Score!! Escrap and Directv equipment

First of all... SFM... WHAT THE HELL!!! This is the 3rd or 4th time I have typed up a lengthy, detailed post only to them click "submit" and have nothing ever show up (other tabs still work fine). Sometimes even when I try to add a picture it just whites out my screen and no box ever shows up to put the link into. Because of that this will be a very brief version of the last post which disappeared! I really need to just start copying everything before I try to submit...

This was todays load from the hotel. I am hoping I can get a tiny fraction of what this stuff is worth to purchase new.



Most of the Directv receivers are valued anywhere from $0-$20 so I don't think I will waste my time with those. There are 40 Fixed Channel Modulators that seem to sell from $5-$10 per which I may toss on ebay.
The big ticket things were:
LG HCS7000r Control Boxes... Cheapest I could find were $2,000+ and I have 7
Drake MQM6000L Multiplexing QAM Modulator ... Cheapest I could find were $1,200+ and I have 5
Plus the 150ish pounds of power cables and coaxial cables that went with this. Copper Core coax too!

I started by contacting 2 DirecTV local installation companies. Both of which said they had nothing to do with purchasing or refurbishing older equipment. They directed me in a more national direction saying they purchase products on a per job basis.

I then contacted Blonder Tongue (company that makes some of these) and they weren't interested, 2 other online Digital Media Distributors and they said they don't purchase used.
BUT! I then got ahold of a company in ATL who said they don't purchase used... I mentioned the brand Drake and he said they do sometimes get requests for "End of Life" Drake equipment and asked me to send him a list of the model #'s and how many I have! He told me if he gets a request for one he would gladly put them in contact with me, and I told him if that does occur I will ensure he stays involved in the $. Even If I were able to resell just ONE piece at HALF cost that would be a good payday =D

Im going to wait a couple days to tear into anything. Not sure if its worth my time to keep making phone calls. It really seems there are the two big ticket items, the Channel Modulators which should sell on ebay, but everything else appears to be scrap value.



That's my day so far! Time to grab a cold one and keep researching

Best it's on a bellman cart! I hope you tipped him. LOL

Awesome load, keep us updated if you choose to tear them down.

Remove the cards an shouldn't be an issue.

The cars allow folks to order ppv's an the like. or some thing along those lines by my Direct TV guy.

Sirscrapalot - Dishing it out..ha ha!

I just sold a dish network box on ebay. Don't think I'll do that again as I got killed on shipping.

Updates!

Thank for all the thoughts =D
I did read about the trouble people are having identifying if the unites were leases or owned. I called our IT and he ensured me the 3 racks I got were all owned unites, and that he already had emptied a separate rack of leased units/the rack. That being said... the more and more I read on the Directv boxes they really don't seem to be worth the hassle (The smaller and medium sized black boxes). I am going to pop one open and weigh out the contents to see if they may be worth a couple dollars in scrap and how long it takes.

I did post a couple of the big $$ items on ebay just to see what happens. Currently there were none of either on ebay... so maybe? Posted them nearly half price of the online stores, so we will see how that goes... If I hear my phone make that CHING CHING CHING noise it will be a great day ^.^

I went to pop one of the Directv boxes open and BLOCKED! They have those funky torx bits with the security stub in the middle. Going to head over to Ace Hardware to pick up a set of those. Hopefully I will have time today before work to get one ripped apart, priced out, and post a couple pics.

SHIZZZZZZZZZ

Went n got my security bits from Ace. Popped open a thing and sent a pic to ewasted to ensure im removing correct materials.

BUT 2 items just sold on ebay!!!! I just made $1,000 LMFAO Happy day
Next couple will be at a higher price that's for sure. These sold in like an hour O.O

A hammer, a chisel an your in those boxes, or you can pry them. As Mike said..real cheap metal.

You'll find a board, a hard drive( most the ones I got had HDs in them) an wire. The board is nothing to write home about, the HD's can vary in size depending on age of the box. Wire is wire. Some steel, some alum if I recall properly.

I break them down, an never toss them into shred, but again..the majority I get all have HD's in them. I've gotten older an smaller cable boxes with no HD an those just annoy me. I open them anyhow cause ya never know.

Good luck!

Sirscrapalot - Destroyer of DTV, and DISH boxes.

Boxed and shipped. Sucks that I still have to go to the real job today now to make nowhere near 1k! haha!

This is what the insides look like

Whew ... nice score on the ebay items .... sweet!

It's hard to imagine the directv boxes as having resell value on fleabay unless somebody wanted to use them somehow to pirate the service for free. It's kind of a cat & mouse game where the satellite providers change out the equipment every so often to stay ahead of the pirates ? Who knows .....

Had to change out my 13 yr old unit that i owned outright in favor of a newer one that they provided this year. The change over turned out to be a major PITA. Was on the phone with tech support for over an hour to sort out the problems with the new unit. Bah !

I found the easiest way to get past the security screws is just to grind the heads off with a 4" angle grinder. Sometimes they use them on the boards inside so having the right bit tip would make the break down go easier.

The main boards generally seem to be a higher quality / value mid grade board. They've got IC's, some gold contacts, and some MLCC's. If the power change from 120 VAC to 12 VDC happens on the board as well that adds a lot of copper windings and stuff that devalues it. It's kind of like a brown board & green board built into one ? ~ JMHO~

Just found my first with a hard drive inside this summer. Thought to myself ........ waaay kool. I must be the thing that gives it the ability to pre-record programs for later viewing.

I'm seeing the ones with a hard drive inside more often now. Some have a SATA connector with a 500 GB capacity. That's modern enough that there should be some re-sell value there.

Haven't had a chance to wipe em' and test them yet.

I'm just wondering .... some seemed like they were designed / optimized for that specific application. Is a hard drive just a hard drive regardless of where it came from ?

Lmfao Mike and SirScrap... "Just pry em open" =P

With the profits I have coming in from this load I decided to buy a Dewalt cordless 7.2v Dual position screwdriver. Gotta keep adding to the warchest!

Im not seeing any Hard Drives in these things. Unless im missing something completely obvious.. there is no HD in that picture I posted, correct? That all im getting in the boxes is what I posted. Pretty lame insides!

Mechanic - Just testing the waters for a few dollars more! No more action on anything I have posted. I will probably drop them both down by $100 or so tomorrow to try and get some more attention.

You'd know it if there was a HD in there. You must not have ones with a recording feature. They look just like the ones in a PC.

Come in all sizes. You'll feel the weight in the box also, when compared to one without. If I recall right there is a steel plate in there for it to sit on. Looking closer at your first picture of them on the luggage cart(nice use by the way if it's yours!lol) if the one you opened is one of the little gray ones, then I don't think those are dvr boxes hence no HD. The bottom left ones in the same pic look like they may contain one, but hard to tell from the picture.

Either way a nice score! Good luck getting the most out of them. Sell the boards, throw the cases in shred, an have a cold beverage of your choice to celebrate.

Adding to the warchest is always good, but sometimes it's just nice to beat the hell out of something.

Sirscrapalot - Undefeated against cable an sat boxes of all sizes.