Advice needed on server purchase.

I have an opportunity today to purchase a large lot of computer e-waste material. I've got the basics covered in terms of scrapping value for desk top pc's, misc. boards, wire, etc. However there is one item that has me stumped in terms of scrap/slavage value..... It's an circa 1990 IBM server of some type. All I know is that it's approx. the size of a clothes washer or dryer, and will require a dolly to move and 2-3 strong backs to lift. I'm told that it is completely intact and was operating when removed from it's work environment during an upgrade about 10 years ago.

The situation is not going to allow me any ability to research it's value..... a deal will need to be done (or not) upon initial viewing.



I would greatly appreciate any advise concerning pricing on these.... I'm wanting to be fair to the seller while leaving room for reasonable profit.

is it a rack mount? if so most of it should unbolt leaving a much lighter, but still heavy carcass. parts from it could be more valuable as museum pieces

actually i never had much luck selling old server components, you'll probly be best sticking to strict scrap value

Reasonable profit to me would be to gross 3x whatever I pay out. 1/3 goes to purchase.... 1/3 to other costs .... 1/3 net profit.

older pc's (servers included) are seldom worth more than scrap value. i dont think anyone would ever want to buy a 20 year old server. any cheap modern pc will be faster than a server of that age. you will find very big motherboards and hard-drives to scrap.

for those of you that have not seen these types of computers

some of them have some awesome plate aluminum shelves on them too

Sounds to me like it could be a mainframe system.

Some of the IBM mainframes had TCM cpu's installed.

Last one I sold on eBay went for £250!

Here's one:

its hard for me to tell what you have without pictures. but I reciently tore down a bunch of IBM, and sun system servers. the bank of servers were in a frame but consisted of 16 seperate servers stacked, they were all working items but got no responce on retail, there are still some smaller million dollar companys who still use them but they are practicaly impossable to locate. so. scrap is what you can depend on.

here was my break down

mother boards hi grade 2.5 lbs each

ram 1.5 lb ea

finger cards about 1 lb

then the alu and copper
some have 1.5 lb copper heat sinks some are alu.

the cpus are generally large pinless about 2 oz ea but bring a low price per lb.

hope this helps.

Thanks for the responses. This turned out okay, but almost all of the information initially given about the server was incorrect. It was actually an IBM I-series e-server circa early 2000's..... so it's unlikely that it was taken out of service 10 years ago.... about 1/2 the size stated.... and not complete - hard drives were all pulled. The only accurate info I had was that the thing is freaking heavy!!! I ended paying $60 for it. Seems like there is some demand for components, etc for these, so might I do okay on some re-sale. Hard part is going to be resisting the temptation to tear it apart before do more research....... it's guts look pretty interesting. Interestingly, it included a box full of manuals, spec sheets and unopened packs of software discs - not sure if this will have any value, but I'll have to check it out before tossing.

The rest of the lot also turned out to be pretty good. I ended up with 12 desktops @$5.00, and another 4 boxes of misc. boards, drives, wire, ram, cpu's, heat sinks, etc, etc for another $20.

Spent a total of $140. The seller was happy..... I'm happy..... my wife ws only moderatly displeased..... can't beat that.

I will definitely do up some pictures of this.... may take a few days.