“My name is Lee and I’m addicted to gadgets.” I admit it. Everyone who knows me, knows it. My wife has started pricing the gadgets on Amazon so she’ll know what I’m spending. You’ve probably known about my addiction for as long as you’ve been visiting this site.
I end up with piles of stuff lying around. Last week I checked and between the home pile and the office pile I had 2 rack mounted servers, 2 laptops, 1 desktop, 30 landline phones, 2 cell phones, a video camera, a tripod, 1 camera, 15 earbuds, 3 other headsets, a server rack and a bunch of other stuff. This is not the good stuff. This is the junk that I needed to get rid of. This is the useless garbage pile.
I’m sure you’ve got some stuff that needs to be sold, recycled or trashed. It’s tough to get rid of this stuff because it feels like there should be some value to it and doesn’t feel right to throw it away. In fact, some of these gadgets are dangerous to throw away as they have components that contaminate the landfill.
So what do you do with them? I’ve tried eBay. Sometimes it works, often it doesn’t. I’ve sold a bunch of stuff there but, when all is said and done, it’s frequently more trouble than it’s worth. The prices are low, the customers complain about the stuff and the shipping is a pain. I’ve given up on that route.
I recently tried Gazelle.com. They offer cash for your old gadgets. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing and they make it really easy. You go to their site and enter your item and it’s condition. They immediately make you an offer. If you accept, they send you packing material and handle the postage. You send in the item and they send you payment. It worked perfectly for me.
I’ve also tried craigslist. It works and it, usually, involves local buyers so you don’t have to deal with the shipping issue. You do, however, have to deal with the logistics of meeting the seller. Another option is FreeCycle. They provide an email list to enable you to offer your items for free. Some city and county governments provide free, or cheap, recycling. That’s another possibility.
Finally, and this is what I did with most of the computers last week, is to find a charity that needs the stuff. We found a local charity, Purple Elephant, that recycles computers and gives them to kids.. They clean things up and get the machines to kids that need them.
Whatever route you choose, be sure to wipe your data from the device before it moves on to its new life.
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Lee Rosen has practiced family law for more than twenty years. With three offices, 