Computers and parts for free or nearly free.

[Pasty]

I work in the equivalent of a computer pawn shop right now. The pay isn't the greatest but the benefits are great because we buy used stuff for next to nothing from people desparate to get rid of something for next to nothing. I have picked up tons of treasures including my Powerbook and a 9700 Pro that a guy needed to sell to pay his credit card bills.

[Sm0kinP0t]

well i guess there is indeed somethin' i can learn with all this... I've never done dumpsters before because i don't really know any in the soroundings of my hood but i managed to get 2 old boxes (1 even came with a screen) by simply mailing a known computer seller in my country and kindly offered my services to pick some of the things they couldn't manage to sell.
Try that and when they contact you try not to sound to knowladgable ( ), otherwise they might just give up on the idea

[rmcgoo]

Just after I read this thread, I decided to take a peek in a dumpster on my way to class. I now have a new 19 inch monitor that doesnt show the color red! Hooray! Its funny cuz a guy across the hall is colorblind and hes like, "what are you talking about i dont see anything wrong with it" so I gave it to him and people are like, "why's your screen all messed up" and hes like "why do people always ask me this"

[jenjen]

So, this is the thread for dumpster divers to brag about their finds ?

I can't say I've gotten a lot of goodies by way of dumpsters, but I did get two 21' monitors from someone who noticed that the university was going to dump them. Only a good manual degausing was needed to fix them. Thank god I still had that bulk tape eraser kicking around.

so, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to keep in touch with local college sysadmins for goodies

[MrBabis]

I got two PCs that way, from school when thay chage old PCs to new.
Both PCs was just around 200 Mhz and now I running Linux on them and other UNIX based OS, hehe.

[Sunflare]

-"Edit, Select All, Copy, Paste"

Thanks.... I can really use this. I acutally know of a company that does stuff like this for a living... they do all the dumpster diving for you, and sell machines for around 200$ canadian. I'm getting a 1.2Ghz 20GB 512RAM Wireless Notebook for 250$ canadian this week.

[XoN-ASSIM]

erm... I WANT that box... heh ima have to try this. i have in the past gotta alot of stuff off of my rich neighbors. kinda funny how dumb they are. They go out and get a 5K machine with SCSI RAID and use it to check their e-mail twice a week!!! <--- really... anyway i have gotten a few good deals from my place of work (www.myfamily.com) like a 21" for $10 and 5 P1 200's with SCSI drives for 20 a peice w00t! good thread man even if it is old...

[warriorfan808]

My friends called me the master of free, it's just the way I live. Just recently I picked up a 32 inch Sony Trinatron that just needed some fine tweaking with the verticle and horizontal sync.

I'm suprised that no one here has mentioned going to CompUSA. I get a lot of free stuff there, normally main in rebate stuff though. I know it takes a while, but I've gotten everything back so far. The best time is when they're giving out free RAM. They usually say only 1 per household, but that's not a problem. i just go around to all my mom's old friends and have them fill out the forms and submit them in. They're nice about it and give me the rebate when it comes in the mail.

Another good place would be from gamers. They're constantly upgrading their computers and with each upgrade they make, so do I i just picked up a a whole bunch of parts from a few friends and just put them all together. One friend passed along a 800mhzE P3 with mobo. The mobo sucked, but I was lucky that another friend dumbed an ASUS on my lap. Just took those two and put them together with my free PC133 ram and there's my core. LOL>.I Ibetter make this short, can't write down all the free stuff I"ve gotten, so here's just a list of places I normally go.

1. I normally don't touch comptuers in the dumpster because they're normally filled with bugs, water and dirt. It's best if you get them right before they throw them away or earlier enough to where there isn't any damage.

2. Friends that repair computers for people. You would be suprised how many people drop off computers and never pick them up.

3. Gamers, man I should of put this at number 1.

4. Computer stores. With all that free stuff you can get, makes a pretty good trade when it comes to parts.

Anyway, I got to keep this short. My made an account to my LAN for my mom and now she's telling me that I changed her password for hotmail. LOL.....what is the world coming to!!!

[hellforgedangel]

Over here in the UK there are also some penalty's for grabbing what you want from scrap yards (or tips). People have been killed getting into the skips so they slap £1000 fines on you for it. If however you ask at the office politely you can usally get one of their men to fish out some stuff for you.

[Spydrpop]

An interesting fact about asbestos, is that (the number might not be right) but it can take more than 24 hours for asbestos 8ft in the air, to drop to the floor.