Ive gathered over the years a descent stash of desktop computers and parts but now i have too many and im not sure what to do with them or how to sell/get rid of them? Or even where to post them at. The computers are nothing new or special.
What would you advise?
I collect old stuff too. There are only a handful of things that have been useful over the years, mainly USB devices. People who work with hobby embedded devices can also make use of RS232 serial equipment. It might be worth holding on to a single old monitor that can also do VGA. Or a single SATA DVD drive in case you find some old discs you need to read. I have a box of C-64 stuff I am never getting rid of. The kids will have to figure out what to do with that when I am gone.
But all those old ISA cards? Parallel printer port cables? Zip drives? Yeah, nobody wants them. Maybe you can list those old Apple talk dongles on eBay and make a hundred bucks, but you also have to deal with shipping them and stuff.
Just be careful when disposing old drives. I have a stack of busted drives that I won’t get rid of because I don’t know if anyone will be able to pull the data with the right equipment. Every now and then if I get too bored I take one apart to play with the magnets, I figure it’s safe to discard the platters if I scratch them up good.
You may want to look for local “electronics recycling” places. They might charge a fee, and if they find something they can refurbish and sell they will do it (and keep the profit). But then you have more space to accumulate new stuff.
It reminds me I sold a LS120 with some floppies for it, I barely used it 20 years ago, I tested it and it was still working fine, I put the lot for 10$ on marketplace and a few minutes after someone wrote to me saying “I WANT THEM!” he needed one for a server setup in a company that still used LS120 and put an alert on marketplace for it. He was super happy and told me I saved his life :)
Concerning C-64 (and maybe other types), I’ve seen places online that will take donated manuals and such in decent condition for preservation purposes. You know, back when you actually bought a box that had the disk as well as maps and books to go along with the game.
As far as old electronics itself, best bet is to try to give it away via Craigslist or local posting, but it’s hit or miss on if someone is going to happen to need that stick of RAM at the same time. It should be recycled if you can’t get rid of it, as there are toxic things in circuit boards (small amounts, but still).
Disc drives (primarily blu ray now, DVD drives aren’t as useful) are very much so still in use. The USB ones are just slim sata drives in an enclosure.
I’m trying to track down a very specific one, myself, for a laptop that wont hold a standard slim drive due to a weird bezel. Literally cheaper to buy an entire laptop used off ebay that already has one than direct from HP.