What do you do with your old IT equipment? (eg routers)

jace88 on 04/01/2018 - 00:41
Last edited 04/01/2018 - 00:42

We are moving house and realised we have accumulated quite a lot of outdated but not useless technology around the house as I like to upgrade to the latest (and am a sucker for deals on OzB!).

eg. I have found several wireless routers (802.11n), numerous Telstra Gateway Max 2's (thought there was an issue with the GM2 but it ended up being the line into our apartment…), unopened Apple accessories for old iPhones/iPads, various (decent) speakers, spare ink cartridges for printers we no longer have, Logitech keyboards, 60" FHD TV, general peripherals (KB/M), etc..

Curious what do you guys do with all these things which have minimal resale value at times (ie not worth my time advertising on Gumtree, waiting for someone to buy, negotiating, etc)…? Or is there a place where you could take a box of random stuff and see if they're willing to buy the box (and hence save me the hassle of selling)?

Computing

Comments

  • tebbybabes on 04/01/2018 - 00:54
    +4

    I'd reckon that it's great for a garage sale.

    • PJC on 04/01/2018 - 01:52
      +1

      Yes, OP may as well have a garage sale as there's going to be a clearout anyway.

  • payton on 04/01/2018 - 01:16
    +2

    If you can spare moments simply to take good photos of the items, you can just dump the pictures into a for sale thread, gumtree and elsewhere based on categories of items: routers, cables, adapters etc

  • retiredfeline on 04/01/2018 - 01:23
    +1

    Put it on your local freecycle.org group.

  • barbarella on 04/01/2018 - 06:33
    +2

    get one of your friends, who has the time, try to sell some off for you on gumtree etc…give them a little commission for their trouble :)

  • myusername on 04/01/2018 - 09:14
    +2

    i donate mine to families that are doing it tough, single parents and that sort of thing

    • jace88 on 04/01/2018 - 10:56

      Are these people you know, or is there an organisation which specialises in this?

      • myusername on 04/01/2018 - 10:58

        people i know and friends of friends that sort of thing

      • atj on 04/01/2018 - 14:30

        In Vic there's a few organisations (PCs for Kids, Computer Bank, probably more). Given you're in Sydney there's probably at least one that's not too far away. Also, open source software developers can sometimes make use of old (or weird) hardware if you happen to know of any and think thats a worthy cause. (If that sounds odd, old Wiis and G4 macs are, if you squint, analogous to some current embedded hardware and server platforms.)

    • Scab on 04/01/2018 - 11:19
      +1

      i donate mine to families that are doing it tough

      I'm doing it tough.

  • Ryanek on 04/01/2018 - 09:27

    Oh… I hoard everything.

  • Halo375 on 04/01/2018 - 09:52
    +1

    Store at least one of each for backups if my current piece of equipment breaks and Ozbargain doesn’t have a deal on to replace it immediately.

  • scotty on 04/01/2018 - 09:54
    +6

    Need to organise some local OzBargain swap-meets.

    • Scab on 04/01/2018 - 11:20

      You should hold a monthly OzMarket, you and the mods would each have their own orange stall.

  • Make it so on 04/01/2018 - 16:55
    +1

    Interesting post. I went through some of it during the break and put two routers on eBay (with the free listing and $0 final fee promotion). I chucked a Belong Technicolor Gateway straight in the bin, as people were selling these on eBay for $10.
    Swaps sound good. Though I'd rather dump it without getting other stuff in return :)
    I have about 10 coaxial antenna cables which I don't use due to the Dick Smith powerboards :)
    And my DVI cables appear to multiple on their own accord.

    • jace88 on 05/01/2018 - 01:52

      Other than the 3 Telstra GM2's (Technicolor gateways), I even have an old Netgear N900 WNDR4500 flashed to DD-WRT. Presumably near worthless nowadays, but I'm sure someone out there would want it as I did (I used it as a separate wifi network with an always-on VPN).

      The dilemma/hassle :( And I don't want to throw it out as it'll just go to waste (literally).

      • Make it so on 05/01/2018 - 13:09

        Look for an IT charity. Or ask around at a local church or school whether they know of families in need who can't afford such things. You can also donate to the Salvation Army store (did that recently for some perfectly good furniture).

  • Scab on 04/01/2018 - 17:19

    selling these on eBay for $10.

    I'd still sell them for that.

    • Make it so on 04/01/2018 - 18:47
      +1

      I'm not so sure anyone actually bought them. Also, I found the ADSL modems in there pretty crap, as it always gave a lower sync than other modems. Only the WAN port was gigabit, and the WiFi speed was capped at something funny (like 240Mbps or something). Honestly, not worth the hassle of posting on eBay and having to go to a post office to send it in the mail.

      • jace88 on 05/01/2018 - 01:50

        Honestly, not worth the hassle of posting on eBay and having to go to a post office to send it in the mail.

        That's what I am thinking with a lot of this stuff (although some of the items eg a $600 B&W speaker are probably still worth something)… but I don't want it all to just go to landfill as it seems somewhat irresponsible.

        • Make it so on 05/01/2018 - 13:07

          I usually wait for the large waste collection. It's a time where dodgy as hell folk sustainability recyclers roam the streets in their utes, picking up anything of value. At least I know someone will reuse it. Most stuff we put, including used curtains, are gone within half an hour (I kid you not). Put out a defective Dell monitor at 9:30pm, and it was gone by 8am the next morning.

  • jace88 on 05/01/2018 - 09:51
    +1

    After checking prices on our favourite site to price match, I found out Officeworks has a recycling program. I might take them up on this for some of those routers/etc.

    https://www.officeworks.com.au/information/about-us/social-r…

    • retiredfeline on 05/01/2018 - 10:17

      That's probably the same thing as sending it to council's e-waste collection. They won't try to make use of the equipment they just send it off for materials recycling. That's fine if you don't expect the equipment to be of use to anybody.

      With Freecycle, the person who picks up will have an interest in using the equipment. I recently got an ADSL2 modem off Freecycle, to replace my old one which was experiencing dropouts. Unfortunately while it worked, it didn't have bridge mode as I have a separate router. When I got another from a friend, I posted about the other to Freecycle and somebody picked it up, to set up for an acquaintance who could use a better modem/router.

  • [Deactivated] on 07/01/2018 - 09:09
    +1

    Put it all in a box and sell it as-is on ebay to someone who needs it. I used to scab up parts and build cheap pcs for single mums. I cant bear to make a pc that can game anymore tho. There are still plenty of people who still do it.

  • AlienC on 09/01/2018 - 11:18

    Donate to St Vinnies, Salvation Army, Red Cross, etc those kind of facilities.. my friend works at an op shop some kind of charity repair place I'll ask him next time I see him.

    • jace88 on 12/01/2018 - 08:41

      Pls let me know which one accepts them. I heard about donating things like last gen video game consoles (PS3, Wii U, etc) to hospitals but haven't worked out how to do this nicely. Or if they'll just see it as junk.

      • AlienC on 13/01/2018 - 07:07

        Wouldn't hurt to try at your local st Vincent and etc.. just ask st the counter I'm sure they can help you or maybe redirect you to somebody who might want it.

        As for the hospital thing same thing just ring and ask.

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