Author Topic: Good place to find broken crap?  (Read 16349 times)

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Offline GreyWoolfe

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #25 on: February 10, 2015, 12:55:14 pm »
thanks to all.  I've also been told that areas with college students at the end of the semester are good too.

Question, sort of off topic.  I see alot of big screen TVs for free on Craigslist.  Those aren't really what I'm after, but I also have a big one in the basement i wanted to pitch 6 years ago but my wife wouldn't let me. Now it seems I'll have to pay to get rid of it.. :-)

Are those transformers on those, and can you do anything useful with them?

thanks.

I put a 60" rear projection TV on the curb on a Friday-see previous post-and went out to run a service call.  I was back in an hour and a half and the TV was gone.  You might want to give that a try before you pay to have it removed
"Heaven has been described as the place that once you get there all the dogs you ever loved run up to greet you."
 

Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #26 on: February 10, 2015, 01:05:16 pm »
Have a look for organised HAM radio market days/ junk sales in your area.
They usually have all sorts of junk for cheap.

Most of the time the sellers have just transported all their junk to the event and don't want to take it back home (Wife).
So prices usually fall to near zero as the sale comes to an end.

Actually I am a Ham (have an Extra Class license).  I've done well on some items, but a lot of it seems market priced.  Went to an estate sale about 2 years ago.  The auctioneer asked for someone to pull a piece of equipment to start the bidding.  so I grabbed an SWR meter.  It went for over $200.  At that point I knew there were a bunch hams in the audience and no good deals were to be had..  :-[

thanks.
 
 

Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #27 on: February 10, 2015, 01:08:10 pm »
thanks to all.  I've also been told that areas with college students at the end of the semester are good too.

Question, sort of off topic.  I see alot of big screen TVs for free on Craigslist.  Those aren't really what I'm after, but I also have a big one in the basement i wanted to pitch 6 years ago but my wife wouldn't let me. Now it seems I'll have to pay to get rid of it.. :-)

Are those transformers on those, and can you do anything useful with them?

thanks.

thanks, I should probably do it in the summer when its not raining all the time .that way someone who wants it might figure it works (which it does) without being wet.



I put a 60" rear projection TV on the curb on a Friday-see previous post-and went out to run a service call.  I was back in an hour and a half and the TV was gone.  You might want to give that a try before you pay to have it removed
 

Offline dentaku

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #28 on: February 10, 2015, 01:14:37 pm »
No, old electric typewriters were not noted for having any kind of stepper motors.
The only exception was possibly typewriters that used "daily-wheel" printing.
Discarded ink-jet printers would probably be the best source of stepper motors.
Not clear what is your preference for uni-polar motors?

It's just that I've got enough bi-polar ones because they're so common in printers and scanners and I like that uni-polar ones don't need anything more than some transistors or a Darlington array.
 

Offline rqsall

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #29 on: February 10, 2015, 01:30:36 pm »
@rqsall , some years ago a client of mine was a second hand furniture dealer, he said one of the best sales strategies was placing CASH on the desk in front of the dealer, he said its very hard to resist esp if an item has been sitting for a while! :)

Tried that, but "the manager wasn't in" and she couldn't negotiate prices ...   |O  people are hopeless sometimes...
 

Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #30 on: February 10, 2015, 01:36:33 pm »
@rqsall , some years ago a client of mine was a second hand furniture dealer, he said one of the best sales strategies was placing CASH on the desk in front of the dealer, he said its very hard to resist esp if an item has been sitting for a while! :)

Tried that, but "the manager wasn't in" and she couldn't negotiate prices ...   |O  people are hopeless sometimes...

yeah, last thing you want to do is try and haggle with a clerk.  Because when the clerk runs the to boss and says,  the customer wanted to haggle but I told him the price is the price, then the manager feels he has to back the employee and gives you the same company line.  yes, the price is the price.
 

Offline cosmicray

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #31 on: February 10, 2015, 02:43:04 pm »
@rqsall , some years ago a client of mine was a second hand furniture dealer, he said one of the best sales strategies was placing CASH on the desk in front of the dealer, he said its very hard to resist esp if an item has been sitting for a while! :)

Tried that, but "the manager wasn't in" and she couldn't negotiate prices ...   |O  people are hopeless sometimes...
This works better when it's a going out of business sale, and the employees are about to be made redundant. I may give it a spin on the final day of RS, and see what the guys are willing to take, so as not to have to pack up all the remnants.  >:D
it's only funny until someone gets hurt, then it's hilarious - R. Rabbit
 

Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #32 on: February 10, 2015, 02:55:35 pm »
[ I may give it a spin on the final day of RS, and see what the guys are willing to take, so as not to have to pack up all the remnants.  >:D

they are closing a few on our area.  one at that mall which I have founded to be almost useless for the past 15 years anyway.  Another one I go to is staying open.  which is good.
 

Offline dannyf

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #33 on: February 10, 2015, 03:23:05 pm »
Quote
Good place to find broken crap?

dumpsters?

Or town recycle centers?

Or just walk down the streets - I saw a large (40" or more) TV just yesterday.
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Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #34 on: February 10, 2015, 03:25:29 pm »
Quote
Good place to find broken crap?

dumpsters?

Or town recycle centers?

Or just walk down the streets - I saw a large (40" or more) TV just yesterday.

thanks. 
 

Offline Paul Price

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #35 on: February 10, 2015, 05:58:24 pm »
Just ask all your friends, fellow workers, everyone has some piece of equipment no longer used or  broken  that they just haven't got around to throw out yet and would only be two happy if you took it off their hands.
 

Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #36 on: February 10, 2015, 06:45:47 pm »
Just ask all your friends, fellow workers, everyone has some piece of equipment no longer used or  broken  that they just haven't got around to throw out yet and would only be two happy if you took it off their hands.

we get rid of a lot of cool stuff at work, but it is all surplused except for power cords and such.

but I will ask. thanks.

I also went to the goodwill at lunch.  VERY slim pickings.  An old kids music keyboard for $40.  (I think new they are $20).  A sony 5 CD disk changer for $20, and a lamp..  :-X

They did say the outlet store is the place to go, but wear long gloves...  :-\

« Last Edit: February 10, 2015, 06:47:47 pm by wblackledg »
 

Offline Richard Crowley

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #37 on: February 10, 2015, 08:18:36 pm »
I also went to the goodwill at lunch.  VERY slim pickings.  An old kids music keyboard for $40.  (I think new they are $20).  A sony 5 CD disk changer for $20, and a lamp..  :-X
Yeah, the retail stores may have something worthwhile every few months, but typically not worth the trip unless you are shopping for something else.

Quote
They did say the outlet store is the place to go, but wear long gloves...  :-\
Yes, that is where they sort through all the incoming stuff.  And you can pick out the stuff that the regular employees would write off as useless (because they can't sell it in a retail shop).
At least at my neighborhood donation center, they had all sorts of small and large electronics including office and industrial.
And even a table with mains power outlets where you could do a simple "smoke-test".
 

Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #38 on: February 10, 2015, 08:21:44 pm »
I also went to the goodwill at lunch.  VERY slim pickings.  An old kids music keyboard for $40.  (I think new they are $20).  A sony 5 CD disk changer for $20, and a lamp..  :-X
Yeah, the retail stores may have something worthwhile every few months, but typically not worth the trip unless you are shopping for something else.

Quote
They did say the outlet store is the place to go, but wear long gloves...  :-\
Yes, that is where they sort through all the incoming stuff.  And you can pick out the stuff that the regular employees would write off as useless (because they can't sell it in a retail shop).
At least at my neighborhood donation center, they had all sorts of small and large electronics including office and industrial.
And even a table with mains power outlets where you could do a simple "smoke-test".

the local outlet store wants 79 cents a pound.  I guess big transformers wouldn't be cost effective? 
I'm going this weekend I think.

thanks.
 

Offline Alex Eisenhut

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #39 on: February 10, 2015, 08:26:25 pm »
I think a big problem is that a lot of things that used to process information just don't exist anymore.

20 years ago, you could have had a CD player, a carrousel CD player, Laserdisc player, VCR, equalizer, Dolby decoder, tape deck, reel to reel deck, record player, receiver, pre-amp, etc, all potential junk.

Now all that is gone and replaced by a computer. The people who cling to the old-school junk are very likely to be able to repair it and therefore won't junk it.

The only junk you are likely to find curbside are major "white goods", and flat screen TVs. At the same time, parts have gotten cheap and powerful microcontrollers are cheap.

What's the motivation for hauling broken crap home? Pretty much the only broken crap that you might find is TVs, and there's not much you can do with the parts in there, or you can sell them after you've repaired them. Good luck with that...
Hoarder of 8-bit Commodore relics and 1960s Tektronix 500-series stuff. Unconventional interior decorator.
 

Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #40 on: February 10, 2015, 08:31:50 pm »
What's the motivation for hauling broken crap home?

Now you sound like my wife..  :-DD

Seriously,  I wanted a few items to see if I could fix them. If I screw them up, no problem, they were already broke. This is also why I only wanted one or two items.  Not a lot of crap.

thanks.
 

Offline cosmicray

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #41 on: February 10, 2015, 08:44:11 pm »
What is in that picture is not an average Goodwill store. The nearest one like that to where I'm at is probably in Jacksonville. The Outlet stores are less common.
Turns out all the Goodwill Outlet stores in Florida are Tallahassee to Pensacola (3) and I-4 south down both coasts (13). There are no outlet stores in north-central or northeast Florida.
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Offline Kjelt

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #42 on: February 10, 2015, 09:16:57 pm »
don't know about the US but we have rather small time old iron/metal buy/sell places where you can find everything from metal and you pay the metal price.
They tend to buy old or surplus inventory from bankrupt labs, industries etc. etc. whatever contains some metals they buy it.
Best find was two years ago, I stumbled upon a R&S RF function generator it was in a crate with other stuff they wanted to put outside in the rain.
I resqued it just in time, the guy put it on the scale (which is a story on it self since it weighs up to 1000kg so not very accurate) and asked $30.
He was extremely happy that I paid that without haggling :-DD   :-+
Oh well that was once in the 4 years I visited the place so rather exceptionel. But you can find tons of old computers/servers with their processors/ram heatsinks etc,  all kinds of old industrial control boxes from which I salvage the dirty DINconnectors , throw them in a ultrasonic bath and they are good as new and other good stuff.
 

Offline Excavatoree

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #43 on: February 10, 2015, 09:36:00 pm »
don't know about the US but we have rather small time old iron/metal buy/sell places where you can find everything from metal and you pay the metal price.


I've never seen nor heard about such a place in the US, but I wish we did have them.    The closest I've come is to take a power supply out of the scrap steel bin at work.  No one made me pay the less than 50 cents US that it would have brought for scrap.   The fuse was blown.
 

Offline edavid

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #44 on: February 10, 2015, 09:45:32 pm »
don't know about the US but we have rather small time old iron/metal buy/sell places where you can find everything from metal and you pay the metal price.


I've never seen nor heard about such a place in the US, but I wish we did have them.    The closest I've come is to take a power supply out of the scrap steel bin at work.  No one made me pay the less than 50 cents US that it would have brought for scrap.   The fuse was blown.

A lot of the e-waste recyclers will let you buy stuff out of the incoming bins this way.
 

Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #45 on: February 10, 2015, 09:49:54 pm »
don't know about the US but we have rather small time old iron/metal buy/sell places where you can find everything from metal and you pay the metal price.


I've never seen nor heard about such a place in the US, but I wish we did have them.    The closest I've come is to take a power supply out of the scrap steel bin at work.  No one made me pay the less than 50 cents US that it would have brought for scrap.   The fuse was blown.

I think places like Japan (where my brother lived) is like this.  Space is a premium so hoarding becomes much harder and a lot of cool stuff gets pitched to the curb (according to him).  I'm trying to remember if it was like this in Germany when I lived there, but I remember it was a pain to get rid of my BMW (it was an old one, with a leaky brake system, not a gem).  I ended up driving it on top a part mound at the local US Army base for the soldiers to pick though for spare parts.    :D   They were quite happy with it.

Now I find out that in Illinois that you can't throw away your old TVs, but nobody will pick them up or take them for recycling thanks to a new law.  This doesn't sound very intelligent.
 

Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #46 on: February 10, 2015, 09:50:55 pm »
don't know about the US but we have rather small time old iron/metal buy/sell places where you can find everything from metal and you pay the metal price.


I've never seen nor heard about such a place in the US, but I wish we did have them.    The closest I've come is to take a power supply out of the scrap steel bin at work.  No one made me pay the less than 50 cents US that it would have brought for scrap.   The fuse was blown.

A lot of the e-waste recyclers will let you buy stuff out of the incoming bins this way.

that might work. thanks.
 

Offline edavid

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #47 on: February 10, 2015, 10:00:46 pm »
Now I find out that in Illinois that you can't throw away your old TVs, but nobody will pick them up or take them for recycling thanks to a new law.  This doesn't sound very intelligent.

Are you sure?  What about this list: http://epadata.epa.state.il.us/land/eWaste/collection-sites.asp
 

Offline wblackledgTopic starter

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #48 on: February 10, 2015, 10:14:06 pm »
Now I find out that in Illinois that you can't throw away your old TVs, but nobody will pick them up or take them for recycling thanks to a new law.  This doesn't sound very intelligent.

Are you sure?  What about this list: http://epadata.epa.state.il.us/land/eWaste/collection-sites.asp

that was what the guy told me at our recycler.  he said Illinois passed a law saying you can't pitch it and they won't take it.  When I asked how do you get rid of it, he said they were waiting on instructions as to how to proceed. Funny, they are listed as one of the places to drop off TVs from your list.
« Last Edit: February 10, 2015, 10:18:23 pm by wblackledg »
 

Online tszaboo

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Re: Good place to find broken crap?
« Reply #49 on: February 10, 2015, 11:42:00 pm »
20 years ago, you could have had a CD player, a carrousel CD player, Laserdisc player, VCR, equalizer, Dolby decoder, tape deck, reel to reel deck, record player, receiver, pre-amp, etc, all potential junk.
Not it is Android phone version 5, smart media player, Android smart media player, the tablet which started lagging, smartwatch, wireless music player, that smart wifi thing which I impulse bought on Amazon, and the infamous sound bars. They will end up in the junk bin Im sure of it as hell.
There is a junk shop close to where I live, but never been there. It is one of those shops, which are only open at times when normal people work.
 


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