Ive gathered over the years a descent stash of desktop computers and parts but now i have too many and im not sure what to do with them or how to sell/get rid of them? Or even where to post them at. The computers are nothing new or special.
What would you advise?
check ebay for recently sold, identical parts for their market value. no idea if it would be worth it
Make sure you select the “sold” filter, so you don’t get your hopes up by the asking price of items that aren’t selling.
Edit: I may have got a hold of the wrong end of the stick on this one. Leaving it for posterity.
eBay lets you search previous sales of items so in theory, if you search for things you already have, you could get some idea of their worth. Other sites may have similar features.
As for where to post them, it’s pretty common here in the UK to parcel things up and take them to the nearest Post Office. I’m sure I’ve heard people on YouTube talk about doing the same sort of thing in (parts of?) the US, so it might be a common thing wherever you are too.
Some delivery services will pick up from your premises but I’m not 100% sure of the process there. i.e. where the delivery labels come from, whether you’re supposed to print them yourself or whether the driver turns up with something to slap on a parcel, etc. I presume their websites outline the steps.
By “where to post them”, OP almost certainly meant which platform to advertise the items on.
As for where to post them, it’s pretty common here in the UK to parcel things up and take them to the nearest Post Office
🤣
Hah, easy mistake for you Brits to make, so don’t feel bad. In the states we don’t use the word “post” as a verb meaning to mail something out
I collect old stuff too. There are only a handful of things that have been useful over the years, mainly USB devices. People who work with hobby embedded devices can also make use of RS232 serial equipment. It might be worth holding on to a single old monitor that can also do VGA. Or a single SATA DVD drive in case you find some old discs you need to read. I have a box of C-64 stuff I am never getting rid of. The kids will have to figure out what to do with that when I am gone.
But all those old ISA cards? Parallel printer port cables? Zip drives? Yeah, nobody wants them. Maybe you can list those old Apple talk dongles on eBay and make a hundred bucks, but you also have to deal with shipping them and stuff.
Just be careful when disposing old drives. I have a stack of busted drives that I won’t get rid of because I don’t know if anyone will be able to pull the data with the right equipment. Every now and then if I get too bored I take one apart to play with the magnets, I figure it’s safe to discard the platters if I scratch them up good.
You may want to look for local “electronics recycling” places. They might charge a fee, and if they find something they can refurbish and sell they will do it (and keep the profit). But then you have more space to accumulate new stuff.
It reminds me I sold a LS120 with some floppies for it, I barely used it 20 years ago, I tested it and it was still working fine, I put the lot for 10$ on marketplace and a few minutes after someone wrote to me saying “I WANT THEM!” he needed one for a server setup in a company that still used LS120 and put an alert on marketplace for it. He was super happy and told me I saved his life :)
