I used to try the "sold" listings on eBay to look for what the final bid or final offer had turned out to be for either a whole working unit, a whole scrap unit, or just the board I had a "working" copy of.

Unfortunately, I've found that even if an UNTESTED board is supposedly under the "sold" listings for $50 and there are few of them available at a given time, even that board isn't worth the cost of shipping it, when the entire unit is big and heavy enough to be more expensive to ship than just the board - and the entire board, being functional, wouldn't require soldering to drop into the (for example) disc player or VCR. Now, I realize that a Sony player would play the same discs / tapes as an Aiwa, but if I try and pivot to a console, or a Mac instead of a PC (but the older ones that are more repairable - and IMO there were more Mac games to choose from back then, than today) I could look at the prices of essentially anything where there's evidence that the MFG didn't pour 10 pounds of epoxy in a 5 pound box to make it unfixable - that causes the scrap value to skyrocket to the point where you could buy 10 broken units, fix all 10 and still come out in the red, because nobody bought them till you were forced to lower the price to a 50% loss PER UNIT

But then if you try and part them out, the sum of all good parts in the unit doesn't equal the scrap value, but if you try and spin the math the other way by buying the parts separately and "building" a working unit out of said parts, you are still coming out in the red because your price that includes what you paid for all the parts put together is still worth more than a functional unit is worth. And that's when I had tried to see what the sold listings were selling for and waiting till good deals for working parts came along.

 

I am an incurable collector and hoarder. The reality is that, all things considered, it is cheaper to throw it away and buy a new one. The only value in e-waste is in recycling the metal content. The value of e-waste is in the eyes of the beholder and the hoarder.

 

I am an incurable collector and hoarder. The reality is that, all things considered, it is cheaper to throw it away and buy a new one. The only value in e-waste is in recycling the metal content. The value of e-waste is in the eyes of the beholder and the hoarder.

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When a person is looking for parts to fix their (insert item here) what do they do? Then I could try and find that kind of person via that channel, so as not to have an ever-increasing hoard, but still checking if it's something anyone (locally) needs, BEFORE tossing it? Once I have at least dumped anything that has already proven to be slathered in epoxy (or, for that matter, something abundant enough to be E-scrap unless in mint condition) how should I research what's left?

 

When a person is looking for parts to fix their (insert item here) what do they do? Then I could try and find that kind of person via that channel, so as not to have an ever-increasing hoard, but still checking if it's something anyone (locally) needs, BEFORE tossing it? Once I have at least dumped anything that has already proven to be slathered in epoxy (or, for that matter, something abundant enough to be E-scrap unless in mint condition) how should I research what's left?

This is far too vague with far too many variables for us to come up with any guide lines. You will have to identify your own yardsticks to make your decisions by.

 

...eyes of the beholder and the hoarder.

Eyes of the behoarder?

 

I used to try the "sold" listings on eBay to look for what the final bid or final offer had turned out to be for either a whole working unit, a whole scrap unit, or just the board I had a "working" copy of.

Unfortunately, I've found that even if an UNTESTED board is supposedly under the "sold" listings for $50 and there are few of them available at a given time, even that board isn't worth the cost of shipping it, when the entire unit is big and heavy enough to be more expensive to ship than just the board - and the entire board, being functional, wouldn't require soldering to drop into the (for example) disc player or VCR. Now, I realize that a Sony player would play the same discs / tapes as an Aiwa, but if I try and pivot to a console, or a Mac instead of a PC (but the older ones that are more repairable - and IMO there were more Mac games to choose from back then, than today) I could look at the prices of essentially anything where there's evidence that the MFG didn't pour 10 pounds of epoxy in a 5 pound box to make it unfixable - that causes the scrap value to skyrocket to the point where you could buy 10 broken units, fix all 10 and still come out in the red, because nobody bought them till you were forced to lower the price to a 50% loss PER UNIT

But then if you try and part them out, the sum of all good parts in the unit doesn't equal the scrap value, but if you try and spin the math the other way by buying the parts separately and "building" a working unit out of said parts, you are still coming out in the red because your price that includes what you paid for all the parts put together is still worth more than a functional unit is worth. And that's when I had tried to see what the sold listings were selling for and waiting till good deals for working parts came along.

You're not giving very much to go on. What is your goal here -- to operate a business for profit that buys (or otherwise obtains) junk electronics and then tears them down for the saleable parts, possibly by restoring them to working condition? If so, then you are essentially operating a junkyard. When was the last time you took a close look at almost any junkyard? You'll see that it is filled with a huge amount of stuff that will never sell, precisely because the operators don't know what will someday prove to be the hidden gem. That requires an operating mentality that is suited to that reality. Over time and with lots of experience, of course, you will develop a better feel for what might be valuable and what kind of cost you can sink into something before it is unlikely to return a profit if and when it sells.

I had an uncle that ran a used appliance shop and was quite successful at it. As a rule, he seldom paid for anything, instead offering free haul-away service. When he picked something up, he did a quick inspection to determine if it was functional or had functional parts and what it would likely take to make it functional as a unit. Based on that, he decided where to hang onto it or scrap it (possibly stripping out some parts beforehand, but if there were a lot of useable parts, he just retained the entire unit intact). For things he retained, he made notations that he kept for future reference in his office. Beyond that, he just parked it in a big barn-like shed and forgot about it. As customers wanted something, he would review his files and see if he happened to have something that would fit their needs and then negotiate a price. He almost never actually repaired anything until he had a firm buyer for it. He always had a few working units in the front shop for people that wanted something right now, but usually he needed a day or so to fix a unit. He usually got this time by telling the customer that because the unit had been sitting for a while, he needed a couple of days to run a thorough test on it (which, to some degree, was true). If it turned out his estimate of what it would take to repair it was too far off, then he had the out of just telling the customer that it had failed the test (again, technically true) and returning whatever deposit had been made.

You can adopt the same approach -- don't repair or build a bunch of things and then try to sell them. Determine what you can realistically repair/build in a reasonable time frame and offer them up for sale, but don't do the work until you have a sale at hand. Structure it so that you have the necessary time and an out if it turns out your estimates were too far off.

This is not an uncommon business model in a lot of areas, but especially second-hand shops. A rare book dealer only has a limited number of books on hand. Their real bread and butter is knowing how to track down and obtain a particular rare book after they have a customer for it.

 

Essentially, I'd be taking on a "repair" project for my own practice, and trying to build up a portfolio (of sorts) of personal projects where I have pictures of things like the solder joints to show that I understand how to do it.

Unfortunately, I don't have a reliable source of "scrap" anything - like the thrift stores don't have an accessible scrap bin, and the ones that can't be bothered to test things, still sell it at a price that even cleaning up or visually restoring a working unit wouldn't be profitable, much less getting it for parts.

But the other thing would be that, if I have parts of a laptop, a disc / tape player, or a console, and the pictures clearly show that I removed it properly and intact, not with a blow torch, I could post it on the local marketplace for a trade rather than for money, I never get any 'bytes' but neither does an eBay listing that is literally priced to cover only shipping cost. But for a MacBook display where sold listings imply that it's worth $50.