Thinking about buying a lot of computers

Need your guys thoughts on this. The breakdown is listed below. From what I have read and researched, this would be a profitable buy. I just started in the scrapping business a couple weeks ago, and haven't really scored anything yet. Thought this would be a good start. Thanks for your input. Total cost would be around $150 ($5.77 per unit)



D51C, quantity 23
P4, 2.4GHz
256 MB
40 gig HD
Windows XP

dc5000MT, quantity 3
P4
512 MB
40 Gig drive
Windows XP

If each is full, I would take that all day long.

Yes that looks like a nice little batch to start with,should make some dough

Considering you can probably make $10-$13 per computer scraped out, it looks like a profitable venture.

Wondering whether this "lot" is in an auction, and if TheDude realizes that the "total cost" of an auction will not be known until the auction is over

thanks for your input guys, and Bear the dude abides. This is an auction, however there are no fee's involved in this particular auction. I know some do add a 5-7 percent "add on" to the final bidding, but in this case there are none.

I'd check to see what the period of inactivity is on the auction. If the price is still low enough as it comes to a close, place your bid just before that time, so as not to trigger an extension. Say, if it's 15 minutes, put your bid in at 16 minutes, then wait to see if anybody answers it.

Exactly what I was planning on doing Bear, thanks again for your thoughts guys.

If it's the auction I am looking at, there are 15 bids, with 1 day and 22 hours to go, and current bid is at $136. And you're going to get it for $150?

Well that's what i'm hoping for. I've been watching this auction for the past day, or so, and its been at 136 since then. Granted there are going to be more bids as it gets closer to endiing, but this is a local auction in my area. They do not ship out the items, so whoever bids is going to have to pick it up. I think that's going to limit the amount of people bidding on it. Even if it goes up to 180 or so that's still only 7 per unit, and I can still make a nice profit from them. I guess in the end i'll just have to see.

If that auction goes for less than 500 I will be surprised.

$500? I think your estimation is a tad bit inflated. Considering these are going on ebay for around $50 , and there are only a few that have been sold. Even if you consider parting them out, which these are obsolete units by most peoples standards, you would be sitting on them for a long time. If i end up winning, i'll probably upgrade a few and sell them online, but the majority are probably going to be scrapped. That's a nice return for a little bit of work.

Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

If it's the auction I am looking at, there are 15 bids, with 1 day and 22 hours to go, and current bid is at $136. And you're going to get it for $150?

Originally Posted by TheDude80

I just started in the scrapping business a couple weeks ago, and haven't really scored anything yet. Thought this would be a good start.

Your still a little green if you think this is going to be close to 150.00. Idaho is right on the money with this one. There is a lot of interest. If I was bidding on these, when others started bidding, I would STOP bidding and wait until about 30 seconds left and put in my top bid. You are going to find that is what will happen. It is easily 200+ which takes all the profit out of the scrap. Because they are complete with an OS, I could take these to a flee market and sell them for 40.00 and make quite a profit (I'm not into that sort of thing but others are).

I have found that on GovDeals, the only time I get a good deal is when the auction is a little out of the way and people don't want to drive to get the stuff. I do much better on local auctions with less exposure.

Auctions can, and always will, do strange things. They can start like a race horse and fizzle out halfway there. They can sit idle for days and the last minute go over the moon. Or any combination in between. You can sometimes make a qualified guess, which might, or might not, be close, but the fact is you never know what it will do until it's already done it ; )

Well got outbid at the last second for $211. Still at that price ($8.11) per unit, there would have been enough meat to still make a decent profit. Oh well, guess i'll just have to get lucky on the next one.