Wow. Just won my first auction...

Well, this afternoon I won my first online auction. I bought 45 desktops for $85. Plus, it will take me about an hour to drive each way. So, I figure I will have about $130 in them, or approximately 2.90 per unit. I think that is pretty good. The only thing not in the units are the hard drive. Hopefully, there isn't a bunch of empty shells in the middle of the pallet...



I'll pick them up next week.

Congrats, keep the good work and post some pics.

Nice job, would you mind sharing what website you used? EBAY is too competitive to make any goof deals.

Thanks, everyone!

And I can't give away all of the secrets


Google is a good place to start.

Ken

i have seen similar auctions for computers without the hard drive. I saw one person on here says they buy complete computers $4 each. so if it has everything except the hard drive about how much value do they have to a scrapper ?

Picked these up today. Total cost with auction, gas and tolls was $134. That worked out to about $2.98 per computer. I'll take it!

I'll try to remember to post a pick. I all 45 stacked up in the Explorer SUV I drive. It was like a game of Tetris...but they did all fit.

Originally Posted by Mudlucky

Picked these up today. Total cost with auction, gas and tolls was $134. That worked out to about $2.98 per computer. I'll take it!

I'll try to remember to post a pick. I all 45 stacked up in the Explorer SUV I drive. It was like a game of Tetris...but they did all fit.

I don't know if you currently resell working components (so disregard the advice if you do) but it would be worth your time and effort to invest in a few very inexpensive testing tools. Especially for dvd/rw and bluray drives. Also power supplies.

I'm not extremely competent when it comes to testing things like CPU's or motherboards (i am working on it) but the things i mentioned are very easy to test and greatly impact your bottom line (positively) when they test good.

I am not suggesting you purchase towers for anymore than scrap value. I am a complete cheapskate and rarely go anymore than $3 on tower lots myself, but testing and selling working components will easily triple or even quadruple your per piece earnings compared to scrap value.

Thanks, 41.

Yes, I have a power supply tester and sell the working ones to local repair shops. I also have a hard drive tester (now) and test all hard drives as well as wipe them DOD 3 pass.

I have had zero luck selling regular DVD's and CDs. however, I sell all DVDR/RWs to a local shop or two.

Most CPUs I see are P3 and earlier so I just scrap them out.

The P4s and newer all get tested (if all parts are intact save the hard drive.) If they boot up, I'm just now starting to figure out what to do with them. If they don't boot, then I just scrap the whole thing (after testing the power supply of course and saving the DVDRW, etc.)

I also have a local buyer and a buyer on this forum that buys larger ram sticks for more than scrap.

One major issue is that XP expires in April. Most of the machines I get are setup to run XP and that is the COA that I have for the machine. I don't have mass licensing for any operating system. I'm told by a couple of my suppliers that P4 machines that run XP are going to be a dime a dozen (figuratively speaking) in about 4 or 5 months. Not sure if it is worth it to try and sell them whole right now...

I'll look into the DVDRW and blue ray testers.