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?
Im 19 the 80s sounded cool but im not from that time period.
Many physical goods have a price that seems to follow a bathtub curve (like a wide U shape). Whether it’s computers or furniture or whatever, this is how it usually goes. When it’s new it’s valuable because its new, then it becomes old which make it less valuable because it’s old, but then when it gets very old it becomes more valuable again because it’s rare.
So the worth of your devices will be based on its rarity and how much it’s desired. Most 10 year old and older computers and parts are worth nothing right now, but very occasionally there are jackpot items that for whatever reason are worth a lot. But don’t count on having any of those.
If your computers are in the 10+ years old range then don’t expect to get more than like 20 bucks at most for each one. And that’s at most.
Craigslist or eBay type sites are probably the best place to post an ad selling them. If you really have a bunch of them you can try selling them all together as a bundled “lot”.
It is also about how many people are interested. There are a lot of collectors items worth a lot of money because there are more people collecting than interested, there are also a lot that are not worth much because every collector that wants one has one already. Often there is a curve because when collectors get interested they pay money, which causes people who have one gathering dust in the attic to get it out and sell it and soon the market is saturated.
You have no idea what collectors will care about in 20-50 years. As such investing in something because collectors will care about it and make it worth money is not a good idea. However there are a lot of neat things out there so if you like it go ahead and collect it - if you are the only one interested in 50 years well you have yours, if everyone wants it maybe you can pay for a nice nursing home from the sale. Either way if you have something you need to either enjoy it or use it.
Oh for sure, i didn’t mean to suggest that you can buy anything for use as an investment, i just meant that after enough time every object will eventually start increasing in value merely because it is old enough. Even a used diaper from babylonian times would probably be worth some amount of money