Thanks to Craigslist.....

So normally I take my scrap gutted computer towers to the yard myself but lately I've been posting them on Craigslist as scrap metal. I usually run the posting after gutting 40 or so units. All I ask in trade is a pack of smokes, maybe 2 packs if there's more than 60 units. My intentions aren't to get a pack of smokes it's my way of networking. It allows me an opportunity to meet other scrappers or possibly someone who wants the towers for a purpose other than scrap. Well that person called me first today. He pulls up in a compact car and I'm wondering where the heck he was going to put it all. Come to find out he wasn't a scrapper. He's a refurbisher. He's a computer geek who works at a repair shop and does his own thing on the side. He almost pooped himself when he saw my mother load of computer scrap. Right away he had a million questions. I was proud to quickly respond I was sitting on over $2500 in scrap. He said I was nuts. He started looking at misc pieces and started speaking a language I didn't understand. Basically he was telling me what I had and what he could do with it and how much he could sell it for. He said he could make $2500 in one tenth of
what I had. Well we spoke for a couple of hours and I listened to all his ideas and came to an
agreement that as long as I could make more than scrap then we could do business together. We agreed to a 35/65 percent split. He told me not to touch anything before allowing him to look at it. Anything he wasn't interested in would be solely mine as scrap. All I do Is supply the inventory. He'll do the testing, repairs and marketing, again I just supply the inventory. He spoke of eBay, Craigslist, flea markets, computer shows and mom and pop computer shops.
It all sounds good but we'll see if it all pans out. It sounds logical and makes sense. He is the missing link, I know how to get it and I know how to break it down and getthie best at scrap. He brings in the technical know how and list of people and ways on how to get rid of it. he showed me a computer I just gutted last night on eBay that had a high bid of $80. I'd be happy withheld of that. I'm lucky if I'm getting $12 by gutting it.
I'll keep you posted as we move along. He's so excited he wanted to start tomorrow. I'm playing it cool and told him to do some research, make some calls and call me mid next week.

Networking is a powerful tool. The "Who" you know thing. Check out Linked In and see if you can go to a few networking meetings. You probally be surprised at the connections you can make. Search Linked In for networking groups in your area.

Hey!! sounds like a good deal. I'm thinking if thier is something that your partner needs that you don't have maybe you could post it on here, maybe one of us would have it and could work out a deal. Just a thought.

I have the best of both worlds for computer scrap... been a computer guy for 25+ years having the knowledge to know what I have in my hands AND have access to a lot of ewaste. However it all depends on how much time and effort you want to spend as to how much you can make. Do you want to do a quick tear down and scrap it out to the best price recycler, or take the time to refurb an older pc or peripheral and post it all over on craigslist, ebay, etc. There's always a buyer out there that will pay more than scrap for most ewaste... it's how much time you want to spend on finding him/her. The person you found sounds like they have $$ in their eyes seeing what could potentially be made on some of the ewaste you possess. It's definitely easy to say he can make $25,000 on the $2,500 of ewaste you have. I've had some unique stuff in my possession over the years that I thought would fetch a pretty penny, but in reality it didn't. If he has contacts, the know how, and the time, more power to him and you get a 35% return on it.

Yeah! What HE said ^^^
I've found older computers that more or less belonged in a museum, complete boxes that only sell for $20-$25 plus shipping (and they're not a simple shipment, often 25-30 lbs complete). It's better than scrap, and worthwhile if you care to do that sort of thing (actually I believe i left the last 2 "museum pieces" on a shelf in a closet last time I moved, just didn't have time to worry with it at the time) Boards and cards are easier to ship, but unless they're extremely rare (and rare ones are definitely rare ) you'll be lucky to get $10 plus shipping (or maybe even shipping included). If you have a number of newer video cards you might do fairly well, into the $15- $25 range, but I'm just guessing that. A lot of time is involved in testing and researching each individual piece.

I agree 100% AJR and Bear. My take on his disbelief of me tearing down every unit I get was that he was confident there was a better market versus scrap. He looked at the stack of empty towers, my latest stack of mother boards and confidently said, if those were still operational you could easily make $100-$200 on a few and without a doubt $50 for others. He rummaged through my container of over 300 RAM and made 5 or so stacks, he did the same with my 78 pounds of misc. Sound cards, pci cards etc. We then went inside and he showed me what people were selling this stuff locally at various local computer shops, Craigslist and eBay. EVen if we sold for half the price, it would still be quadruple what I would get for scrap. A prime example would be, he counted 42 individual 2gb ram sticks (remember he's the technical guy, I don't even know if I'm calling things the right names) and said he could easily get $10 a piece for those. 42 sticks is probably 2.5 lbs and my recycler would pay $15/lb that's $40 bucks if I'm lucky. 42 at 10 bucks each is $420 so if I even got half, that would still be 5 tikes the amount of scrap and even splitting 35 percent to him and 65 percent to me... I'm still better off and now this guy makes money too. He showed me on a particular sound card what I had 14 of that were bidding as high as $45 each for. He said we could bundle a lot of my stuff together and it would sell better.
I'm not going to get in over my head or get too excited. I'll just wait it out, go slowly and see if he could actuallymake us money. The ball is in his court. I bring the inventory, he does the rest. I told him, I'm totally happy making my money from scrap because I'm very fortunate to have a steady supply, if he thinks he can make us both better money with minimal liability then so be it, I wish him and us luck. I'm just here for the ride until he proves he's full of it. We'll see and believe me, ill keep you all posted.

Are you the one I recently told about the work/test bench? It's very simple to plug em up starting out, and make a note of what each one consists of ( i use wide masking tape on top of each tower to make notes on ) From they go into separate stacks (possibly 3, good/bad/and maybe)

Yes you did. I'm making it a point to have a testing station moving forward. Thanks

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Originally Posted by Bear

From they go into separate stacks (possibly 3, good/bad/and maybe)

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Things like used RAM (even new RAM) can be very tricky to test and sell. It may look like it works because the machine powers on and POSTs (Power On Self Test). But once it's hammered with an operating system, virus scanner, etc it can fail because of a bad region of a chip that isn't hit on with a quick test. A good testing software is memtest86 (search and make a bootable CD or USB stick). When weird things happen on a pc (random reboots, graphics glitches, etc) I always run the memtest86 and over ½ of the time it is due to bad memory. Usually within the first 2 quick passes it detects a memory fault and halts the program meaning it's a bad ram stick. Sometimes it requires a full vigorous test to detect it which becomes 8 passes (each pass takes longer and longer) making the time to test each stick of ram in upwards of 1 hour or more.

I state the above because these are the issues you have to deal with when working with used parts to resell, and isn't just with RAM but also hard drives, motherboards, power supplies, processors, etc. When you sell a used pc that worked out of your hands but dies a week later, now you're dealing with an upset "customer". Even listing things "AS IS" doesn't preclude you from knowing that you sold someone a pc or component that died. You made your extra money over scrap and they have nothing. Electronics is always a crap shoot. I have used components that I bought that have been running for the last 12 years, and brand new components that don't last 6 months.

I have in my possession from a DEC Alpha server these 2 parts:
Processor board: DEC 54-24799-01 ALPHASERVER 1000A CPU 400MHZ 1-YR WARR | eBay
Video Card: DEC PBXGB-AA POWERSTORM 3D30 54-23481-01 1-YR WARRANTY | eBay

Now it looks as though 1 of the 2 video cards sold already... if that's the case then I may be able to list it even at $200 and should be able to sell it. These are the rare and ubiquitous pieces that show up now and then and are probably worth selling for more than scrap, but I have no way of testing them! And this guy is selling them with a 1 year warranty!!!

Anyway, I hope he can sell some stuff for you as it can benefit you both $$ wise. And it's all on him to deal with the person he sells the stuff to whether it works or not. Be sure to figure out an inventory spreadsheet or system of items that he takes so there are no arguments on what he took and has sold or not sold. You will never see receipts so you will have to go on his word of what it sold for (ebay listings he does you can see the total, but then he has to take out ebay and shipping fees). Even doing all this myself would be a headache because I have to take photos of everything, list it on CL or ebay, pack it, ship it, deliver it, etc. Unless it's something like the rare stuff above, I'm going to sort it and ewaste sell it.

AJR thanks again. Like I said, I'm not going to get too excited. If he comes through and makes us both more money, so be it. If not, I'd be happy with the results from scrap. If he takes away my fun of tear down, I have no clue what I'll do to fill in the time. The excitement of tearing apart a computer is just like panning for gold to me. I really enjoy it.

Seagate tools disk has a memory tester too. I don't know if I'll go back Ebay route or not, would rather just set up a website and list things from there, not completely sure about that either, might just stay local with it, full units less OS, but have never tried that route before.

I recently put a Compaq Portable 2 on e-bay and it has a bid and some watchers will see how it goes.

Compaq Portable 2 with original carrying case!!! NO RESERVE | eBay

Sweet. im going to keep track of it. Im really curious. Im sure youll get atleast three times you have offered now. Good luck!

Whatever it goes for will be go toward business cards. Use it to grow the business. I would like to sell more stuff on ebay the money is nice and I need the Paypal funds. I want to use the money to pay for a web site. All scrap purchase.

I haven't gone global and used eBay yet. I just started using Craigslist and so far it's working. The stuff is going for at least 3 times the amount I would get if scrapped. It's just not moving fast enough, but at the same time, when I was scrapping I was just compiling it anyways.

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Originally Posted by Geiser093

Whatever it goes for will be go toward business cards. Use it to grow the business. I would like to sell more stuff on ebay the money is nice and I need the Paypal funds. I want to use the money to pay for a web site. All scrap purchase.

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When I first started out I bought the do-it-yourself Avery pack at Walmart for 3.69 a hundred. Just use Avery's wizard to help design the cards then just print them off on the ole computer/printer. Great way to start out on the cheap, then we got our "professional set" from Vistaprint. $30 something for a thousand, front and back.

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...ess-cards.html

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Originally Posted by Geiser093

I recently put a Compaq Portable 2 on e-bay and it has a bid and some watchers will see how it goes.

Compaq Portable 2 with original carrying case!!! NO RESERVE | eBay

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your images don't work on my connection. What does it say on that green screen there?

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

When I first started out I bought the do-it-yourself Avery pack at Walmart for 3.69 a hundred. Just use Avery's wizard to help design the cards then just print them off on the ole computer/printer. Great way to start out on the cheap, then we got our "professional set" from Vistaprint. $30 something for a thousand, front and back.

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...ess-cards.html

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Your "professional set" cost less per hundred than your Avery ones did. Figure in the cost of a printer, or some ink, and woah!