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I posted some pictures on Flickr of some boards I have recently encountered. I think these may be mostly telecom, but I am not sure. Telecom is one area that I do not have much experience in, and if anyone can help out with any of these I would really appreciate it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aer15/?donelayout=1
Hello Auburn;;..,,
Please go to www.boardsort.com He has pics and info on each grade he buy"s....
I am familiar with Boardsort, but they do not offer much information on telecom boards. I am more interested in what the buyers here think about these boards because I will likely be shipping to them rather than Boardsort.
Nice pictures of boards.
Here are some ideas about one of the boards, but the principles/route of investigation may be applicable to all or many of your boards to maximize your price.
Step 1) Get as much information about the board as you can from looking at information listed on the board.
Example: When I look at IMG294 board, I can just make-out the following info:
Chase Research PLC, Rack Board; the bottom left of the board looks like it has a series of 3 or 4 plug ports. There's probably lots of additional information about that board that you can gather by reading of serial numbers, IC numbers, etc (I can't make out that level of detail from the photo).
Step 2) With basic info that you've gathered from your board, put on your Basil Rathbone Deerstalker cap and see what google can discover for you about that board's applications and potenial value if it retains functionality.
Example: from the tidbits of info I could see in the picture, I found that:
-- As of 02/17/2000, Chase Research Limited is a subsidiary of Perle Systems Ltd.
-- Perle is a premier provider of reliable, full-featured and competitively priced serial, I/O and fiber connectivity solutions.
-- Perle's products include: Serial to Ethernet Adapters, Terminal Servers, Console Servers, Device Servers, Ethernet I/O Device Servers, Serial Cards and Media Converters
-- Perle's leading serial connectivity products include the popular Serial Cards acquired from Specialix International and the IOLAN Terminal Servers acquired from Chase Research Limited
STep3) From the above information: Draw some preliminary conclusions about the purpose and functionality of your board:
It may be: a type of Rackmount serial card for an IOLAN Terminal Server.
Step4) With those preliminary conclusions, check what Ebay searches provide:
Example -- using the above info I found the following hit:
Perle IOLAN 04030920 SCS8C DC 8-Port 1U Rack-mountable Secure Console Server -
Item condition: Seller refurbished
Price: US $340.47
Here is the link Ebay link:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Perle-IOLAN-...item5ae4cef68f
STep 5) Now, given that a device that is potentially using the type of board (as shown in your pic) is selling for $340 on Ebay, then your board, if it retains functionality, may be worth some appreciable fraction of that selling price. Even if we assume a mere 10% then you'd have $34 for the board. And given that the Ebay seller identifies the device as "seller referbished" -- that ebay seller might be a potential buyer for your board.
I'd shoot that Ebay seller an email and describe the details of this board to him. See what he has to offer or suggest in terms of his own interest or the interest of other entrepreneurs occupying a similar niche in the server refurbishing foodchain.
All-in-all, I think of this as a potential route. I'm new here, and I don't know if it would work. I'm basically curious about mechanisms to maximize price return above current scrap prices. Learning about your boards' functionality will certainly be critical, but the Ebay seller may be able to point you to local dealers that could provide testing and/or potential buying info.
Food for thought.
Wow, EM, you should be a gumshoe !! I'm very impressed with your research and your deductions. !! Appreciate the info, too.
I will comment on the idea of contacting ebay sellers of similar items(or contained within) to see if they would buy them. I tryed this myself. Although the buyer did not buy they did ask for pictures of the items and complete info, make, model number etc.
I will continue to use this technique in the future. Thank you for doing a complete example of research, Mike.