Test it before you Scrap It!

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A big mistake that many have made when dealing with electronic scrap is the assumption that everything that they get is nothing more than junk. I too was guilty of this same assumption until one day I did something that changed the way I look at the items I pickup.

When I first started dabbling in e-scrap flat panel monitors were getting hot. My wife had one thanks to her quick thinking and use of the Yahoo Freecycle groups but I was still using the old CRT monster. So I got a call from one of the computer repair shops that I deal with and was told that they had a load for me.

When I arrived there was several towers, a laptop and a flat panel monitor waiting for me. When I got the stuff back to the shop I decided, I still don’t know why, to test the monitor.

It had now come with a cord but it only required a standard AC plug so I dug one up and plugged it in. I was shocked to learn that it worked. From that point on I decided that I would check things that I received just to be sure.

These days I have some minimum standards for what I will test and then try to sell. When it comes to desktop computers I require that they be at least Windows XP with a 512mb ram setup.

The beauty of this is the fact that I can sell a very basic tower running Windows XP and capable of running on the net for about $50. This is just the tower and the price goes up if I decide to offer the monitor, mouse and keyboard. Around this area people snap them up rather quickly.

That leads us to laptops. I have received several working laptops over the years and a working laptop is a valuable laptop. Even if the laptop is older it can still be sold because they are so popular.

However, even a non-working or damaged laptop may have some value. The way we operate is this….If we get in a laptop that has some problems or maybe will not even turn on my wife will do a quick eBay search for parts laptops. If it meets the minimum that we have placed on time versus value then it will be listed. Even a broken laptop can sell for over $100.

Do the same with the flat panel monitors. We have sold a lot of them over the time that we have been involved with e-scrap and many of them didn’t work. But there are some savvy people out there that know how to work on the flat panels and who will give you a good price for them as long as the screen is intact.

Furthermore, it is surprising how often you will get a working tower with nothing more wrong with it than a virus. Many computer repair shops charge a hefty sum for ridding a computer of a virus and many people will simply tell the shop to keep the computer and get a new one.

With the internet you have the opportunity to clean these machines out and get them back on track for some fast cash. Normally just a virus removal program downloaded from the net is enough to clean a computer out and get it back on the road.

To make things easier for testing I have a station set up in my shop. There is a monitor, mouse, keyboard and standard power cord for the tower sitting on a work bench. So when I get a tower that looks promising I just plug it in and see what happens. If it is something that is simple enough and will not cost anything I will get it going.

But there is something important that you should do. Always make sure to wipe the hard drive before selling it. Data destruction is a big part of the e-scrap world and it is the responsible thing to do.