Best way to find budget PC parts

[TechFTP]

I had to bring an old broken TV, some old vacuums, and broken power supplies to my local electronic recycling center about two weeks ago and stumbled upon an absolute GOLDMINE.

 

While I was there I saw a bunch of pc's being torn apart and asked quick, "would you be willing to sell any parts or do you even sell to the public?" While they don't advertise they were more then willing to let me come back and 

take a look at what they had in stock. I was amazed that not only do businesses and schools recycle their old computers there but locals with custom gaming PC's also did. Now, I'm not talking old dated worthless junk either which was the most surprising part about it all. 

 

I had an Optiplex 9020 I was looking to upgrade and I managed to buy a GTX 960, GTX 760, 600W Corsair Power Supply, 430W Corsair Power Supply, 8 sticks of DDR3, 2 250GB SSDs, and an I7 2600 for $200 on the dot. WHAT A STEAL!

I asked him why people brought this kind of stuff in rather then sell it and he was as clueless as I was, I priced it all out to match what was currently listed on eBay at the lowest prices and what I walked out with for $200 I could list on eBay for about $575..

 

There was so much more as well, boxes and boxes of DDR4 RAM, so many more GPUS, they even had nice EVGA Modular power supplies and more CPU's then I even had the time to look through. He made sure to test out everything for me and also would let me return the parts if they ended up not working within a few weeks...

 

The point of this is to maybe help you guys find some insane deals, not every recycling center has a great supply or is willing to sell to the public but google some places around you locally and get to calling them and see what they say. The worst they can say is, "No sorry we dont sell to the public" and if they say yes you may be able to find something really incredible for the price. I made a video documenting the process if you want to check out the performance on the $175 Gaming PC, lets just say 1080p medium settings were over 60fps easily. I hope you guys can find some great deals like me and goodluck!

 

<video removed by staff>

 

Edited August 20, 2020 by SansVarnic
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[Guest]

18 hours ago, TsLoqiQ said:

<snipped quote>

What he said.

@CircleTech

Edited August 20, 2020 by Guest
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[TechFTP]

I appreciate the tips! But I live in a town in Wisconsin that has about 80k people so not to big, and this the only recycling center around me. The guy who deals with the computer stuff isn't an idiot though, he has an eBay store and knows what its worth. So while I'm getting ripped off compared to someone who knows nothing about the actual value and just goes by weight, I still made out like a god damn banshee! He would rather sell to local guys like me so he will still sell to me extremely cheap compared to what he would sell them for on eBay, also he's cool as shit and if anything breaks in a few weeks he said no questions asked just bring it back and he will give me my money back. 

 

BUT what I will say is I never even thought to look for any vintage stuff and I bet this guy has some pretty cool old stuff. I will be going back this week sometime and will definitely be on the lookout for some cool vintage tech if I can find it. Either way I'm ecstatic, I have a guy who owns a pc repair shop close by who's kind of partnered up with me and I have a large supply of Optiplex's coming and I can build them up for under $150 to $175 for the total machine kind of like the video and then flip them for easy profit. 

[TechFTP]

Just now, lexusgamer05 said:

WHAT

Yeah that is absolutely absurd and so lucky lol If I found a place like that I'd drop about $500 and buy the entire lot and flip every single one

[TechFTP]

Yeah I think why I got so lucky is nobody else in town which has about 80k people even thinks to go to a recycling center and ask if they can buy used parts. I'm assuming most recycling centers don't get a lot of good parts and don't hold onto them long either where this guy will hold onto almost anything that he can make a little money off of, I think I got lucky for sure.

[Dhernandeznater]

18 hours ago, CircleTech said:

Again, the success you are seeing here is HIGHLY dependent on your area. I am from the Detroit area and have no trouble finding computer parts all day from recycling centers. But as of right now I am located in Bumfuck-middle-of-nowhere Southern Illinois for college and I have yet to find a single recycling center who will allow me to buy computer parts here. 

Lmao do you go to UIUC? I vibed really hard when you said Bumfuck-middle-of-nowhere Southern Illinois

[pree]

*laughs in Silicon Valley E-Waste*

[GDRRiley]

13 minutes ago, CircleTech said:

As @GDRRiley will tell you, CA is the best place in the US to find e-waste. Ironically California also has the toughest e-waste recycling laws in the country, but it literally doesn't matter because there are so many people there. I know a guy making millions of dollars recycling EV batteries from Tesla and Nissan leaf's in CA.

I got my place. get get dells and HP with 4th or 5th now likely 6th and 7th gen by the pallets

[Kisai]

On 8/18/2020 at 10:09 PM, TechFTP said:

I had to bring an old broken TV, some old vacuums, and broken power supplies to my local electronic recycling center about two weeks ago and stumbled upon an absolute GOLDMINE.

 

 

 

It depends heavily on where you live.

 

A larger city with half a million people will likely have recycling centers every 20 miles or so, and you can just ask, and you might be allowed to take anything as long as you don't make a mess (which is why people get grumpy about bin'ers and other dumpster divers.) 

 

Smaller cities that only have one recycling place will likely let you take things because it lowers their cost to ship it out of the city. 

 

But be mindful of what you take. If you go to each system and yank the cpu and ram so you can flip them on eBay, it may come back to haunt you. Take what you need or can use, because surely you're not the only one who's done this. It can easily turn into a turf war if there's money to be made.

 

Out here a lot of recycled stuff actually ends up at educational/free-pc places who refurbish/rebuild pc's for people who can't afford them. So if you're taking all the good parts, then they never end up with it.

[pree]

10 minutes ago, CircleTech said:

I need to at least check out CAs ewaste market one day. If there's one thing that'll convince me to come to a state like CA, it's their recycling market. I don't care if I pay more in taxes, just as long as I make a lot more money, so much so that it pays the taxes and still leaves me with more left over.

I've only checked the Silicon Valley E-Waste once, but it was a very quick trip but in my time there I found at least 10-20 9 and 10th gen intel CPUs. 

[TechFTP]

19 hours ago, Kisai said:

It depends heavily on where you live.

 

A larger city with half a million people will likely have recycling centers every 20 miles or so, and you can just ask, and you might be allowed to take anything as long as you don't make a mess (which is why people get grumpy about bin'ers and other dumpster divers.) 

 

Smaller cities that only have one recycling place will likely let you take things because it lowers their cost to ship it out of the city. 

 

But be mindful of what you take. If you go to each system and yank the cpu and ram so you can flip them on eBay, it may come back to haunt you. Take what you need or can use, because surely you're not the only one who's done this. It can easily turn into a turf war if there's money to be made.

 

Out here a lot of recycled stuff actually ends up at educational/free-pc places who refurbish/rebuild pc's for people who can't afford them. So if you're taking all the good parts, then they never end up with it.

For me personally he told me I'm one of the few guys who buy parts and the only one who does parts for gaming builds. If I don't buy them he just sells them on eBay himself and takes that money. I have a guy who has a constant flow of Optiplex's so I get them for free or really cheap then go to the recycling center and grab a few power supplies, 64+gb of ram, and whatever GPUs he has in and then BAM I have a full 1080p gaming machine I spend 170-200 on total and can flip for about 400 everytime.