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Did I blow it?

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    carolinajunkman started this thread.
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    Did I blow it?

    Got a call this morning to come get 24 towers. Excited, because I've never gotten more than 2 at once, I paid $5 each. Also got a couple of monitors, something that I think is a server, and some other misc stuff. Problem is that most didn't have hard drive or memory. A few were missing power supplies. Will I still make A profit?



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    Scrap man's Avatar
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    You'll still make a decent profit, but not as much as you would have with that stuff included. I always make sure everything is in them when I'm paying $5 each.
    There's nothing more fun and more effective than hitting something repeatedly with a sledgehammer

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    Quote Originally Posted by carolinajunkman View Post
    Got a call this morning to come get 24 towers. Excited, because I've never gotten more than 2 at once, I paid $5 each. Also got a couple of monitors, something that I think is a server, and some other misc stuff. Problem is that most didn't have hard drive or memory. A few were missing power supplies. Will I still make A profit?
    What you will make is a few dollars and a lot of education! Do not see ya losing. Good luck!!

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    Ecycle Atlanta's Avatar
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    Don't worry, you will do fine. Remember that volume makes up for a lot. If you were driving around picking up 2 or 3 computers here and there, you were wasting a lot of time (=$) and gas. With a larger load you only have those costs for 1 trip. Everything adds up, so paying $5 each in that condition isn't the worst thing in the world (plus you got some extra goodies). Learn from the experience and use that for future dealings. Try to always check inside the computers if possible. Missing P/S is easy to check.

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    I've spent $6 Plus on towers before and I made out ok. I wouldn't have paid that much if some unexpected costs didn't pop up in the process. I still am holding onto the Finger Boards and Motherboards because I'm waiting the price of MB's to get to $3.00 a LB before I sell out. You will do fine, I'll even pay $5 a incomplete tower depending on whats inside.
    Made in China, Recycled in the Republic of Texas!

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    Check the ram and CPUs for resale value. I know I've done quite well selling certain CPUs for much more than scrap value to a buyer on this forum.

    I'ma go against the grain & guess that you actually could lose money, too. If there's no ram, no fingerboards, missing powersupplies, and you have Chinese mobos, & old P4s... you could be looking at a loss.

    I hope I'm wrong!! Probably am, just pointing out worst case.
    Out of clutter, find simplicity. --Albert Einstein

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    Did I blow it?

    I've found one or two towers that I rode bike home with. I got some copper out of it but I saved the the hard drive, cd/dvd port, and the motherboard planning to hopefully sell them. I heard you could sell them online but I'm not sure how or where. Anybody know where I could sell them at?

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    carolinajunkman started this thread.
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    Just rough numbers, looks like a decent profit still, but not as good as it could be. We're almost all Dell, and 2 colored boards. Got $50 back out of shred alone.

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    Quote Originally Posted by TheKid View Post
    I've found one or two towers that I rode bike home with. I got some copper out of it but I saved the the hard drive, cd/dvd port, and the motherboard planning to hopefully sell them. I heard you could sell them online but I'm not sure how or where. Anybody know where I could sell them at?
    Scrap Buyers & Sellers - Scrap Metal Forum

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    There are a couple places I regularly get towers from and $5 is as low as they will go. Sometimes they are missing things and I still make a profit.

    I would prefer to be able to negotiate a lower price for missing components but this is the deal i have with them. Plus they get lots of workstations and servers and to them everything is a tower so it ends up evening out most of the time.

    I know that we would all prefer to at least double our investment on every deal but sometimes it isn't possible. Gotta take the good with the bad if you want to stay busy.

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    Thank you, Gravitar. This will help me a lot.

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    Ditto on the education you will get from this one deal. It will take a lot of what is said on this forum about ewaste and make sense of it. Nothing like getting the hands on education. Congrats, Mike.
    "Profit begins when you buy NOT when you sell." {quote passed down to me from a wise man}

    Now go beat the copper out of something, Miked



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