Question about paying for computers

Back in the good old days, paying $5 for each computer got you profit, no matter what. Unfortunately now that is no longer the case. It's been awhile since I've paid for computers, I often get them for free. Today I got a text from a contact I made a few years ago. He has 32 towers and 7 laptops. The towers are mostly core 2, and there may or may not be a few i3's mixed in as well. He said none of them have hard drives, and some are missing ram, but hes not sure how many. With low prices I've been trying to get more into the resale scene of things. I recently sent off a package of resale stuff to PTS and was very satisfied with my results. I know that he pays a little bit for core 2's, and a decent amount for i3's. This ram is likely worthless, as well as the motherboards so those will be scrapped.

So that leaves me with small socket motherboards nearing $1/lb, and no guarantee of scrap ram, finger boards, or working processors. On top of that, shred is essentially worthless, and my yard refused to buy power supplies for anything more than shred. The way I'm seeing it, I can pay $1 per tower and maybe make $.50 per unit. Am I far off here? Am I missing something? How much would you pay under these conditions?


Thanks for reading!

Don't count on those laptops working. I'm sure that PTS pays for laptops similarly to the way I do- an amount for a fully working complete unit, and dockages for missing parts or damage. Don't base what you'll make on the complete, fully working number. Make sure that you're covered if those machines are all failures. Then, any More than Scrap Value profit is the icing on the cake instead of what you're depending on to break even.

Also, for anyone reading this, I'll be the canary in the coal mine: Core 2 Duo laptops are losing their value pretty quickly. My estimate is that by Q3 of this year, most of them will be scrap machines.

Right, I didn't even really count the laptops when I was calculating that. I always assume them to be worthless, but I mean I guess it's worth a quick text asking him a little bit about those, as well.

Thank you

I'm told that the laptops are old, missing hard drives, but in good condition. I assume them to be scrap.

I'd probably end up paying between $60 and $100 for the lot. There is much more potential if you can sell the items yourself. The motherboards and power supplies can sell too. Especially motherboards that support Core i3 processors. If you're just relying on PTS and scrap, then $20 I would say.