1. Tail of two pickers and how Mike got a new Rolex
Back in 1998 when eBay was still young and so were we. Mike and Steve (technology pickers for Asset
Conversion Services) were checking out EBay just to see if there were any opportunities to find CPU’s,
memory modules, servers, disk drives and random IT networking equipment. Steve found a recent Sun
server motherboard being sold for $1,500. So taking a leap of faith Steve bought the board and found
not one CPU but four CPU’s worth twelve thousand dollars at the time. We promptly sold the mother
board to Cisco for their server farm which they used as a spare should one of their Sun servers shut
down.
Cisco told us they did not need the memory and we gladly took the memory off the motherboard and
sold that for another $12,000. I am not bragging (yes I am) but $22,500 profit off an unknown eBay pick
is not bad. Mike bought his Rolex and I probably paid my taxes or some such reasonable adult thing. I
wish I had bought a Rolex as well as I have nothing to show for my long ago windfall.
By now all of the items have been recycled, I hope responsibly. Hate to think our past glories reside in a
landfill, but if someone is still using the equipment and need parts for an older Sun Microsystems server,
I bet we can still find them. After all we are the best high tech pickers in the game and can outfit a
startup with either new or used certified IT equipment (Had to get that plug in for Asset Conversion
Services).
We got lucky for awhile on eBay buying Sun Servers until companies starting making bids for more than
they were worth; I believe today that same scenario still occurs on eBay and quite frequently. It seems
all good things come to an end, but new places for exploration continue to keep us busy and though
everything we find does not always have a great deal of value we still enjoy the thrill of the chase and
know that somewhere around the next corner we are going to find some really nice used 2950’s or Sun
Microsystems memory modules. Believe it or not they still have value to some folks, especially us.
You know where to find us at http://www.assetcs.com and if you have any used IT gear at your place of
work, give us call and ask where you want the checks deposited. Don’t let that used IT gear gather dust
as every month it goes down in value by 6 to 7% and we do not want to see your money and ours
disintegrate.
Next follow the adventures of Mike and Steve as they do booth duty at DAC in New Orleans and look for
used IT gear in the French Quarters.