but thy are about $4000. Hard drives I have a USB hard drive dosk I use to test them with some software that I have. But again if you dont want to spend the time to test all the stuff yourself I do buy the working stuff for better than scrap value.

On another not the stars are still alligning. Just got a call from word of mouth. Apparently this lady and her husband closed down thier computer repair shop and have all the old stuff they need to get rid of. So I get to go see her tomorrow night and hopefuly buy a good load. So pass out them business cards you never know when your going to get a call. Man this weekend is going to be the death of me.