I have a computer case, MSI mobo, Athlon 64 3400, and various other parts from a ~2004 machine I'm interested in trying to get some money from, but obviously for cheap. Has anybody here had success doing this? Any recommended methods from this Lifehacker article? http://lifehacker.com/5985016/are-my-old-computer-parts-worth-any-money

Surely you can use Craigslist to attract creepy people to your house.. for those parts of course.

My brother builds and sells computers and he has told me over and over whenever I've tried to get rid of an old part that it would cost way more to ship than I could ever get for the part. As a result I have all of these old hard drives I use as paper weights. :P

Replace failing components.
Buy missing ones.
Wrap it in foil material
Store it for later use :-)


EDIT: on serious note I also recommend investing some $ to make rig work and donate it to sb.

That's what I do with my bowel movements

Probably not worth it, unless any of the parts are rare and have special value for collectors or tech historians. But it doesn't sound that way. Athlon64 with 3.4 GHz on an MSI mobo was an extremely common combo 10 years ago - good value for low cost.

You can enter some of the parts in an ebay search, and search explicitly for past auctions, to get a feeling for the price at which these items sell (if they sell at all). You may need to be logged into an ebay account to perform this specific type of search.

Selling computer parts that are 2-4 years old is often viable, but not for common stuff from 10 years ago. The only item of that age that I ever found worth selling was a specific Cherry keyboard with programmable keys. I bought that in 1991 for 80 German Mark, and auctioned it off to a keyboard driver programmer ten years later for the same price.

I collect old computer junk, preferably working such, but I'd bet shipping from the US of A wouldn't be cheap.

Personally, I don't sell old computer stuff anymore, I regret all the things I have parted with (given away, mostly), but in your case, I'd look for geeks like me that see some value in older parts.

Now, if a European has a Macintosh Color Display (M1212) (yes, that specific model, because its design fits the computer perfectly) to sell, I'd love to do business. I was stupid when moving back to Sweden, tested booting the computer, didn't get a picture so I assumed the display had broken and threw it away. In reality the computer doesn't give an image if the CMOS battery's empty and that's what had happened.

The best approach (in my opinion) is to make a fully functional central unit and selling it as an out of the box clean rig. It's not how you would make the most money, but it's the safest way to sell (because you can then sell it to anybody, regardless of tech skills -> cheap pc for the elderly, kids ... ).

The way to make the much money out of it is to keep in a box and sell several yeas later if someone is in need of old replacement stuff (but I am really not sure if it is still worth the effort though, as you will not be in for a quick buck)

I think you have had that one too long. It should have been sold a while ago. Better off just donating it or giving to family/friend. Though the family/friend would expect free troubleshooting help, so I'd either donate it or put it in the closet for a backup.

In the university I'm in, there are always students who can't afford new pieces, so they go for used ones.
Usually a post in the university forum, or even a printed ad, gets some attention.

Some people might ask money to get you rid of them :P. J/k. Actually I'd donate it to some foster home or some poor family who can't a afford a computer.

To tell you the truth a 10-year old machine is difficult to sell, since there are cheap pc's today that are more powerfull.
Maybe if you pack together a monitor, a printer, a keyboard, a mouse, speakers and other usefull stuff, you can give it to someone who wants a cheap office-pc.

BTW I'm looking for a dirty-cheap case for my old P4. You wouldn't happen to visit Greece anytime soon, would you? :P

As others have said, used PC parts have little to no value, especially form an unknown seller (which is what you are to potential buyers).

I have had luck selling entire PCs, but even on Craigslist, the expectation is that its a big garage sale. If you post a $10,000 for $5.00, someone will still want to barter you down from your list price. I see a lot of sub-100 dollar PCs on Craigslist. Imagine what the parts go for.

All that said, I sold a high end gaming PC for $700.00 on Craigslist. Parted out, I would have likely made about $200.00.

My suggestion... when you manage to complete the parts list, sell a fully working PC.

alternate suggestion... use Ebay. You will likely be eaten alive in fees, but at least you cut out the bartering and hassling by listing your parts in a much easier to search format.

My $300.00 Lian Li case could not find a home by itself. Ebay + shipping would have cost me money to sell. I finally gave it to Good Will.

Well, ive used several times the biggest HW forum in Finland (Muro BBS) to buy and sell used stuff. So far i havent bought myself anything by post, rather always met the buyer or seller somewhere in the city. I am living the capital area, so it has worked just fine.

but if you have very old hardware, dont expect to get too much really.