Thinking about buying a lot of computers - Page 2

Originally Posted by jghilino

theres a big export demand for pentium 4 machines, im surprised it didnt go alot higher

Jon, I think the price is a regional thing. That's about what they are going for around here 8-10.00 which is why I thought they would be 200+ which it was. I can get a pallet of dual cores here for about 10.00 a piece (no hard drives).

Originally Posted by jghilino

theres a big export demand for pentium 4 machines, im surprised it didnt go alot higher

At a recent California surplus auction, the pentium 4s were auctioned off individually...2-300 of them. I forget what they auction style was called, but they would bid on a single unit in a lot of say 20. Highest bid got to buy any amount out of that lot at the winning price. 2nd highest bidder got second choice at the same winning price, etc... Most went over $30. All were complete, but the HDs had been wiped. The same buyers getting all the pentium 4s didn't want to touch the IBM xeon workstations with no HDs that went in lots on pallets.

[QUOTE= While you think there was "enough meat" left to make a decent profit, I don't think there was ANY profit left if you were going to scrap them. Once you consider gas, time, transportation to a buyer (yourself or shipping) there is NOTHING left. You could easily lose money but at best break even. With 26 P4's you should be looking at 260.00 leaving only 49.00 left - expenses.

Consider yourself luck you didn't win the auction and learn a little bit from it.[/QUOTE]

$210 was my max. My plan was to get some of them working, hold on to them and sell them on ebay or craigslist. 4-5 would have got me around 200-250, which would have paid for the lot. The rest would have been profit. I live 15 minutes from the location, so there really was no other expenses. I've also got my A plus cert, which isn't much, but I can build/swap out some components to beef up a machine. Oh well lesson learned.

I'd be looking at that 80 computer lot ending next. I bet right around 500.00.

Originally Posted by TheDude80

$210 was my max. My plan was to get some of them working, hold on to them and sell them on ebay or craigslist. 4-5 would have got me around 200-250, which would have paid for the lot. The rest would have been profit. I live 15 minutes from the location, so there really was no other expenses. I've also got my A plus cert, which isn't much, but I can build/swap out some components to beef up a machine. Oh well lesson learned.

I think it was smart of you to have a max and some kind of plan. You would be surprised how many people don't and still can't figure out why they don't make a killing on all the gold in computers.

I'm in it to make money hahaha...not just waste my time breaking down or upgrading computers just to break even, or worse lose money. Granted i'm new to the scrapping biz, but I know a lot about computers, at least the hardware end. I will say that the knowledge and info that you guys/gals give on this site is priceless. Plan on upgrading to full membership in the near future. Thanks again to all who put in there 2 cents.