Got a call from IT repair guy closing shop!!!

**unknownk** · 08-07-2015, 10:10 PM

What model would that be?

**armygreywolf** · 08-07-2015, 10:43 PM

IBM Thinkpad 760EXD PPGA Chip, 233Mhz, it was designed as a workstation, enhanced screen resolution, cd and floppy drives, large li-ion battery when most were still using ni-cd. Same laptop NASA used on the space shuttle missions. There's videos on youtube from the 90s where you can clearly see astronauts using this particular laptop. I got it from a university and it still works.

**Sirscrapalot** · 08-07-2015, 11:01 PM

I'm sure they said the same years ago in regards to regular scrapping. An yet..people still do it full time. People still recycle cars, trucks an the like. Cans, all metal items, etc.

As has been said before whenever these threads come up...Adapt or get passed by. It's really simple.

To Rolly,

Congrats on landing that deal. May it be the start of more coming your way.

Back to everyone else...

Adapt an overcome or don't adapt an get run over as time marches by. It's the same for businesses. You will find a way to make it work, or you'll cease to exist in providing such services. I'm sure it's a lot harder for the hobby scrapper/part timer.

As a full timer, I put a lot of work into building relationships/networking. So this downturn...while current prices may drop, I still have my sources for items. As long as their in business or upgrading...I'll have clients. This talk of cell phones makes it sound like nobody has ever mentioned it here. Some of us have been dealing with cell phones for a good long while.

Cell phones are nothing new. An don't think they won't escape the use of less PMs. They won't be your miracle item, unless your into fixing screens, and other issues in regards to cell phones. I found it to be way more consuming then fixing up a tower. That's me tho.

I wish all of you luck. An as always...YMMV.

Sirscrapalot - Adapt an overcome, or get run over by the wheels of change.

**webuyselltradestuff** · 08-07-2015, 11:05 PM

they apparently made a DUAL PENTIUM PRO laptop.....check this **** thing out

Raytheon Dolch
RareCPUs.com - Find the rarest and most exotic CPUs in the world!

It is like a friggin suitcase. Looks like they show all sorts of CRAZY old tech there. I see a 386 laptop even...HOLY BEJESUS...I am betting you could do curls with that thing

**Scrappah** · 08-08-2015, 03:40 PM

I was reflecting the other day and it reminded me of the local cobbler that i knew as a boy back in the mid 1960's. He was an older gent,very personable, and uncommonly good at his craft. He had a thriving business in our little town of 15,000 people. As time wore on a wave of change came through. Within a few years he closed his doors and went into retirement.

For those who never heard of a cobbler it was a man who repaired shoes. Mass production & lower prices rendered him obsolete.

The same thing happened to the man who would visit the neighborhood every month or so with his knife & scissor sharpening cart. It used to be that he would ring a bell to let everyone know he was there and the housewives would bring out their kitchen tools to be sharpened while they watched. It was a sad day when he rang the bell and nobody came out because with advances in technology the knives & scissors didn't need to be sharpened anymore.

I think we may be trending that way with e-waste. It's trending from large items to smaller items to even smaller micro devices. Prices are down and the average board yield in weight is pretty small.

The big hope has been in refurbish & repair. That's a valuable skill set to have but that trade may be going the way of the venerable cobbler.

It seems more likely that the devices will continue get smaller and lower in price. There will come a point where it will simply make more money sense to replace than repair. If you're micro device fails just go buy another one just as you would a pair of shoes.

It's not good news, but it may be the way things will look in a few years. Not so bad for the part timer or the hobbyist because they really don't stand all that much to lose. I'm more concerned for the full timers because it affects their livelihood. One should always hope for the best but it might be wise to develop some kind of fallback plan just in case things don't work out.

Changing and adapting in this circumstance might involve some kind of exit strategy where you can use the skills you've developed somewhere else.

**matador** · 08-08-2015, 04:02 PM

I think that as SaaS (Software as a service, where you pay monthly grows), it's only a matter of time until a computer manufacturer makes a monthly plan, where you pay every month, and are given hardware upgrades. Until that day comes, there will be refurbishing. Laptops and desktops may not be as popular, but 2-in-1s such as the Lenovo Yoga, and tablets, will be refurbished then.

Look up the values of used iPads sometime. People will buy used ones all day long.

**Scrappah** · 08-08-2015, 06:31 PM

It's hard for me to visualize what the landscape will look like in 3 - 5 years with all of the innovation going on. The item that's relevant today will most likely be obsolete in 6 - 12 mos ? ie: DDR 2 memory, IDE HDD's, and Core 2 processors went the way of the Dodo bird during the past year.

LOL ... Five years from now something that hasn't even been invented yet will already be obsolete.

As far as consumer grade goods go it appears to be a race to the bottom ?

There are niches. The Mac products seem to appeal more to the discerning customer. The Mac refurbs appeal more to the discerning customer on a budget. The difficulty would be to get your hands on enough units to make a go of it. There's probably some kind of setup where you send in your Mac products that failed or got dropped while under warranty for an immediate replacement. It's like a factory approved refurbishing center ?

For working class & many middle class folks it's a trip to Wal-Mart for their electronics. In their minds there's a certain stigma attached to "refurbished". It's considered "less than". They're more apt to go with something new even though it may be of lesser quality.

I wonder if it would be better to do less of the consumer grade work & focus on providing " total care" service contracts to institutions like schools, govt agencies, and businesses. It would probably be cheaper for them to farm the work out to a private contractor than to keep an IT professional on salary. This would position someone on the ground floor for when new equipment is being purchased and old equipment is being taken out of service ?

**matador** · 08-08-2015, 10:44 PM

That would likely drive you insane, but it would pay very, very well. The problem is that school systems are so complex that one person couldn't handle it.

Mac stuff doesn't depreciate much. I sold a Mac Mini last week. This is an 11 year old computer. DDR2 was out in 2005. Core 2 Duos came in 2006. The problem is that when I started, they were new and state of the art. If you had a Q6600, you were in high cotton. Today, not so much....

Now, we need to adjust our focus, and realize that the Core i5 is the same value as the Core 2 Duo used to be.

**Scrappah** · 08-09-2015, 02:52 PM

I've done "total care" with a number of different things besides IT over the years and it really isn't all that bad. The key thing i found was that i had to be willing to put my own needs aside in favor of the customer. If the phone rang at 2:30 A.M on an emergency call i had to be down on the job within 30 minutes.

That really isn't the norm though .... for the most part it's about doing regular maintenance & upkeep on the system. Keep it well tuned and you get very few rush calls.

An ounce of prevention ... ?

=============

IDK .... it just seems like it would be awfully hard to make a living at doing small transactions ( 20.00 - 150.00 $ / per. ) You would have to be doing a $h*tload of volume just to meet operating expenses even at 100% markup over cost.

It's a hard row to hoe but if it's working for you go for it !

**matador** · 08-09-2015, 03:33 PM

It depends on cost of living. The median salary for the county I live in is about $23,000 per year. Of course, a lot of the daily expenses are cheaper. Our entire family's yearly salary wouldn't even cover the rent in a place like San Francisco.

I've done the 2:30 AM service calls. I hated every minute of them, but they did pay well. If you're up to it, and can get it all done, total care can do well. Out here, it's 50 miles each way on a service call. Few places are willing to pay over $100 for a guy just to show up.

**Scrappah** · 08-09-2015, 09:00 PM

I don't know what the median income is but the cost of living here is a bit higher than in other parts of the country because we're so far away from everything. Everything that we use has to be trucked in and everything that we produce has to be trucked out. It does add to costs.

It's gotten tougher since the recession hit. People, from the wealthiest to those who have the least, just don't have the money to spend like they used to. The standard of living has dropped right across the board.

As it stands right now there's no way the working class folks can afford the cost of a skilled tradesman.

The middle class can swing a few hours here and there but for the most part are doing their own work. It's funny/sad because they'll call you in on some pretext and then try to pump you for information on how to do the job themselves. You might have hours of unpaid time spent in developing a quote but it seldom pans out.

It's really only the upper middle class and the wealthy who can afford my services now. If it weren't for them i would have been out of business years ago. Thankfully, this is a popular spot for the wealthy to come and spend their summers.

For me: The best choice was to focus my efforts on developing a customer base where the money is. It's the wealthy, local businesses, government, school systems,healthcare facilities, and so on. Excellence in service & quality of workmanship will take you a long way.

It's so much easier to serve them than the working person who can only afford the lowest cost option.

**Rollyrogers33** · 08-16-2015, 01:06 PM

I had a connection a few years ago that was tossing me stripped out flat screens. He also told me he had a connection that was buying up laptops in large quantities as long as they had web cameras. None of my IT guys would budge on price (too greedy). Fast forward to today and that guy is long gone. The company that I compete with in Ewaste no longer gets laptops from big corporations and is having to advertise more to attract the general public.
My contact found his way to big corporations and is paying them for their moderately used laptops. A few years ago, to my knowledge, this was a billion dollar industry growing in Brazil. Now who knows how big this has grown. My phone calls to him are know never returned. I tracked him down a few months ago trying to sell laptops, but he said he was washed out. He can't compete with flat screens against Walmart and his buddy with the Brazil connection had lost his to corporate America.