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Need your guys thoughts on this. The breakdown is listed below. From what I have read and researched, this would be a profitable buy. I just started in the scrapping business a couple weeks ago, and haven't really scored anything yet. Thought this would be a good start. Thanks for your input. Total cost would be around $150 ($5.77 per unit)
D51C, quantity 23
P4, 2.4GHz
256 MB
40 gig HD
Windows XP
dc5000MT, quantity 3
P4
512 MB
40 Gig drive
Windows XP
If each is full, I would take that all day long.
Yes that looks like a nice little batch to start with,should make some dough
Considering you can probably make $10-$13 per computer scraped out, it looks like a profitable venture.
The $5-$6 range is good to scrap them out for...go for it.
Wondering whether this "lot" is in an auction, and if TheDude realizes that the "total cost" of an auction will not be known until the auction is over
Yep, I would do it and try to rebuild a couple to sell for shelf filler.
thanks for your input guys, and Bear the dude abides. This is an auction, however there are no fee's involved in this particular auction. I know some do add a 5-7 percent "add on" to the final bidding, but in this case there are none.
I'd check to see what the period of inactivity is on the auction. If the price is still low enough as it comes to a close, place your bid just before that time, so as not to trigger an extension. Say, if it's 15 minutes, put your bid in at 16 minutes, then wait to see if anybody answers it.
Exactly what I was planning on doing Bear, thanks again for your thoughts guys.
If it's the auction I am looking at, there are 15 bids, with 1 day and 22 hours to go, and current bid is at $136. And you're going to get it for $150?
Well that's what i'm hoping for. I've been watching this auction for the past day, or so, and its been at 136 since then. Granted there are going to be more bids as it gets closer to endiing, but this is a local auction in my area. They do not ship out the items, so whoever bids is going to have to pick it up. I think that's going to limit the amount of people bidding on it. Even if it goes up to 180 or so that's still only 7 per unit, and I can still make a nice profit from them. I guess in the end i'll just have to see.
If that auction goes for less than 500 I will be surprised.
$500? I think your estimation is a tad bit inflated. Considering these are going on ebay for around $50 , and there are only a few that have been sold. Even if you consider parting them out, which these are obsolete units by most peoples standards, you would be sitting on them for a long time. If i end up winning, i'll probably upgrade a few and sell them online, but the majority are probably going to be scrapped. That's a nice return for a little bit of work.
Quote:
Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper
Your still a little green if you think this is going to be close to 150.00. Idaho is right on the money with this one. There is a lot of interest. If I was bidding on these, when others started bidding, I would STOP bidding and wait until about 30 seconds left and put in my top bid. You are going to find that is what will happen. It is easily 200+ which takes all the profit out of the scrap. Because they are complete with an OS, I could take these to a flee market and sell them for 40.00 and make quite a profit (I'm not into that sort of thing but others are).Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDude80
I have found that on GovDeals, the only time I get a good deal is when the auction is a little out of the way and people don't want to drive to get the stuff. I do much better on local auctions with less exposure.
$500 is probably a high guesstimate, but around here you wouldn't win that with less than $250... more likely $300-350. Which totally puts scrapping them at a loss before you even start. When I see a computer lot go up for auction I go ahead & bid my standard $5/unit, and I usually get outbid by at least double. Most auction sites let you bid enough to take the current lead, along with a "max bid" feature, which lets you input the max you'd be willing to bid on the lot, and it'll automatically bid for you up to that point as others try & outbid you.
But computer lots, on auction sites, I've pretty much given up on hoping to win one with any sort of profitable bid. Heck, even CRT monitors get bid up to about $5/per around here. :confused:
Auctions can, and always will, do strange things. They can start like a race horse and fizzle out halfway there. They can sit idle for days and the last minute go over the moon. Or any combination in between. You can sometimes make a qualified guess, which might, or might not, be close, but the fact is you never know what it will do until it's already done it ; )
Well got outbid at the last second for $211. Still at that price ($8.11) per unit, there would have been enough meat to still make a decent profit. Oh well, guess i'll just have to get lucky on the next one.
theres a big export demand for pentium 4 machines, im surprised it didnt go alot higher
I told you at the last second if I was bidding I would put in my top bid which someone did (not a huge secret). You were overly optimistic about the price. There is an even more interesting auction at the same place with 80 PCs.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDude80
While you think there was "enough meat" left to make a decent profit, I don't think there was ANY profit left if you were going to scrap them. Once you consider gas, time, transportation to a buyer (yourself or shipping) there is NOTHING left. You could easily lose money but at best break even. With 26 P4's you should be looking at 260.00 leaving only 49.00 left - expenses.
Consider yourself luck you didn't win the auction and learn a little bit from it.
Jon, I think the price is a regional thing. That's about what they are going for around here 8-10.00 which is why I thought they would be 200+ which it was. I can get a pallet of dual cores here for about 10.00 a piece (no hard drives).Quote:
Originally Posted by jghilino
At a recent California surplus auction, the pentium 4s were auctioned off individually...2-300 of them. I forget what they auction style was called, but they would bid on a single unit in a lot of say 20. Highest bid got to buy any amount out of that lot at the winning price. 2nd highest bidder got second choice at the same winning price, etc... Most went over $30. All were complete, but the HDs had been wiped. The same buyers getting all the pentium 4s didn't want to touch the IBM xeon workstations with no HDs that went in lots on pallets.Quote:
Originally Posted by jghilino
seeing that more and more often in city and school on line auctions. the gators down in Gainsvill been doing that for a year only, you get only the one you bid on.
[QUOTE= While you think there was "enough meat" left to make a decent profit, I don't think there was ANY profit left if you were going to scrap them. Once you consider gas, time, transportation to a buyer (yourself or shipping) there is NOTHING left. You could easily lose money but at best break even. With 26 P4's you should be looking at 260.00 leaving only 49.00 left - expenses.
Consider yourself luck you didn't win the auction and learn a little bit from it.[/QUOTE]
$210 was my max. My plan was to get some of them working, hold on to them and sell them on ebay or craigslist. 4-5 would have got me around 200-250, which would have paid for the lot. The rest would have been profit. I live 15 minutes from the location, so there really was no other expenses. I've also got my A plus cert, which isn't much, but I can build/swap out some components to beef up a machine. Oh well lesson learned.
I'd be looking at that 80 computer lot ending next. I bet right around 500.00.
I think it was smart of you to have a max and some kind of plan. You would be surprised how many people don't and still can't figure out why they don't make a killing on all the gold in computers.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDude80
I'm in it to make money hahaha...not just waste my time breaking down or upgrading computers just to break even, or worse lose money. Granted i'm new to the scrapping biz, but I know a lot about computers, at least the hardware end. I will say that the knowledge and info that you guys/gals give on this site is priceless. Plan on upgrading to full membership in the near future. Thanks again to all who put in there 2 cents.
See, this is the kind of silliness that I'm up against here in the Dallas area:
""Lot of assorted computer equipment: 2 tablets, Sun server, 7 Desk top CPUs, 13 Laptops, Direct TV converter box, Wrist watch display case.""
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4972/dsc0036nrk.jpg
Would you believe this lot went for $802???!!!??? I'm guessing it was the Sun server that drove it up not the wrist watch display case... :-/ ... but still... 800 bucks? What's IN those things?