On 02/12/17, Shinigami said the following...

Hello. Couldn't help but to read the previous thread of messages about hitting the thrift store, something I can completely relate to. I love hitting up the thrift stores looking for the AS-IS computers that are missing hard drives and/or memory. Since I have plenty of spare parts around, its a pretty cheap turn around. Any who, moving on to today's purchases.

Total - $15.00 USD. $24.00 if including power brick.

Sounds like a nice haul to me. I see computers at the thrift store a lot but most of them are missing the sides of the case and they are marked higher than $5. My current BBS computer is a dell optiplex 360 that I found in the trash along with two other dell machines. Brought it home, plugged it in and installed linux on it. It still had Windows 7 on it but I didn't feel like trying to hack the password. Found a lenovo laptop awhile back that the kids used for awhile until they dropped it one too many times and now the screen
is breaking. One of the perks of being a sanitation engineer I guess :)

I still remember years ago I picked up a can at an office building that was overflowing with dell towers, switches and printers. Must have had at least
50 computers in it. Unfortunately I didn't have time to really look at it much, nor did I have a pick up truck to come and get it so it got crushed and hauled to the dump. I regret not figuring something out. These little dell machines with everything on board make great servers.

Immortal

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Re: Re: Rate my Thrift Store
By: Immortal to Shinigami on Sat Feb 11 2017 07:25 pm

Sounds like a nice haul to me. I see computers at the thrift store a lot but most of them are missing the sides of the case and they are marked higher than $5. My current BBS computer is a dell optiplex 360 that I found in the trash along with two other dell machines. Brought it home, plugged it in and installed linux on it. It still had Windows 7 on it but I didn't feel like trying to hack the password. Found a lenovo laptop awhile back that the kids used for awhile until they dropped it one too many times and now the screen is breaking. One of the perks of being a sanitation engineer I guess :)

I hate when companies just throw these out, such a waste, if they have their tech department there upgrading anyway one would thing they would just rip the hdd out and donate to a thrift shop or something, at least for the tax write off.

I truly do hate how much this world (much of this world) has turned into a disposable society. Yes, hardware is much cheaper now, but they're trying make everything as disposable as possible, it is even this way with amateur radios now. It's sick to see so much stuff just go to waste, or at least not get recycled correctly.

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Re: Re: Rate my Thrift Store
By: Immortal to Shinigami on Sat Feb 11 2017 07:25 pm

On 02/12/17, Shinigami said the following...

Hello. Couldn't help but to read the previous thread of messages about hitting the thrift store, something I can completely relate to. I love hitting up the thrift stores looking for the AS-IS computers that are missing hard drives and/or memory. Since I have plenty of spare parts around, its a pretty cheap turn around. Any who, moving on to today's purchases.

Total - $15.00 USD. $24.00 if including power brick.

Sounds like a nice haul to me. I see computers at the thrift store a lot bu most of them are missing the sides of the case and they are marked higher th $5. My current BBS computer is a dell optiplex 360 that I found in the tras along with two other dell machines. Brought it home, plugged it in and installed linux on it. It still had Windows 7 on it but I didn't feel like trying to hack the password. Found a lenovo laptop awhile back that the kid used for awhile until they dropped it one too many times and now the screen is breaking. One of the perks of being a sanitation engineer I guess :)

I still remember years ago I picked up a can at an office building that was overflowing with dell towers, switches and printers. Must have had at least 50 computers in it. Unfortunately I didn't have time to really look at it much, nor did I have a pick up truck to come and get it so it got crushed an hauled to the dump. I regret not figuring something out. These little dell machines with everything on board make great servers.

Immortal

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It always amazed me how some larger businesses or especially the larger county offices always seem to buy new computers every two years and pratically just toss out their old machines. Seems very tax dollar friendly. Either that or sell them on palettes for $20 to the highest bidder in a virtually non advertised auction. Inversely, large business probably has a way to trash the

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Re: Re: Rate my Thrift Store
By: KK4QBN to Immortal on Sat Feb 11 2017 11:49 pm

I hate when companies just throw these out, such a waste, if they have their tech department there upgrading anyway one would thing they would just rip t hdd out and donate to a thrift shop or something, at least for the tax write off.

I truly do hate how much this world (much of this world) has turned into a disposable society. Yes, hardware is much cheaper now, but they're trying ma everything as disposable as possible, it is even this way with amateur radio now. It's sick to see so much stuff just go to waste, or at least not get recycled correctly.

Makes me think I went into the wrong line of business. I could probably make a killing if I went into the Corporate Disposal Service.



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marked higher than $5. My current BBS computer is a dell optiplex 360 that I found in the trash along with two other dell machines. Brought
it home, plugged it in and installed linux on it. It still had Windows

Sounds like my current BBS computer. Found it out at the curb while I was
out walking one day. It had XP one it, but it has debian now and runs like a top. :)

... 2 + 2 = 5 for extremely large values of 2.
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Re: Re: Rate my Thrift Store
By: Shinigami to Immortal on Sun Feb 12 2017 05:19 pm

It always amazed me how some larger businesses or especially the larger county offices always seem to buy new computers every two years and pratically just toss out their old machines. Seems very tax dollar friendly. Either that or sell them on palettes for $20 to the highest bidder in a virtually non advertised auction. Inversely, large business probably has a

my company gives them to a recycling company that probably sells them on ebay. i dont think these computers are going into landfills. they atleast have to be recycled properly due to the lead and batteries.
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Re: Re: Rate my Thrift Store
By: Shinigami to Immortal on Sun Feb 12 2017 05:19 pm

It always amazed me how some larger businesses or especially the larger county offices always seem to buy new computers every two years and pratically just toss out their old machines. Seems very tax dollar friendly.

For expenses over a certain cost that a business is going to maintain for some time it makes sense to capitalize the expense over the life of the asset.

For simplicity's sake, let's assume a $1000 computer. If you treat it as an expense, you'd need to deduct the full cost against whatever sales you have that month.

If you "capitalize" it, you can pay a portion of the cost, called depreciation, factored across the lifetime of the computer. So, if you chose a 3 year lifespan, you'd deduct the cost of the depreciation every month until the 3 year period was up.

Most IT departments aren't in the business of selling as retail, so what I used to do was either partner with a local non-profit that would use the computers for a good cause, like one that reconditioned them and gave them to schools, or to a reseller who'd pay us around $50 per system, and they'd wipe the drives, recertify them and sell them.

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Re: Re: Rate my Thrift Store
By: Shinigami to KK4QBN on Mon Feb 13 2017 01:03 am

Makes me think I went into the wrong line of business. I could probably make a killing if I went into the Corporate Disposal Service.

Getting in is the hard part. Having storage space would be the other part. I don't know what you'd need to get to be able to issue certifications of "data destruction" but that's something that IT departments will need in order to prove that their data won't show up on eBay.

The business would also mean you'd never have to buy a new computer again, as long as you were OK with 3 year old systems. :)

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