When to buy up laptops?
Not all depreciated laptops are created equal for buyout.
It pays off especially if your laptops are less than about six years old and have a processor of the 6th generation or newer.
Older laptops, no matter how good they work, are unfortunately not in demand.
Buying up becomes profitable if you have at least ten laptops and they are not too badly damaged.
A damaged screen reduces the value of almost any laptop by at least 75%.
If laptops have a BIOS password and/or Bitlocker then that does need attention.
The buyer of your laptops will reject them or at least pay a lower price.
You remove the BU+IOS password / Bitlocker yourself but the better buyer will also want to do that for you.
So then you have to share a password and you want to do this only with a trusted buyer.
My advice here : Only share passwords with a buyer who has an ISO27001 certification.
Data Considerations
Before putting your laptops up for sale, it is crucial to think about the data that may still be on the hard drives.
Just handing over your old laptops to a buyer is not an option.
Although you can wipe the hard drives yourself with free tools, it is safer to leave the wiping to the buyer, provided it is a trusted buyer of course.
This is where the importance of certification comes into play, specially when buying up laptops this is quite important.
The Role of Certification
A buyer with a WEEELABEX certification meets strict standards for used computer hardware trading, buyout and data destruction.
By the way, merchants who do in used laptops must have a WEEELABEX, but so most do not have it.
It is essential to deal only with buyers who have this certification.
For data destruction, we also recommend looking for buyers with ISO27001 certification, which is the international standard for information security.
You can just see who has weeelabex at www.weeelabex.org We also come across the CA+ certification on the Internet, but that is about paper archives.
So a CA+ doesn’t mean anything unless you have a lot of files.
Quality Above Price
While it may be tempting to sell your laptops to the highest bidder, it’s important not to overlook the quality, service and professionalism of the collector.
A professional firm that meets ISO and legal requirements may not be able to compete with the “attic dealer,” but offers a safer transaction and ensures proper data destruction.
In addition, I often hear from clients that “attic merchants” create a lot of hassle and extra work for the vendor.
Services provided by IT Recycling
At IT Recycling, we go one step further. Not only do we offer a price per laptop and per model, but we also have a unique system for pick-up and after-sales service. Without having prior information on numbers or models, we collect everything, test and evaluate each laptop afterwards based on the current international market situation. So that’s really super convenient, you don’t have to wonder if your batch of laptops is saleable or not, you just have everything picked up. All the data is then neatly destroyed, and within a few days you’ll have an overview and then you’ll see which laptop yields how much.
Conclusion
Sell only laptops that are still reasonably up-to-date. Check the buyer’s certifications, paying special attention to WEEELABEX and ISO27001. Make sure the data carriers are destroyed properly and certified. Never choose tinkers and amateurs. At IT Recycling, we strive to not only provide a perfect and hassle-free deal, but also maintain the highest standards in data destruction and recycling.
Steef Stadelmaier – director IT Recycling – broker in used computers since 1994