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Recession Pushes IT To Find New Value In Old Gear

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the bad-eweek-no-interstitials dept.

buzzardsbay writes "Trying to put a bright spin on a gloomy subject, the folks at eWEEK unearth an emerging trend: There's a booming cottage industry of dealers in refurbished computer and networking gear serving folks on the hunt for 'slightly used' and 'new to you' equipment. The dealers selling the stuff tell eWEEK the equipment is practically new, most of it less than a year old, and that the prices for things like servers and routers are lower than they have been since the post dot-com / Sept. 11 days in 2001. Used gear isn't for everybody, obviously. The story points out that while many of these used IT dealers offer configuration services, they don't do installs, and most are not authorized resellers. They do, however, offer decent warranties, so if you can do some of the work yourself, you'll probably be OK."

18 of 206 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet by Jinky · · Score: 2, Funny

    Anyone want my 386DX? $4000 refurb AS IS.

    1. Re:Sweet by Dare+nMc · · Score: 4, Funny

      Your going to need some more marketing spin on it.

      "I am being forced to sell my Computer to pay rent, paid $6000 new, and have added $2000 in upgrades, I will let go for just $4000 to the first lucky person to bring cash.
      Thanks to Vista, this model is very difficult to come by, it comes preloaded with over $1000 worth of software."

      Then just load it with linux, openoffice, and all the free games you can find"

    2. Re:Sweet by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 4, Funny

      Your going to need some more marketing spin on it.

      "Vista Ready."

    3. Re:Sweet by FishAdmin · · Score: 4, Funny

      I tested it, bought a couple cheap probes, and then sat on it for a year.

      Very, very bad visual, that.

      --
      Last night I played a blank tape at full volume. The mime next door went nuts.
    4. Re:Sweet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      a "Vista Ready" computer is like a "Hurricane proof" house. It's nice to know, but you hope to never actually use it.

  2. This Just In. by Gerafix · · Score: 5, Funny

    This just in, when you're poorer you make due with what is cheap.

    1. Re:This Just In. by ByOhTek · · Score: 4, Funny

      Translation: This story needs a 'captainobviousstrikesagain' tag?

      --
      Self proclaimed typo king, and inventor of the bear destroying coffee table (patent not pending).
    2. Re:This Just In. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Slashy slashy, dot dot, now I've got my Farker shot. Now get outta here!

  3. Old Gear by dcw · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hey! I can fire-up my Amiga 1000, 2000 and 4000!
    Damm, I'm cutting edge again!

    --
    "All those, moments will be lost, in time, like tears, in rain. Time to die." Roy Batty
  4. I found the ???! by 6Yankee · · Score: 4, Funny

    How to make money when times are hard:

    1. Buy oodles of cheap hardware
    2. Search it for confidential info
    3. Blackmail
    4. Profit!

  5. Help.. by Finallyjoined!!! · · Score: 4, Funny

    XP won't install on the Cat 7000 I just bought from a firesale. OMG what should I do????

    {:-)

    --
    If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
    1. Re:Help.. by genner · · Score: 5, Funny

      XP won't install on the Cat 7000 I just bought from a firesale. OMG what should I do???? {:-)

      You should be using Vista obviously.

    2. Re:Help.. by Finallyjoined!!! · · Score: 3, Funny

      You should be using Vista obviously.

      Vista won't install on the Cat 7000 I just bought from a firesale. OMG what should I do???? {:-)

      --
      If I had an Ass, I'd call it Fanny Bottom, then I could slap my Ass; Fanny Bottom, on the Arse.
    3. Re:Help.. by genner · · Score: 4, Funny

      You should be using Vista obviously.

      Vista won't install on the Cat 7000 I just bought from a firesale. OMG what should I do???? {:-)

      You cheaped out and got the basic version of Vista. I think Vista Ultimate runs on the Cat.

  6. Re:Hooray for the landfills! by frehe · · Score: 2, Funny

    The computer and electronics industry are filthy industries.

    Yes, for example, I've heard that it's more and more common for automatic garbage collectors, in languages with that functionality, to take all the dirty memory that is no longer used, and smuggle it to third world countries, where the data ends up in large heaps in the countryside, polluting the precious bodily fluids of the local people.

  7. Thrifty by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    How's this for being resourceful. Turning an old iPod Classic in to an external drive by partitioning it and putting Linux on it. It still runs and plays music too.

    Yeah, I can't afford an external drive.

  8. how about.... by curtix7 · · Score: 2, Funny

    can you imagine a beowulf cluster of these old machines?

  9. Well by coryking · · Score: 2, Funny

    Since you asked,

    Your mom is so poor, a 386DX *is* worth more then her house.

    She is also so dumb, the 386DX has more transistors then she has brain cells.

    She is also so fat, you can throw a 386DX at her and it will float around her in orbit.

    (ps: booya)