Talked to a recycler today

[Mike Richardson]

Made a few phone calls today. First I called the City of Houston who told me to call someone at the Westpark Recycling Center. The person at Westpark says all of the computers that come into there go to a company called Scrap Computers and gave me their number.

I called the person at Scrap Computers and he was very receptive to selling old Macs. He gets them "all of the time" including 68Ks, through iMacs. Normally what comes in is "processed" immediately - meaning they are crushed for metals and such. He invited me to come to the facility tomorrow to meet in person and maybe work out a deal.

This could finally be the deal I've been looking to make to stop Macs from being crushed. I'm sure there's working and non-working so some can be parted out where I can offer reasonable parts prices in comparison to the eBay sellers. Working ones would be sold whole if at all possible. Even if I had to part out working ones for some reason, it's still a step above the stuff being crushed for metals.

 

[WorkgroupServer]

Wow, excellent news!

I wish the people I talked to would be more willing to let me do things like that.

There is an e-waste event at the local high school around here this weekend so maybe I'll pop by and see what there is. Unfortunately, all of those small companies that collect stuff like that are usually against giving stuff away. They just want stuff for scraping so they can make a few bucks off each computer.

That other company I inquired about a few weeks ago never even returned my phone calls!

Good luck!

 

[benjgvps]

You do have that site your running... Not a fan of buying from ebay.

 

[Christopher]

Once I see some 10GB+ laptop drives coming, I will buy something

Seriously, thats really all I need right now. 2 iBooks needing something better then clamshell 6GB drives that seem to get more whiney as time goes on.

 

[Unknown_K]

I think quite a few sellers on ebay are either recyclers or people who know them.

It seems like the local computer resellers (used machines) get tons of old machines dropped off to them for either a discount on a newer machine or just to recycle.

Good luck.

 

[Dog Cow]

Save as many as you can!! 8-o

 

[Mike Richardson]

Everything was really expensive.

This is what I got for $300. I had to talk him down from like $350 but I just couldn't go under $300. It's probably a rip off supreme and I won't be getting any more PowerBooks. The only thing that was affordable on their own was the mice. I could probably take away a hundred mice for $25 or so and that's with some nice Pro Mice mixed in that I can resell.

2x PowerBook 145B

2x PowerBook 520

PowerBook 540c

PowerBook 1400cs/166

I was supposed to get 7 PowerBooks. I counted when I got home and there were only 6. The 7th was probably a 145B. He says he'll make it up next time I come.

2x Power Macintosh G3 Beige Desktops

Apple IIe w/ 2x Disk ][ Drives

Apple IIc Plus (missing a key)

5x Apple Pro Keyboards (USB)

12x Apple Teardrop Mouse

4x Apple "Blocky" Mouse

4x Apple Hockey Puck Mouse

Apple Pro Mouse

2x PlainTalk Mic

MacAlly ADB Track Ball

Duo Dock Plus

There was a huge 10 ft x 10 ft x 4 ft box of assorted mice. I dug through and got out Apple mice for like 10 minutes but it got tiring. He had two other boxes of mice with the cables cut off, including Pro Mice (WTF?)

He used to have ADB Keyboards but they were crushed.

There was a Macintosh Server G3 beige in a big palletized stack, he said I couldn't get that though due to it being too low on the stack.

I'm going to have to sell enough of this stuff to make up $300, which is going to be really hard and probably most of the stuff.

He says he can get like $30-$40 for each PowerBook (or PC laptop) from a scrap dealer who takes out the LCDs. I don't know if that's true or not. 145Bs have shitty old black and white screens and I don't know who would want that. That's why the PowerBooks were so expensive.

There were lots of iMacs and eMacs and G4s and such that I didn't even inquire about, because the other stuff was too goddamn expensive.

 

[Unknown_K]

$300 for that, thats crazt expensive. I hope they were in good shape and working or you lost a few bucks.

The only way you are going to get $30-40 for an LCD is if it is almost new and fits current machines.

 

[Christopher]

Wow, what a freaking liar, no beige mac in a heap is worth that.

 

[II2II]

People will pay what they feel something is worth, or what they think they can get for it. So I'm certainly not going to criticize Mike Richardson for that.

Besides, a lot of you would order stuff like that through the mail and I think it's a safe bet that you would pay at least a hundred for shipping that lot. Given that there are 10 computers in there, and assorted parts, you can think of it as paying $20 per machine plus shipping. Which isn't too bad.

As for the LCDs, yeah I don't know why they would be worth that much. Particularly the really old stuff. So he was probably fibbing. On the other hand, just because I don't see something as being useful doesn't mean that someone else cannot see them as useful.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe the backlights are worth something?

 

[Mike Richardson]

How much is this worth?

Duo Dock Plus

it says "PowerPC" on it

 

[retrogmr]

I don't have a dollar figure to give you, but the Duo Dock Plus is the only one fully compatible with the Duo 280c and 2300's (although other Duo's work in it just fine). Only real difference is the Plus lacks the FPU and cache that the other Duo Docks have.

You'd probably want to crack it open and see if there are any NuBus cards or a hard drive installed, that would help the price. You'd also want to be fairly sure the thing worked (do a google on "duo dock tick of death" for a better description of the common problem with these).

 

[Mike Richardson]

F*** this guy.

The Pro Mouse is broken. One of the 145Bs is broken. One of the Pro Keyboards is missing keys. This is a big lot of crappy shit. I'm just going to write it off as a huge loss and move on. He is supposed to set aside some old Macs for me (desktops). I may take one lot of that but only after thorough inspection and I'll negotiate the bastard down to the bone.

On the other hand I might help the non-profit recycling company by volunteering or helping them run a recycling drive. Then some Apples come into the recycling drive that I can take, plus I'm helping out a non-profit that gives free computers to disabled people.

 

[Byrd]

So did you actually pay the $300 for this pile of shit that's not worth any more than $50?

JB

 

[Mike Richardson]

So did you actually pay the $300 for this pile of shit that's not worth any more than $50?
JB

Yes. I figured if everything was working I could probably either make back the $300 on eBay with some bloated prices like everyone else and keep some of it for my self. I did not assume half of it would be broken ass shit that's worthless. Like I said I have written it off as a loss.

 

[Unknown_K]

Most of the time I would think machines that make it to a recycler have "issues" or they would have gone to other people or ebay (anything non PC related). Most of the working gear that does make it there is too old to be usefull and too new to be collectable (that is why it is next to worthless and if you have space that is what you need to snag and keep a while, atleast the better models anyway).

All recyclers are bullshitters: "there is alot of gold in these boards", "I can get $X money for this elsewhere", etc. If you think the prices they ask for as-is gear is too much you need to walk away and come back another day. From what I hear from collectors of much older machines who frequent recyclers they seem to use you to figure out what things are worth (give a high price and see if you bite, then drop it a little for the next guy untill somebody buys it). They know some items are worth money on ebay and will hoard that in different sections of their junk. You will have a hard time getting deals from that guy now that he knows you will pay good money for junk, lesson learned.

 

[Mike Richardson]

Most of the time I would think machines that make it to a recycler have "issues" or they would have gone to other people or ebay (anything non PC related). Most of the working gear that does make it there is too old to be usefull and too new to be collectable (that is why it is next to worthless and if you have space that is what you need to snag and keep a while, atleast the better models anyway).
All recyclers are bullshitters: "there is alot of gold in these boards", "I can get $X money for this elsewhere", etc. If you think the prices they ask for as-is gear is too much you need to walk away and come back another day. From what I hear from collectors of much older machines who frequent recyclers they seem to use you to figure out what things are worth (give a high price and see if you bite, then drop it a little for the next guy untill somebody buys it). They know some items are worth money on ebay and will hoard that in different sections of their junk. You will have a hard time getting deals from that guy now that he knows you will pay good money for junk, lesson learned.

It's pretty much ruined with this guy, but maybe I'll have luck with the next. What I need to do is go in with a very hard price set for what I'll pay per system, $10 per PowerBook or $5 per desktop or whatever and refuse to budge from that, and walk away if he's not willing to deal.

The problem is if you go in and ask for Apple or Amiga or something then they're going to think immediately you have found some way to monetize on such things, or if you just want one or two they'll charge you a boutique price.

There's a few other recyclers I am going to try, other ones that get lots of random computers from recycling drives and such where I might get lucky. This time I'm going to try a completely new strategy and I will walk away if the terms aren't favorable. I guess it takes one bad experience to learn the ropes but I think I'm better prepared now.

 

[skeletor]

Most of the time I would think machines that make it to a recycler have "issues" or they would have gone to other people or ebay (anything non PC related). Most of the working gear that does make it there is too old to be usefull and too new to be collectable (that is why it is next to worthless and if you have space that is what you need to snag and keep a while, atleast the better models anyway).
All recyclers are bullshitters: "there is alot of gold in these boards", "I can get $X money for this elsewhere", etc. If you think the prices they ask for as-is gear is too much you need to walk away and come back another day. From what I hear from collectors of much older machines who frequent recyclers they seem to use you to figure out what things are worth (give a high price and see if you bite, then drop it a little for the next guy untill somebody buys it). They know some items are worth money on ebay and will hoard that in different sections of their junk. You will have a hard time getting deals from that guy now that he knows you will pay good money for junk, lesson learned.

It's pretty much ruined with this guy, but maybe I'll have luck with the next. What I need to do is go in with a very hard price set for what I'll pay per system, $10 per PowerBook or $5 per desktop or whatever and refuse to budge from that, and walk away if he's not willing to deal.

The problem is if you go in and ask for Apple or Amiga or something then they're going to think immediately you have found some way to monetize on such things, or if you just want one or two they'll charge you a boutique price.

There's a few other recyclers I am going to try, other ones that get lots of random computers from recycling drives and such where I might get lucky. This time I'm going to try a completely new strategy and I will walk away if the terms aren't favorable. I guess it takes one bad experience to learn the ropes but I think I'm better prepared now.

GREED is a funny thing.....recyclers think there's 'gold' in their vast piles of older machines..and looking to get lobster prices....and Buyers think they can RE COUP their unwielding purchases by marking up ..each item..and hoping someone BITES down for a deal...

on the flip, some buyers over pay, and offer machines at the lowest of prices..caring 'bout saving vintage machines from the computer grim reaper..

If the 'deal' seems to be one sided, always best to walk away, and hope that no one bites down hard..and buys...