Selling harddrives: 50% failure rate so far -- suggestions?

I've decided to experiment with selling some of the harddrives I pulled out of old desktops. As of today I have sold 4 disks, all SATA. That's great, except 2 of the 4 sellers reported that their disks were DOA even though I tested them before shipping. It's entirely possible that I did not use good enough packages or did something else wrong while handling them. So here are some q's for those who have sold used HDDs:
1. How do you ship them? Do you use anything more sophisticated than some bubble wrap and a cardboard box? I shipped 3 of the 4 in padded envelopes -- this might explain why they died en route.
2. If you have failures like mine, were there any sort of patterns as far as their capacity, brand, model, age etc? Are SATA drives more or less reliable than IDE, or there is no correlation?
3. Which carrier do you use and do you think it actually matters?

Thanks!

Thanks

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...472l2.9.4l15l0

how did you test them?

Did you write down the serial number of the ones that you shipped out to ensure that you are indeed getting back the one that you shipped out and not the one that the buyer is replacing?

It happens.

Oh, and nice link Idaho.

Looks like anti static bags may be a big key in shipping these things.

Here is a link from e-bay. Seem to run about a buck a piece for the right size bag.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-pcs-3M-5-...item2eb93a7087
Or maybe something like this. Much cheaper option.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-anti-sta...item5d31495495

I ship mine in the flate rate small box rapped in newspaper. I havnt had a DOA drive yet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ewasted

how did you test them?

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First I did a DoD-level wipe, then I created a partition on it, create a small file and deleted it. In both DOA cases, the buyers claimed that they could not do anything with the drives, they were reporting errors. I've always worked with the drives through an enclosure, they're mounting them as internal, so maybe this had something to do with the issue.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by parrothead

Looks like anti static bags may be a big key in shipping these things.

Here is a link from e-bay. Seem to run about a buck a piece for the right size bag.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/25-pcs-3M-5-...item2eb93a7087
Or maybe something like this. Much cheaper option.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/100-anti-sta...item5d31495495

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I'd probably go with the cheaper option. The profit margins on those drives were not very big, considering the time for wiping them, posting them, shipping them etc, so I'll probably try sticking with the cheaper wrap but use sturdy boxes and more wrap.

IDE, SATA, and laptop drives are all built the same. I wouldn't suggest shipping them in an envelope... if I got one that way I would be upset. Put yourself on the buyer's end and ship it the way you would want something shipped.

I get all my boxes from recycling bins and box dumps here at work. I get all my packing and bubble wrap from furniture store dumpsters (ask first). Free packing is way better then cheap packing.

I get my tape from staples. 10 ink cart. a month =$20 in free tape.

Antistatic bags are great. Talk with computer builders to save you some. Motherboards are wrapped in them so you can get them free if you can find a buisness that repairs and builds machines... also a good way to network and find more scrap.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wdaddy

IDE, SATA, and laptop drives are all built the same. I wouldn't suggest shipping them in an envelope... if I got one that way I would be upset. Put yourself on the buyer's end and ship it the way you would want something shipped.

I get all my boxes from recycling bins and box dumps here at work. I get all my packing and bubble wrap from furniture store dumpsters (ask first). Free packing is way better then cheap packing.

I get my tape from staples. 10 ink cart. a month =$20 in free tape.

Antistatic bags are great. Talk with computer builders to save you some. Motherboards are wrapped in them so you can get them free if you can find a buisness that repairs and builds machines... also a good way to network and find more scrap.

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So we're both doing the same thing: trying to minimize packing and shipping costs while making sure the packaging is good enough. :-) I also love dumpster diving for boxes and packing material!

I guess where we might differ is in the definition of "good enough".

I suspect is that paper vs cardboard might be more of a factor than with vs without an antistatic bag. I suspect that putting a disk into a zip lock back would already take care of the static problem but I might be wrong.

Thx