First eWaste auction haul

Scored an auction win for some eWaste from a local municipality. The price I won it for couldn’t be beat. Really excited to tear into all of these this week!

I was! And this one happened to pop up in a place I had been looking at over and over and over again with nothing local coming up…this is why I reached out and asked about other options. The timing just happened to work out.

Hopefully more opportunities arise soon.

Originally Posted by TheDude80

How good of a price? Looks like about 9 towers, two printers, a CRT monitor, and a few misc. The one printer looks like it might have more then scrap value, depending on the model and if you ebay/craigslist. Most of those look like P4's, but if you didn't pay much for the lot then you should be alright. Congrats on the first of many

Those printers were actually from another pickup a few days ago and are total junk/broken. The auction haul was 15 PCs (a couple of which look like they might have been servers), the CRT and a few keyboards. I don't want to give away the total price, but it was way under what I would normally pay per tower w/o a hard drive

Edit: I spilled the beans in another thread so I'll be candid...$10 plus buyer's premium for the entire haul. Can't beat that!

And I, sir, hear you. This auction was a steal and I am keeping a keen eye out for more. Even if I don’t do as well, it’s still a good flow of stock for me and hopefully will keep us rolling through the winter. I also made a good contact at the municipality I snagged these from so hopefully we can work out a deal in the future and bypass the auction process completely. I flat-out told them I could do way better on price per tower – if they are legally allowed to do that. I don’t know what local laws may govern the sale of government property but if I can be a loyal and professional buyer, then maybe a sweet deal would be set up for all involved. We shall see. Have to call some school districts now! I’m also thinking of reaching out to local hospitals and other local governments. If I don’t ask, the answer is always no, right?

Usually the gov't (whether it's city, county, state, or fed) surplus policy is voted on once every fiscal year at a budget meeting. But making your case now would allow them to compare their recently sold lots to your offered price and they might offer a 1 year purchasing contract. Only problem with those is, you don't get to decide not to buy something. If they call you and have 10pc 2rm servers, 2 printers, and a pallet of CRTs, guess what's going home with you? all of it .

Make sure you let them know that you want any removed telecom/network gear though as well. This way if they yank a cat5e patch panel in favor of a cat6 or even fiber, it goes with you too. a 48 port cat5e patch panel has 384 gold plated RJ45 connector pins in it. Same thing with switches. They may yank out a 10/100 in favor of a gig or POE switch. If they say the letters POE, ask them what they're replacing. Chances are it's either the entire CCTV or Phone system. Jackpot.

Not that messing with CRTs is always a bad thing, but if you get to the point where you are moving through product at a much larger scale, they turn into a PITA pretty quick.

Originally Posted by mthomasdev

Matty,

Watch for the people throwing computers at the yard. Make some brief conversation with them and indicate that there is more money (than shred) in them. They may ask you for a card. Any discussions beyond this original contact should be done outside of the yard, just to make sure you don't ruffle any feathers.

Ugh…I see that all too often at Weitsman but haven’t been able to “catch” someone in the act and pull them aside. I’m always on the lookout, though

when dealing with your contact, be professional and fair. Don't waste their time, and do what you promise. People in charge of various things talk to people in charge of similar things in nearby areas.

A friend of mine does garage doors. He did a few repairs and installs for fire houses and town barns that he had connections to. He keeps getting calls from other fire houses and towns that heard about him from their friends. Sometimes they don't even want a bid. Just send a bill.

That is the reputation you want.

Be very careful how much info you give out at the yard. Don't create your own competition, we all have enough now. make some one with half a brain curious and tonight they will be on the net. Tomorrow they will think they are smarter then you. just sayin.