Need to deal with gifted junk

[Blazer Orb]

I've been given a load of computers and other electronics, and I need to deal with them. I don't have the storage space so they get in the way.

I'm 18 and moving out to go to school this fall. One of my father's friends ran a small computer repair business, and was winding down because he was getting back into farming. Almost a year ago now, he came by and gave me a truckload of things he didn't want anymore. Desktops, laptops, peripherals, a couple projectors, long range radio home phones/walkie-talkies, an ungodly number of networking cards, just lots of stuff. Almost exclusively 8+ years out of date. Most of it has been sitting in the garage as I slowly tear down the desktops.
This summer he came by and dropped off another similar truckload of things, just slightly newer. This time a printer, some random things that work with a satellite somehow, some gps trackers, a bunch of stuff whose function I did not understand at all when he tried to explain them. I'm moving out to go to school this fall, so I need to get all this junk out of the way.
My summer construction job leaves me with little spare time for the next couple weeks.
I'm gonna go over it in parts, starting with laptops.
Sorry for all the text and maybe not sounding too friendly, but I haven't lurked as much as I probably should have. If this is in the wrong place or if I can find good advice in another thread I would appreciate the help.
Thanks all

 

[Blazer Orb]

Right now, laptops. I have 16 old-@ss laptops, and I'm not really sure what to do with them. These are my thoughts right now:
1 Do a thorough tear down of each one. I have minimal experience with laptops, all I've done is replaced the cooling apparatus on my main laptop. I'm not actually sure what this means. Just more than option 2.
2 Just take out whatever I can get at from taking off the bottom access panels, like ram and maybe wireless cards or something, and batteries.
3 Take them all to the electronics recycling collection in my town.
4 Take them an hour to Edmonton and find a place to donate them.
The guy said he really didn't care what happened to any of the stuff, so just throwing it all out (recycling it) isn't going to piss anyone off.
I was thinking that the displays might be useful, but sometimes you need to take apart most of the laptop to get them out, and I don't know how I would use them if I did, because of their weird connectors.
I have a screw-and-other-small-parts collection going from the desktops, and I was thinking that some of the screws from these might come in handy too.

//
Acer 7720 ICK70
Compaq cm2130 1456 VQL1T
Toshiba PSP10C-07610
HP Pavillion DV9700 - Missing a lot of pieces
Toshiba PSAE3C-03V08C
HP Pavillion DV8000
Acer Aspire 3680-ZR1
HP Presario C700
Acer Atheros AR5BMB5
Toshiba Satellite A60 WM1
Acer Aspire 5100 BL51
Toshiba Satellite A70 RW1
Dell Inspiron PP09L
Dell Inspirom PP12L
Gateway PA6A
Compaq Presario V2000

Taking a better look at them, I'm not sure any of them are really worth the time. From what he said. none of them are in working condition, and most have been raided for parts anyway. I think I'll go with # 2 unless anyone says differently.

 

[R_1]

I give my "junk" to the local schools with computer programs. boys girls clubs. thrift stores.

if it doesn't work as a PC part it may work just fine as a teaching tool.

whatever you do not use please find a way to recycle is left over.

 

[BadActor]

Make a list of all the components and sell as a lot on EBAY or list them on Craigslist and sell off parts.

 

[USAFRet]

Are you looking to sell, or just get rid of?
Selling will be time consuming.

Consider talking to your local Habitat for Humanity store (or similar) about donations.

 

[Blazer Orb]

I give my "junk" to the local schools with computer programs. boys girls clubs. thrift stores.
if it doesn't work as a PC part it may work just fine as a teaching tool.
whatever you do not use please find a way to recycle is left over.

I wish my school had a computer program, but no, nothing there. I don't know about any boys & girls clubs, not sure what a thrift store would want with old broken laptops. Thanks though.

Make a list of all the components and sell as a lot on EBAY or list them on Craigslist and sell off parts.

Maybe on some of the desktop parts, but honeslty I would feel bad charging money for any of this crap. I would also feel bad since it was given to me. There's also just a f ton of sh-

Are you looking to sell, or just get rid of?
Selling will be time consuming.

Consider talking to your local Habitat for Humanity store (or similar) about donations.

My town isn't huge, but Habitat for Humanity is here, so that's not a bad idea. I don't think there's only a single one that works though, and it runs xp.
I think what I'm looking for at this point is things that might be worthwhile to take out before I recycle the laptops. And how to include the names of the people I quote. Thanks

 

[USAFRet]

Disassembly and selling would be a full time job from now until school starts.
Cataloging, listing, boxing, shipping.

From the laptops, hard drives, RAM, maybe WiFi cards.

 

[IInuyasha74]

If you are mostly looking to just get rid of it selling it is about the only thing you can do besides giving it away or recycling it.

It will certainly take a lot of time though. Lots of screws. Taking apart a single system can take as much as an hour depending on how many screws there are and how careful you are. I have a few suggestions to expedite this process. I collect older computer hardware and run a few older systems, so there is a limited market out there for it.

If you have like Core 2 era processors, some of those can go for $20+ each. If it is older than that, you will be lucky to pull about $5 each. HDDs can sell well if they are decent size. 500 GB drives should sell for around $20 each easily on eBay. Graphics cards might do alright too depending on what they are, but unless they are high-end cards you are probably only going to net around $10-$20 for them. These parts are the only ones you should bother with really.

When it comes to cases, coolers and motherboards, their larger size and weight make them costly to ship. Even if you manage to pull $20 from one, it will cost you around $13 to ship it, and they won't sell so easy. It will also take longer to separate these pieces from each other. Long story short, I would to ss them in the closest recycling bin.

RAM, wifi cards and other desktop components are going to be cheaper to ship, but outside of the CPU, GPU and HDD, these aren't going to sell for much. It is all too out of date and heavily available on eBay. You could try to sell them, but I honestly doubt it will be worth the time and effort. I'd chuck these in the recycling bin too.

For the laptops, if they turn on and work, those can do well. Just toss them straight on eBay. If you part them out, they won't sell, but if you just toss the system itself with a basic spec sheet, people will buy it just as a cheapo laptop for grandma or something. I'd do these as auctions, could get a decent bit for them, and should be quick to sell too if they turn on.

 

[Blazer Orb]

Sounds like some pretty good advice guys, thanks! Unfortunately none of the laptops are in any sort of conditional to sell as working except possibly for the one.Of the older desktops I have a few more or less working. I can get into the bios, anyway. I haven't gotten into the newer ones yet, but they should be in generally decent condition. Most failures were motherboards, so I have lots of old processors. Wasn't planning on getting rid of them, but wasn't planning on doing anything with them, either.

I'm not looking to make money off of selling this stuff, I'm mostly doing it for the experience, whatever that's worth. Thinking about it, if that's really the goal then I should be spending my time on the laptops. Anyway, I also thought that having a few parts collected would be good, because the only other ones I have are the ones in my current rig. Hoping to be able to build like a server or something from the parts.

For the laptops, I guess the plan for now is to just grab whatever easy stuff I can and recycle. Maybe a bit extra from the HP ones, as I like HP laptops. Only question left is whether the displays would ever be of use. I don't think any were broken. And batteries.

 

[Blazer Orb]

So apparently you can buy controller boards and use them to run laptop lcd's, which was what I was wondering about. Might save a couple to try that out.

 

[Guest]

I am gonna assume all the laptop displays are in good condition. Strip them (from the laptops which arent in working condition ) buy laptop controller boards from ebay, it would cost you about $20 shipping included. make a 4 LCD or 6 LCD panel grid with wooden frames if you have the time, then put it on ebay for sale. I know its lot of work, but there will be someone who would buy such stuff as it will be cheaper than buying a monitor stand , monitor and constructing new 2,3...N display screens for laptops/desktops.

OR you can use it yourself.

 

[Blazer Orb]

I am gonna assume all the laptop displays are in good condition. Strip them (from the laptops which arent in working condition ) buy laptop controller boards from ebay, it would cost you about $20 shipping included. make a 4 LCD or 6 LCD panel grid with wooden frames if you have the time, then put it on ebay for sale. I know its lot of work, but there will be someone who would buy such stuff as it will be cheaper than buying a monitor stand , monitor and constructing new 2,3...N display screens for laptops/desktops.

OR you can use it yourself.

I saved the nicest 6 for doing exactly this >:}

And Dany, I guess I forgot to say this, but I live in Themiddleofgoddamnowhere, Canada, and there really isn't much market for this stuff, especially considering its so old. Nobody would even pay the shipping costs on most of this stuff. But thanks, it's a good idea for someone else

 

[zquarebubbles]

Save the electronics for zombie apocalypse.

But seriously, I love junk I would be blessed with a friend like that as I've lots of storage space