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I am new to e scrapping. ..in fact i really dont consider it part of my business. Anyway, I was asked if i was interested in buying about 50 desktop computers ( just the towers without hard drives). Im not real sure i have the time, skill or knowledge to break them down efficiently. Im thinking i may buy them and flip them to an e scrapper whole. What could i expect to sell these to an escrapper for? If i can offer a decent price there could be much more where that came from. Thanks
Where are you located?
Everything depends on the age and condition. If you are just doing straight scrap offer a few buck per tower. If they are older I would offer the same. Some of the older ones, the parts are a lot harder to sell. If they are more recent maybe offer a few bucks more because those parts may have a better resale value. I have never been able to resale a tower, cd, dvd or floppy drive so I pretty much scrap them. Hard drive with a large amount of space can be resold sometimes too. And you don't need skill to remove boards and drives. But if you are talking about getting them working, you go 50 attempts to get it right.
Im in ga ....so pwajunkie, you dont think i could resale them "as is"
If they are XP or older, $1 per... That way, if you get tired of breaking down, you can still shred them.
If they all "post" (meaning they will boot up to bios with no problems) you can probably resell them to someone. You can also look into a bios check program, which you can find for free if you do some research, and verify that everything is up to par. However, there are some factors to consider . How old are the machines? Do they have COA stickers? What version of windows is on the COA? Win XP machines are going to be much harder to sell in bulk since it's no longer supported by microsoft. You can also look into purchasing some hard drives (80GB is the minimum I would even consider) which might help you sell them a little faster. Depending on what you can purchase them for, the questions I posed, and the time you have, will help you figure out what to do with them....
Why shred them for $2.00 (assuming you're getting .10 per pound for shred and the average tower weighs 15-20 pounds) when you can break them down and make $8-$10 or more by selling to a buyer on here, or finding someone local? 50 towers at 20 pounds per = 1000 pounds or around $100 for shred. 50 x $8 per is $400. I'll take the latter any day of the week.....Quote:
Originally Posted by t00nces2
If they boot to the bios like Dude suggested than yes. BUT it is all in condition and how old. Even when scrapping out the parts to age and condition that matters. Also do you think you can sell 50 computer in your area? Also I would look into what you would get in a tax write off if you donate a few to some charity. If you buy them at $5 and the tax write off is $10 or so, you come out to the good. Just keep the paperwork and file it. You'll have to wait awhile for the money but if it were me I'd have to weight the option of needing money now or later
So, I still say offer $1 per box. You can part them out, or when you get tired, you can sell them for shred.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheDude80
T00nces - the REASON you don't shred that stuff is it has a TON of bad STUFF in there....you should know that. It doesn't go the yard....all those heavy metals etc....come on.
You break the **** things down and sell the ewaste and "shred" the metal casing...there are a number of ewaste buyers in Georgia...I know my specialty is ewaste. To answer the original question, all of ti depends on what the computers are, what verison of windows, what parts are missing etc...unless you KNOW what to look for, you need to be very careful paying for them...you could get HOSED.
::mutters:: send them to the shredder, WTF?
I'm trying to figure out why breaking down a computer is being made so hard to do...
If you have the time to sit an fix them up for resell or spend time posting/calling/whatever other ewasters to sell to, you have the time to sit an break them down to their various components an sell them to the buyers on here or someone local like WBSTS. Or..as much as it pains me..piece them out part wise via eBay. Or again find a local fellow like WBSTS or our other GA ewasters, or someone like PTS out west who buys for more then scrap price. Breaking a computer down is pretty easy. Not to mention having this entire forum an it's TONS of info an advice on just this subject at your fingertips.
Why anyone would take a full tower to the yard is beyond me. You might as well just walk in an hand them 15 bucks. Your just giving them money. Seeing as most yards still pay shred for a whole tower...
It takes no time to breakdown a tower. Laptops to hell with them! ;)
I'll likely get blasted but it's ok, I got my big boy flame proof super duper under roos on so it's ok.
Sirscrapalot - The sky is falling! The sky is falling! - Chicken Little.
Now I'm not too sure... Lot's of things go to the shredder as is, microwaves, fridges that have boards in them, coffee makers, printers and such. If someone cant find a buyer for boards in there area and they have a $.08 - $.10 option I can't say I blame them... Yes way better to have a buyer (and you make more $) But how many places that shred do you think don't pull the computers and other better items out before they get ground up?Quote:
Originally Posted by webuyselltradestuff
hard to offer a "decent" price if you are not taking them apart yourself. I try to pay short steel price when I can get away with it.
Take them apart, if you are not sure what goes with what, toss all the boards in a box and mail off to one of the buyers here, (one of the buyers prepays shipping so you are out no up front money for shipping).
If they are really old computers, 286 or older, there is another buyer on here that specializes in old complete computers.
Look in the buyers section before sending any whole computer to the shred pile, unless you don't like making more money, then just toss them in the shred pile.
Ok yall I dont want to shred I was thinking I would sell them whole to someone who deals with e scrap. But dosnt seem like there will be anything to be made doing that. I think I will learn to break them down and just sell the valuables to some one who deals in e scrap. They are less than 10 years old and are hp and Dell. I dont want to fix them up and resell. Thats not my thing. Thanks for the help.
I would say start off at short steel price and keep track of how well you do. If you tell your customers you are paying short steel price, then its no surprise when the prices go up and down. it also keeps your prices loosely tied to the value of the heaviest part of the computer.
make sure you open and check EVERY computer. the one computer or one whole load that you don't check will be the gutted one that you hope to break even on.
Plenty of info on here to help you with the breakdown process an how to best make money off it. We have many buyers here, an you even have some locally it seems. So the learning curve shouldn't be to hard for you. That friendly little search box at the top will help you find all those awesome profit generating posts.
You've been given some decent advice in this thread. Now just go back an read it minus the parts about resales an shred. Ha!
An what Matt said about checking the towers is spot on. If it's missing a lot ya best to leverite there.
Good luck!
Sirscrapalot - That one was just for you Matt.
When breaking them down, do them in like groups, all Dell clamshells, hp's, etc. It makes the breakdown process much easier. I set all of my cd/dvd drives to the side then break them all down at the same time, same with hard drives. Get you some small boxes for ram and cpu's, another box for cd/dvd boards, one for motherboards, another for finger boards, when you get some hard drives put those boards in a separate box. There will almost always be some I have no idea what they go as so I just toss them in another box.
Thank you everyone!
Quote:
Originally Posted by YoungMetal
Do you own a Phillips Screwdriver? Or even better... a cordless drill with a Phillips head bit? A Pair of Electricians scissors? That's all you need.
You break down 2 of them, start to finish, see how long it takes you. Seriously, time yourself. Probably land somewhere in the 20-30 minute range.
Then do 2 more... time yourself again. Should be about cut in half by then. It should take you no longer than 5 minutes to break down a tower once you have done a few. Set yourself up a few boxes or bins to sort into, and just crank up whatever music you like, and go. you can do 50 towers in about 4 hours if you just go for it.
Now if you pick them up without a hard drive for about $1 each, you can make over $300 in 4 hours (round down for expenses, driving the shells to the yard... etc). You good with $75/hr? I'm usually pretty ok with that.
Yep, use a electric screwdriver or loose your head to boredom.
You will probably need a Torx driver too. Definatly if you are scrapping the harddrives.
I brought a screwdriver set for NZ$10, yellow and black plastic handle, you will probably find them in harbourfreight for less.
They have the right torx drivers for the hard drives. And have lasted for me.
Buy them at the price you will get when you sell the sheetmetal/shread from the casings.
That way you won't loose money, and as Im told, "its your Time that makes you money, not the scrapmetal itself".
Also, as soon as you open one to scrap it down, spray all the black dust mess down with a spraybottle full of water/dishwash liquid/antiseptic/alcohol mix, your own concoction of this stuff. Just a tiny amount of alcohol.
That dampens down the virus ridden mess inside them. Never inhale any of that. My eyes got sore and i get facesweats and started to get sick before I started spraying that mess down. It maybe a geat way of inocculation against viruses but Im not in favour of it.
Also, dump the power supplys in a bucket of soapy water as soon as you pull themout.
Doing this will return your boards back to looking like new too if you rinse the mess off. Use a disposible facemask and eyeprotection when opening the computers too.
Read whats in this site, theres plenty of info. Remember to remove ALL the batterys.
Photo all your boards in groups before sending away or selling, so you know what you have later on.
Use gloves so you don't get the white heatsink paste on your hands, some of that stuff is dangerous, most isn't, but its messy anyway.
Did anybody read the post? There are no hard drives so there will not be a program or hard drive boards. Try to keep your price at about 2.00 per tower then you can sell them to an e-waste buyer for about 4.00 per tower. If you have any Dell OptiPlex towers they can be worth a lot more (10.00 to 15.00$ ea)'