What do you do with your old/outdated "geek gear"?

When your geek gear gets old or outdated and you upgrade to a new model, what do you do with the old gear it replaced?

Trash it?
Recycle it? (metal/plastic/glass -- all very recyclable)
Give it away to someone you know?
Give it away to a stranger? (Freecycle, for example)
Donate it to a charity?
Sell it? (eBay, for example)
Throw it in the closet, never to be seen or heard from again?

obsolete gear geek replace retire donate sell freecycle recycle

asked Jun 04 '10 at 23:11

ageekmom ♦
8.4k●43●148●322

edited Jun 16 '10 at 16:56

I keep it, for shows hehe

(Aug 21 '10 at 03:35) TuTube105

17 Answers:

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For high value items or items I know are likely to have a good resale value when I'm ready to part with them, I keep all of the retail packaging, accessories, packing materials and instruction manuals. This makes selling the item on eBay or to a friend/co-worker a lot easier because it gives buyers at least some measure of confidence the item was well cared for and should still be in good working order. Examples: digital cameras, PDAs, GPS units, some MP3 & ebook readers.
If the item is going to be a hassle to ship (excessively heavy, fragile or difficult to package) or eBay is already flooded with a bunch of comparable selling items, I try to sell to a friend or family member -- at a reduced price than I'd ask or hope for via an eBay sale. (Too many comparable items means my auction is less apt to stand out and garner a lot of good, active bids.) If there aren't any takers in a reasonable span of time, I donate it to a local charity donation station -- not for tax purposes, but just because it feels good to know it is going to someone who might never have otherwise had something like it.
For low value items or items that have seen excessive wear & tear, I either throw them away or recycle them. Power bricks, really old or broken mice and keyboards, etc. fall into this category, as does anything with an integrated, non-replaceable battery -- like an ancient iPod shuffle or nano -- unless I am keeping it as part of my 'museum' ;-)

I'd like to try Freecycle sometime, but I haven't bothered with it yet and it doesn't seem to be that active in my community (I could be wrong, though.)

There are some things I hold on to just because I want to -- like my husband's Amiga 500 computer, my 2001 Titanium Powerbook G4, etc.

answered Jun 04 '10 at 23:34

ageekmom ♦
8.4k●43●148●322

edited Jun 04 '10 at 23:41

lol ageekmom. Ya gotta love those old Amigas. I had a 500, 600 and a 1200.

(Aug 27 '10 at 05:22) Geenome

Why did you answer your own question?

(Aug 28 '10 at 21:48) ryebread761

2	Usually if it is just an older mouse or something like that. I either give it to a friend, family member. If it has a much higher value I will either keep it for the collection (mostly Apple) or sell it on ebay. :) Good question! answered Jun 04 '10 at 23:13 Wackertech 6.6k●31●82●100

2	All my old gadgets (blackberrys, psp, etc) go to my little brother. He's a mini techie too lol answered Jun 04 '10 at 23:29 Coop66 1.1k●22●30●46

I hoard it and put it away. Unfortunately it becomes obsolete and therefore useless. I need to recycle much of it unless I want to establish a personal museum of sorts. An example: I still have every cell phone I've ever had starting with the Motorola StarTac! I also have every generation of everything iPhone and many iPods too. It's time to purge!

answered Jun 05 '10 at 08:19

jhagedon
2.7k●153●178●215

1	haha I don't really have much gadgets but if it's a PC, I would put a small, fast Linux distro on it. answered Jun 05 '10 at 00:46 WindowsMojave 601●15●20●27

Mostly I will put it up in a box or put it on display somewhere. On occasions if it is old enough, or I am sure I am never going to use it, I will either give it away or donate it somewhere.

answered Jun 05 '10 at 01:10

Craighton ♦♦
16.6k●115●207●329

edited Jun 05 '10 at 10:05

ageekmom ♦
8.4k●43●148●322

1	Mostly I just donate or give my old stuff away, like when I buy a new iPod if the old one is beat up but still works I give it to a friend who can't afford one anyway. answered Jun 05 '10 at 01:53 TheGiant 189●1●2●5

Always donated- either to a non-profit or friends (I do follow-up help for them, too).

If it's too old for that, a file server (FreeNAS) or firewall (Smoothwall). Hard to top PuppyLinux as a net machine?

After that- there's no where to go with it & it concerns me that there aren't world-wide recycle centres to take in this stuff considering it carries poisonous chems. in the mainboard, at the least?

I believe that the manufacturers, as the creators, need to start taking responsibility for their outcasts~

answered Jul 13 '10 at 06:27

geekomatic
1.8k●11●13●36

1	If it's a computer, I stack it on top of all the other computers in a corner of the garage. (Hey, you name them, and then you can't just dump them, can you?) answered Aug 20 '10 at 19:18 CoderLass 541●3●4●16

1	Depends on the gear if its so outdated its useless it might be scrapped for parts for a later project if its in working condition giving it away is always the best thing to do and im sure the receiver will appreciate it answered Aug 20 '10 at 20:28 Justin OReilly 346●10●16●24

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