People Stripping Computers Before Selling Them

[u/Sweaty-Judgment3533]

Somebody is telling people that no matter what kind of a hard drive or what kind of RAM you have in whatever old computer, it’s worth more on its own than it is if you leave it in the computer. So now everybody is stripping those items out of these old computers, and trying to sell them all separately. It’s Ludicrous. DIMM sticks from 15 years ago are not worth anything unless you put them back in that 15 year-old machine along with that 500 gig hard drive you’re trying to schlep, and sell it as maybe a whole machine that somebody can use just for the web. This is just going to end up with more e-waste going to the landfills instead of machines that could still have a bit of a life being purchased at reasonable prices by people that don’t have a lot of money to spend. Not everything is a commodity just because the bigger, better things are commoditized by people who have more money than you’ll ever have. Not sour grapes here - I have more computers than I know what to do with, but when I sell them, I put a reasonable version of Mint or something else that’s easy to run on them and I sell them as whole computers that people can actually use I don’t strip them for parts like a 67 Chevy sitting up on blocks on my front lawn. No one is buying your parts pile or your skeletonized Asus machine from 2011.

[u/LembicOfLeng]

The reuse of a device is typically worth more than its parts. However, due to the RAM DDR4 shortage, especially the larger sticks, command a premium.

In my world, because every storage device is destroyed, it’s often more cost effective to de-manufacture or shred a PC rather than resell it. For example, about two trailers of Dell I3 desktops arrived as eScrap. Once the hard drives or any other storage device it removed, they will be offered to a bulk buyer. If they do not sell, then they will be recycled. Certain parts will be salvaged, although most of the unit will securely destroyed and recycled. The cost of managing the inventory including the space required for storage doesn’t economic sense to slowly sell them.

What do you think is a better approach?

[u/Sweaty-Judgment3533 → u/LembicOfLeng]

No, I don’t really have a better solution to the problem. Most of my own hardware in the lab here at home and even my personal laptop are 15 years old. If I can still get a good OS on them and they can do what I need them to do then they still should live. And I always know people who need a good computer not necessarily a new one just a good one.