Laptops: Does your buyer prefer whole or broken down?

OK... I'm leery of posting this, and it sounding like I'm asking the age-old question: "Is it worth your time to break down a laptop".... especially after a certain other thread I started. :p

That's not what I'm asking. What I'm asking. I am asking if your buyer literally prefers you send him/her untouched laptops or if he'd rather you went ahead & broke them down into their component parts.

Reason is, I got a few laptops today, and I got a line on several more, and I know that I've seen a couple of buyers actually ask their sellers not to disassemble their LTs. I am curious if this is common.

Plus, I REALLY wanna take a peek inside this old Compaq Armada 7730MT but I don't want it to cost me $$ doing so. This thing DOES NOT EVEN HAVE A PLACE TO INSERT A CD DISK!! LOL. Gotta be from about 1997 or 8 at the latest.

One laptop will not make a difference,....if your curious go for it

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Originally Posted by auminer

OK... I'm leery of posting this, and it sounding like I'm asking the age-old question: "Is it worth your time to break down a laptop".... especially after a certain other thread I started. :p

That's not what I'm asking. What I'm asking. I am asking if your buyer literally prefers you send him/her untouched laptops or if he'd rather you went ahead & broke them down into their component parts.

Reason is, I got a few laptops today, and I got a line on several more, and I know that I've seen a couple of buyers actually ask their sellers not to disassemble their LTs. I am curious if this is common.

Plus, I REALLY wanna take a peek inside this old Compaq Armada 7730MT but I don't want it to cost me $$ doing so. This thing DOES NOT EVEN HAVE A PLACE TO INSERT A CD DISK!! LOL. Gotta be from about 1997 or 8 at the latest.

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I guess it would depend on what your buyer is doing with them. If it's going to be sent to the refinery, then I wouldn't see having all the plastic/metal/glass in the way. Most likely, most buyers are either exporting, and/or refurbishing to resell domestically, or selling to someone who does.

sell it on ebay imo. seen broken laptops sell up to $100. probably why buyers would prefer you didn't break it down. i've heard the screen is the most valuable part so if that isn't broken then it should sell easily on ebay.

P4 and better sell on ebay. If you have any Thinkpads old enough to just have floppy drives let me know.

I usualy send all my laptops to Randy at ROK. Pays pretty well for p3 and newer laptops. Anything older he pays scrap price for and at his prices to me its not worth breaking down. Now since I like to resell ram and hard drives. I do usualy pull those out and check them for resale value.

I am saving my laptops to send to ROK, P3 and newer and complete. I have also broken down several older ones and found a lot of them I had had ceramic cpu's that I pulled out. Also the laptop mobo sells for better money and shipping cost on a mobo is a lot cheaper that a whole lap top. Finally I might add I am easily entertained and enjoy trearing apart items while I watch tv so in the end I consider my time and effort nearly free.

I have to believe that selling many on Ebay would give the best return but then you are involved with spending your time doing that. I may have to go that direction since I have a few duo core laptops and a lot of other parts that are worth more than scrap. Mike.

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Originally Posted by auminer

OK... I'm leery of posting this, and it sounding like I'm asking the age-old question: "Is it worth your time to break down a laptop".... especially after a certain other thread I started. :p

That's not what I'm asking. What I'm asking. I am asking if your buyer literally prefers you send him/her untouched laptops or if he'd rather you went ahead & broke them down into their component parts.

Reason is, I got a few laptops today, and I got a line on several more, and I know that I've seen a couple of buyers actually ask their sellers not to disassemble their LTs. I am curious if this is common.

Plus, I REALLY wanna take a peek inside this old Compaq Armada 7730MT but I don't want it to cost me $$ doing so. This thing DOES NOT EVEN HAVE A PLACE TO INSERT A CD DISK!! LOL. Gotta be from about 1997 or 8 at the latest.

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Unless they are truly old, sell them on ebay.com

That is what I do with all my laptops and always make more than scrap value on them.

When your listing them and unsure if they work, just put in the title "for parts/non working"

The older ones, scrap them.

I think the question was " does your buyer want you to break down the laptops or send them in whole?" My buyer wants them whole with the hard drive and battery.

their a pain in the butt to break down for very little scrap. unless it has a hi end cpu I sell them whole.

I guess that would depend on who your buyer for them is(a lot of buyers only pay you about $1.10/lb). When it comes to laptops I send them to ROK, he has the highest prices because he pays you more than scrap value on complete units P3 or newer. I break down all the old ones that don't have any "vintage" value. I do it because its fun and they have A LOT OF GOLD content :)

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Originally Posted by happyscraper

I think the question was " does your buyer want you to break down the laptops or send them in whole?" My buyer wants them whole with the hard drive and battery.

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Whether or not this was meant in regards to my response, I would like to apologize to auminer for not answering the actual question.

If I am simply scrapping the laptops (ones that cannot sell via ebay.com), I just turn them in as they are. Some are missing parts and others are 100% whole.

The last 3 I just turned in, profited almost $12. This is why people will tell you it is only worth $1 to $2 per laptop if you are paying someone.

No George that post was not directed at any one person or post. It's just that he asked a question and everybody started talking about e-bay. My local buyer pays a flat 10.00 per laptop as long as it is intact with hard drive and battery. It can have a broken screen but must be whole.

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Originally Posted by happyscraper

No George that post was not directed at any one person or post. It's just that he asked a question and everybody started talking about e-bay. My local buyer pays a flat 10.00 per laptop as long as it is intact with hard drive and battery. It can have a broken screen but must be whole.

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$10/laptop? man I wish he was here!

Yeah! I'm lucky to have found a buyer that pays well for e-scrap. He's about an hour away from me but it's worth the trip. He also hooks me up with people in my area that are getting rid of old electronics, It's a sweet deal.

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Originally Posted by happyscraper

No George that post was not directed at any one person or post. It's just that he asked a question and everybody started talking about e-bay. My local buyer pays a flat 10.00 per laptop as long as it is intact with hard drive and battery. It can have a broken screen but must be whole.

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I bet hes parting them out. He wants the hard drives for sure. An old 40gb ide laptop drive can sell for as much as $25. Problem is th laptop drives are so wimpy. One little hit and they are dead.

I used to pick up laptops at the local recycler for $5 a piece (P3 or older), they hated taking them apart so they didn't want to mess with them. Not sure how much profit you can make off a laptop with broken screens if you are paying $10 a piece as is unless they are P4 or newer? On newer systems a working screen is worth more then anything else to somebody with a broken screen. Most old IDE laptop drives sell for much less then $25, and that is for a working tested one. If you end up with a 6gb drive who wants it in any quantity? New 3rd party batteries are kind of cheap on ebay, must be some money in reycling old Lion batteries then.

$1.85/lb for Li-ion laptop batteries

PTS, no I was there yesterday and he had a whole gaylord ready to ship to his buyer today.

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Originally Posted by happyscraper

PTS, no I was there yesterday and he had a whole gaylord ready to ship to his buyer today.

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So your buyer will pay $10 for an old brick as long as its got the battery and hard drive? If thats the case you should start buying them for $8 each and ill start sending you mine :)