why do people sell broken hardware?

[joe678]

i've seen this a couple of times on the FS/FT forum, either someone wanting to buy, or selling broken hardware...just curious why this be...

 

[gopunk]

because it's broken

 

[minendo]

the posibility of fixing it or using a piece from it to fix another one

 

[RedRooster]

Warranty is out, what else are you gonna do with it?

 

[polypterus]

What else are they going to do with it? I've got a 19" TV that doesn't work, I don't want to just throw it in the trash, if someone wants it for $5 and they can fix it come get it.

dc

 

[Jzero]

Might as well recoup some of the replacement cost....esp on a place like this where you've got a lot of electronic-savvy folks who may be able to bring them back to life.
I got a free Harmon-Kardon A/V receiver from a guy at work b/c it wasn't working right. It's pretty nice for being 4 years old...probably worth around $100. All it needed was a fuse, but the guy who had it didn't know anything about electronic innards and figured he'd pay more than it was worth to get it fixed, but why toss it when someone else can use it?

 

[JetBlack69]

I took a broken hard drive and a broken CD-ROM just so I could open them up and see all the cool stuff inside.

 

[bacillus]

<< I took a broken hard drive and a broken CD-ROM just so I could open them up and see all the cool stuff inside. >>


:Q

 

[Wallydraigle]

To get money.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

my little bro takes broken hard drives, takes off the platter cover, and makes clocks out of them

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

you gotta be joking about the clocks....

 

[ViperMagic]

Where can I get me one of those clocks?

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

<< Where can I get me one of those clocks? >>



and how much?

 

[Danman]

<< my little bro takes broken hard drives, takes off the platter cover, and makes clocks out of them >>



That's crazy.............OMG listen to this, at my school we have this networking class where certain students can help the network admin out. So my friend and I were just screwing around and took apart a old Maxtor hd. Then we took a old PSW with one of the on/off switches and plugged it into the hard drive with the case off it, nothing else touched. So we turned it on and it spinned right up! Really fast too! So we started throwing stuff in it and sanding down things, old EDO memory, paperclips and other crap until the platter looked like the moon and just stopped working. It was really fun.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

hehe it's easy. just take the bolt spindle thingy out and replace it with a clock. you can buy the motor/arms/battery compartment as a kit at almost any hobby place (Michaels, Hobby Lobby, etc). ive never seen him do it with multi-platter drives, just old ones (5+ years). like the last one was a conner 120mg single platter drive.

you have to secure the platter to the pcb, the motor cant turn the platter itself. you just poke the motor through to the hole (motor is on the bottom of the drive) and attach the arms. may require some glueing for it all to stay in place.

you can put numbers on the platter if you want (or roman numerals, why am i explaining this part? you know what a clock looks like). makes neat conversation piece.

 

[HaVoC]

On a more sinister note, I seriously think some of the people buy the broken stuff that's still fairly new. Then they buy the same new item at Best Buy or some other place with a liberal return policy/no restock fee. Then the return the broken item as the "new" item and sell/keep the new hardware. Ultimately the hardware OEMs are the ones who bear the cost of the returns, I believe.

Sadly, I have to believe this is going on.

 

[NakaNaka]

I'll take one of those clocks if they really work

 

[dirtboy]

On mans trash is another mans treasure?

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

if i can remember ill take a pic of one of the clocks (he does all those things, dead floppy drives, etc) and let ya see what it looks like.

 

[Rallispec]

<< why do people sell broken hardware? >>


becuase there are people out there who buy broken hardware....

and that clock thing sounds real cool.. i once made a clock out of an old cd.. its really cool.

 

[Ranger X]

It's kind of like asking why people buy broken down old automobiles. People buy it for scrapping parts or fixing it for personal use (or re-selling it after fixing it).

 

[Jerboy]

<<

<< my little bro takes broken hard drives, takes off the platter cover, and makes clocks out of them >>



That's crazy.............OMG listen to this, at my school we have this networking class where certain students can help the network admin out. So my friend and I were just screwing around and took apart a old Maxtor hd. Then we took a old PSW with one of the on/off switches and plugged it into the hard drive with the case off it, nothing else touched. So we turned it on and it spinned right up! Really fast too! So we started throwing stuff in it and sanding down things, old EDO memory, paperclips and other crap until the platter looked like the moon and just stopped working. It was really fun. >>



I did the same thing with old 5.25" drive that must have weighed 10lbs.

It had a hex screw in the middle, so I stuck a ratchet driver, set it to ratchet way in direction of rotation and flipped the ratcheting direction switch when it was clicking at full speed. It ripped the tip of my hex bit off. Musta been quite a bit of momentum in that big platters.