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So i got all 85 of these for a grand total of $115 plus a tank of gas.
2.8 Pentium D
1gb Ram
80 gig Hard Drive (already wiped)
I think the best bet is resell on these.
My question is will I be able to move them quickly selling the towers my themselves or do I need to find monitors, keyboards, etc. to go with them.
If I do need to sell as complete units, where would I find 85 monitors on the "cheap"?
Thanks in advance for any help.
I got 24 flat screen ones...define cheap. :)
An some guy was just looking for ones like that on my local CL if I recall. I'll have to find it again.
Edit to add : Found the link an pm'd ya.
Sirscrapalot - Yowzers!
Thank you sir.
I would offer both with and without the additional gear. GL, Mike.
Another thought on those towers look into upgrading the cpu on some of them. You may be able to find a compatable but faster cpu drop in some of you other towers. Also upgrade the ram and see if that can help you move more of them. Mike.
Good lookin out on the CPU upgrade!
I had already thought about the ram, got lots and lots of random sticks lying around.
I think my biggest problem is going to be moving them quickly.
85 towers is a lot of selling for a one man operation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 41haikuwarriors
With one average of $100* each ,on eBay,it is a very good problem , one man operation could have.:cool:
I would try to sell them in lots of 10 on C L .
Selling many identical computers locally is a piece of cake! One ad in the paper is all you need, then you simply sell the "same" computer again and again ; ) Soon as one goes out the door start hooking the next one up and when someone calls to ask if you still have "that great deal on the computer" you can say, yep! ; ) Maybe occasionally you'll want to change the wording a bit something like "I had 5 of these yesterday and yeah I've still got ONE left" haha (it can actually be fun)
I just dont have a lot of space and im used to getting towers and stripping them and sending them out the next day.Quote:
Originally Posted by ginofrater
I did check prices on ebay just never sold a complete working tower before.
So you think as-is with no upgrades they should sell for $100 each?
This is my first time reselling working units, im looking for as many pointers as possible.
Thanks guys
Nice score. A few things...If they have been wiped, do you have the disks to reload the OS on them? If so, do you have a driver disk? If not, are you going to sell them "as is" with no OS?
I have been selling them in lots of 5, no keyboard or mouse, for 250. That is with XP SP3, all updates and a few freeware programs, loaded on them. I add a keyboard, mouse and 15in flat screen for 25.00, ea unit.
So, not sure what your market is there, but I would list them targeting small business, schools, etc that may want to purchase 5-10 matching PC's with a "bulk" price, and single units, at a slightly higher price.
Feel free to send me a PM if I can help you at all. I can recommend a site that will allow you to download Firefox, Open Office, Adobe Reader, Virus Software, etc...all at one time, without having to do each one individually and deal with the hassle of "un-cliking" a box, to avoid a toolbar or other download, you may not want. Bro
Nice score. If you do decide to tear them down and not sell them then we should talk. I dont like selling whole machines loaded and ready to go just because people then want tech support in 3 months when they load something or get a virus. But those machines have alot of stuff that I would pay way more than scrap value for. I can also hook you up with some better CPU's as well. You would be amazed at what just upgrading to a 3.0 ghz and maxing out the ram will do for your asking price on those machines if you want to sell them whole.
download your antivirus, adobe, flash, and similar programs onto a flash drive as well any drivers. since they are all same it will make things much easier and quicker
I know that when we first started our computer store a few years back, we bought machines much like the ones you have as "Builders". We were able to stock machines on our shelves that we refurbished quickly by buying them in lots on eBay and then working the magic on them ourselves. I guess it really comes down to how much of a profit you want to make and how fast. I would suggest listing them on Craigslist in business section as well as the computer section. Also you can list them for trade if there is something you are interested in getting yourself. We do a deal at our store where we will trade 5 scrap computers that are whole for one working current machine. My fellow scrappers in our area have done that with us a lot, simply because they are more comfortable moving scrap than working machines. You have a lot of options, you just have to think outside of the box.
You can also list them on Craigslist in other cities near you with the option of you delivering them for a fee.
Another option is to consign them through a local computer store.
Just a couple of ideas:winner:
I would scrap half of them. Sell/trade the parts for upgrades for the rest.
Maximizes your space/skills. Take memory from scrapped ones and upgrade the rest.
etc etc
I think it would be absolutely crazy to scrap out ANY of them unless you are absolutely desperate for the cash. If you have the skills to put the OS back on you are set for awhile in incoming cash.
Put one together
save the hard drive
use the "ghost" program (also kept on flash drive)
in a matter of a few minutes you copied the hard drive to another one
KEEP YOUR INITIAL HARDDRIVE AS A MASTER COPY
If you need flat screens to add to them, find someone to trade flat screen monitors for desk top computers, win win for everybody
even if you sell at a reduced rate you still come out ahead
Need hard drives? get ahold of Terry, he will make you a good deal outside of ebay. I have purchased a couple lots from him and never had a problem
offer trades
I had one extreme coupon lady trade me a couple hundred dollars in groceries for a nice computer. I had next to nothing into it and she had next to nothing into the groceries
post in several areas. Our biggest quanity of sales come from Facebook groups, yard sale sites, and similar groups
offer a warranty for 30 days. if they have a problem with one swap it out
dont know how to put them together or dont have time? team up with someone. We team up with a guy who puts 5 computers together and he keeps one for himself. This allows us to free up our day to go get more product as stuff is being ready for sale
if they dont work or dont boot part them out
recent sales
optiplex 745 parts | eBay
I have to say all suggestions are great but this is truely outstanding thanks for complete thought. I know not everyone is comfortable with all you have describe but I can attest to even old scrappers can learn the ins and outs of testing and upgrading computers. I have been actively pursuing this end of the scrap maket and so far it has been alot of work but its starting to show some profit. Mike.Quote:
Originally Posted by directrecycle
yep clist and ebay are your best bets for these give good detail and if possible spend the time to reinstall software it will be worth it but even as is a quick quick sale for $6000 on ebay should be gone in a day with free shipping or free pick up but fees are a pain but with this good of profit why not for fast money if not ya clist or ebay as single sells for $75each would work on clist on ebay say start at $90 and $35 for shipping put it on a 30day and just get plenty of boxes should sell at least 5day that way but do not scrap them save on to them and sell them for 2months if you have to scrapping them would pay almost nothing versus what resale can be
Well they didnt "wipe" them completely. Looks like they just reformatted, windows XP is still there. Im popping my refurbishing cherry on this load so it will take me some time to figure out how to upgrade things and what not. I havent started selling them yet, been a bit busy. Got some help with monitors from a forum member. Im going to list some towers alone, and some as full setups and see which ones move faster and offer the most profits.
Thought about setting up a "display" model at the local flea market selling boxed up units.
Although our local flea market is more like a Latino Swap Meet, so i dont know how well they will sell there.
My wife and I sold at flea markets for many years, mostly video games/systems/parts and tv's. We had many customer who are Latino and if you take care of them you will have their families, friends, co-workers and then they bring their friends. Just like everyone else give them a great product and stand behind it and they will come. We did have tv's set up to demonstrate how the video games worked and that they did work.Quote:
Originally Posted by 41haikuwarriors
If you can find a way to set up a hot spot to show how well they work online it will really sell them. Mike
p.s. I am sitting about 65 dells that need to have the same down with them.
its been awhile since you posted this thread. If you are going to resell and do some sort of warranty with them me advise would be scrap them. I have a bunch of those model machines at work and they are slow as molasses, capacitors are always bulging. Older machines actually work better then this model did. That being said. If you have no obligations to the new owner then you could probably easily sell them for $40-50 a pop, once they are imaged. If you dont have imaging software go to acronis.com and download their trial of migrate easy and start cloning all the drives.
I actually sold them all to a local computer supply store for $35 each. They even came and picked them up for me.
I probably could have made more if i had the time and the space to sell them myself, but i dont. Turned out to be a great deal anyway.
Thank you for posting a reply today, i had forgotten all about giving an update.
haha, that's cool man! I think you did wellQuote:
Originally Posted by 41haikuwarriors
As was said before these are going to need a serious upgrade to sell quickly......1 GB Memory won't get it done........2 GB around here is still a hard sale but with a decent flat screen and keyboard/mouse you could get a $100 each for these machines........XP computers do not sale at all here either.........You might do better selling to a dealer.........Either way great score even if you just scrap em..........Oops I didn't see where you sold em GREAT SCORE!!!!
I have a similar problem but with worse computers. I have about 25- gx520 pentium 4 1gig ram and 80 or 160 hd Are these just scrap? Or should I reformat and try to sell?
Its up to you and your area. One thing I might recommend is add as much ram as you have that can up the saleability of these towers. Make certain you know how to put in a fresh install of Windows and test each one before you sell. All this takes time and you might find someone who is already doing this and sell directly to them. If you do find someone willing to buy them as a group you have found possible source for ewaste. Additionally you may be able to sell them used computer parts. Best of luck, Mike.Quote:
Originally Posted by dtrain
Pick the nicest 10 out of the bunch, strip the others for RAM and the larger HDs. Scrap the rest and anything you can't sell in a couple months. Old computers are like milk, you need to move them fast.Quote:
Originally Posted by dtrain
DELL OEM install media is easy to find (I have a huge box of them for XP and Vista), once you get one system installed you can just clone the HD for the rest (I would recommend Acronis drive imager which also can wipe HDs and do other useful utils.)
are they early P4s or later ones? That alone makes a good bit of difference, but they'll still have a shelf lifeQuote:
Originally Posted by dtrain