My Motherload

Since December, I've been waiting on a call to come clean out a computer shop that had shut down when the owner died. He was running it out of his house, and supposedly there was a lot of stuff there, especially older computers.
I got the O.K. to come today, when the guy's daughter was going to be there.
I got there at around 11 a.m. with my father to pick up load #1. Outside, there was about 2 pickup loads of misc electronics all in a nice pile. This included all the common stuff like TVs, VCRs and stuff, plus about 10 computers all in different stages of completion. I ask the lady what she wanted for the pile, and she said I could have it for free! According to her, she wants it gone and wants to make great deals on everything to get rid of it. So, of course I take it and start loading it.
Then I actually get inside the house. Wow. It's packed floor to ceiling with electronic and computer stuff. I went and dropped off the first half of the electronics before buying anything else and called a friend with a truck and trailer. My dad went to take care of something, so that left me and the friend to get the rest of the stuff.
We get back and load up the rest of the stuff in the first pile, then start buying stuff in the house. In the first room, I immediately buy a few stacks of stereos and VHS players for $10. Then I buy another 5 computers and a few printers for $10. She gave me a few TVs for free, plus included a few boxes of motherboards and PCI cards with a few other things I bought. I bought quite a few laptops and tons and tons of cords. I pay about $55 for the first load before leaving to drop it off.
I got back and continue buying even more stuff. I got more laptops, a garbage can worth of cords and stuff, boxes and boxes of boards, about 30 hard drives, about 50 CD drives, and even more computers. I got a few 386 and 486 computers, quite a bit of vintage stuff, and a massive server. I paid $86 for all of that and left by the time it was dark.
I unloaded all of that, which took up about half of my storage garage. I still have to go back and get the rest, which is probably 3 times as much as I got today. I barely mad a dent in the two rooms I could get into today, and there's still a third room which has so much of who-knows-what in it that I can't even get in. Supposedly, no one's been in there in 20 years. I can't wait to see what kind of computers are in there
Most of the computers I got today are all older, with hopefully lots of gold. Sorry I don't have any pics yet. I was so busy loading and unloading today that I didn't have any time to take any, but they're coming. I'll let you all know how it goes when I buy the rest of the stuff

Thanks guys. I already have 2 garbage cans full of just loose cords. They probably weigh about 100 lbs each

Originally Posted by Backwell

Wow, that's an excellent find. How did you get a hold of her initially?

She actually posted on the CL forums about recycling some older computers back in August. I emailed her in December to see if she had a buyer yet. She wanted to wait till spring, and she emailed me earlier this week about picking it up

Originally Posted by Gnraxlrose88

+1 for hoarders, lol. By the sound of the quantity wouldn't it have been easier just to make her one solid offer on everything, instead of going piece by piece?

I bought it in piles and stacks instead of piece by piece. She wanted to go through it and find tools and stuff, plus I wanted to see what was inside of all of the boxes before I offered anything

Here's a few pics:

This is my pile of cords with the garbage can next for size reference




These are of the first full load I removed. The truck is full of the pile of electronics and the trailer is a mix of boxes and electronics

I had a picture of everything stacked up in the garage, but it was hard to see anything, so I'll try to get a better one of it.

I forgot to mention that I got at least 5 386 and 486 computers (the ones with gold $70/lb CPUs) plus 2 loose 386 CPUs.

what an excellent find. thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by TrashPickingAusKid2

i could have added a lot of TV's to my collection!

There aren't really a whole lot of old ones. They're mostly normal CRTs

I got my third and fourth load today.

The day started out crappy. I woke up feeling like crap and still drowsy from the NyQuil I took last night. I ate breakfast and headed over to my storage garage at about 8:30. I organized my massive pile of wire the best I could and shifted some other stuff around. At 10:30, my friend got there with a truck and trailer and we left.

I got there and started doing my thing. I cleaned out the back room for $20, and got a big pile of computers and other stuff from the front room for another $25. That took care of load #3. I unloaded that, stopped at mcdonalds for lunch, and got back at about 3:30.

Load #4 was the first load from the side room. This room was packed floor to almost ceiling with mostly computers and monitors. My partner and I started pulling stuff out and making offers on whatever we could fit in the front room. I was going for mostly bulky stuff like computers and monitors because it was getting late and I wanted to fill the truck fast and leave. I paid about $55 for the 4th load and got it unloaded buy about 7:00.

My total investment so far is about $260 for buying everything and other expenses. My total profit so far is about $20 which was from some steel stuff that I mixed in with another load.

The pile of stuff I have in the garage is probably about 20' long, 10' wide, and 3-5' tall so far. I'm starting to run out of room lol

The goodies I found today include a decent desktop in the box that another friend of mine wanted, a few LCD monitors, a (probably) working laptop I'm keeping for myself, a few more gold CPUs, and a digital postal scale. I've been looking for a good scale for awhile, and that made my day.

This is a call to all computer experts:

I have quite a few older computers and parts that I think may be worth more than scrap. I need advice on these. If you think you're an expert, either PM me or post here. I'd like to have at least a few people to ask.

I'm not an expert but for what you've paid so far and by looking at the few pic's you probably have about $600.-800 worth right now. Just in scrap value.

Here's a picture of some of the CPUs I've pulled out so far:



The big pile of similar sized CPUs are all 486s and the 2 in the middle are Cyrix 686 gold sided CPUs. Half of the 486s plus a 1/4lb of RAM came out of a small box of stuff I went through. I think I was quoted at $70/lb for them from Easy awhile ago.

Edit: 2 of the flatscreen monitors I found are in need of repair. I have yet to test the third one.