worth buying printers in bulk

I was wonder if it is worth buying printers in bulk to scrap. a place by me has auctions all the time for electronics printers computers.

If you have some place to sell the plastic for a decent price, yes. Or, if you can just toss them into shred after taking out whatever you want, yes. If not, then most likely no.

It's only worth it if you don't pay to much for them. I personly wouldn't pay for printers but some people will pay .03-.05 per lbs.

They don't say exact weight but its a bunch the next lot the next bid is 4 bucks and its a pallet with 1 of the commercial and over 15 small

I never never never pay for printers. And I buy a lot of scrap for resale. To me printers are like monitors: not enough return to warrant paying for them. Most people I come across are just happy to get rid of them.

They give no details its unclaimed property from police that's going up for auction I've seen some people who pay for printer but will never say wat they pay

I buy quite a bit of scrap at auctions. Mostly electronics but I'll buy anything if it's cheap enough and I can make a few bucks.

The whole key to making money is that profit is going to be determined when you BUY, not when you sell.

You have to know what you are buying, what it's worth, and what you are going to do with it, PRIOR to buying something. If not, just go to the gas station and buy a hand full of scratch-offs.

In my situation, here is how I view printers...

Laserjets are too big, bulky, and too much plastic for me to deal with (I can find a far more effective use of the space they take up). They don't sell locally very well and I wouldn't want to pay to ship one. However, I do get stuck with them as part of other lots I buy. When I but a lot with laserjets (or other printers) I NEVER include them in my calculated price. They are just extra. I pull the memory and boards, the toner goes to office max, the rest goes in with the dirty steel (my local yard takes them with no problems but some yards don't).

To me they fall into the "valueless" category, just no money to be made. By the time you drive to an auction, pay for a pallet of printers, load them up, take them home, squeeze the few pennies you can out of them, pay for gas, and consider the time you spent, you are pretty much doing all that work for free.

Most experienced people in ewaste also avoid printers which is why you will see large lots going for next to nothing. I am not saying they don't have any value, just not enough to purchase them.

Your best bet is really to get a few printers for FREE, take them apart, and figure out what the real value is to you after seeing their actual value in materials as well as the time you spent on them before you ever consider buying a lot of printers.

Originally Posted by Phantoms001

I buy quite a bit of scrap at auctions. Mostly electronics but I'll buy anything if it's cheap enough and I can make a few bucks.

The whole key to making money is that profit is going to be determined when you BUY, not when you sell.

You have to know what you are buying, what it's worth, and what you are going to do with it, PRIOR to buying something. If not, just go to the gas station and buy a hand full of scratch-offs.

In my situation, here is how I view printers...

Laserjets are too big, bulky, and too much plastic for me to deal with (I can find a far more effective use of the space they take up). They don't sell locally very well and I wouldn't want to pay to ship one. However, I do get stuck with them as part of other lots I buy. When I but a lot with laserjets (or other printers) I NEVER include them in my calculated price. They are just extra. I pull the memory and boards, the toner goes to office max, the rest goes in with the dirty steel (my local yard takes them with no problems but some yards don't).

To me they fall into the "valueless" category, just no money to be made. By the time you drive to an auction, pay for a pallet of printers, load them up, take them home, squeeze the few pennies you can out of them, pay for gas, and consider the time you spent, you are pretty much doing all that work for free.

Most experienced people in ewaste also avoid printers which is why you will see large lots going for next to nothing. I am not saying they don't have any value, just not enough to purchase them.

Your best bet is really to get a few printers for FREE, take them apart, and figure out what the real value is to you after seeing their actual value in materials as well as the time you spent on them before you ever consider buying a lot of printers.

thanks for the info. this is what got me questioning it Epson, Lexmark And More Printers, 15+ Pieces | Property Room the warehouse its at is less then 5 miles from me

The auction link just adds validity to my post. If the printers weighed 300# (which would ONLY be because of the big printer on there) you are looking at 30.00 in dirty steel. The next bid needs to be 4.00, the fee is 12.00. You are paying 16.00 for 30.00 in steel, only 14.00 potential profit left.

You need to pay for gas to pick them up, gas to take them home, gas to take them to a yard, gas driving home from the yard. I'll be generous and say it's only 20 miles total and we'll say 4.00 in gas.

We are now down to 10.00 in potential profit.

Without considering ware and tear on your vehicle, insurance, ect... How much is your time worth? It's going to take you at least 2 hours to pick them up and get them to a yard.

Printers do not carry enough value to pay for them. If you really thought it out you would see why it wouldn't even be worth it for me to pay .01 for the pallet (11.95 is a big fee).

Originally Posted by BRASSCATCHER

Yards here only pay .06# on printers. I dont pAy for them at all. No plastic buyer locally and a pia to take apart. The small home printers I usuLly donate to my computer repair shop. He sends them out to a place where the procedes go to the elderly

the nearest plastic buyer is n Oceanside which sucks

I dont buy printers either unless its something fancy photo printer or color laser I can resell on ebay. But my Ebay has took a nosedive, because ebay royally screwed me. So that rule doesnt apply. But they are really not worth stripping. I take 5 mins to smash with a sledge, pull inks, send egrecycle in erie, and pull the board. Rest is shred. Not even worth the time to pull motors. Case in point, me and my ex partner did a bunch..over a 100 at minimun. He insisted on pulling motors. I said no. Well he did the motors...came to like 5 or 10 bucks for a 5 gallon pail at 25c a lb for god knows how many hours.

Wasnt worth it.

The steel bar that the inkjet slides across on is worth money to home engineers as metal barstock. save them up, size them, sell 'em.

I'm starting to think that the coloured ink gets recycled as the 'black ink' as its made from many colours, not just black.

The photoelectric 'eyes' have gold wire in them, same as most LED's do.

Does anyone eBay the servo motor that pulls the inkjet cartridge back and forth? They're pretty small but there should be a market for them for people who are playing with home CNC routers and the like.

Jon