IT Auction Sites?

deeperMotive asks: "A friend and I are knee-deep in starting a business and are in need of some semi-industrial strength scanners, along the lines of the Canon 5020. As with so many other things in life, Money is, of course, a BIG issue which leads to: Are there any good IT auction or resale sites we should check out for this type of hardware? I've visited a couple, but nothing that didn't seem to have much more than what I could find with eBay and some patience. Any suggestions?"

conventional auctioneers

[txturtle]

like rasmus.com. Not fond of them myself, but they auction off a lot of Washington DC area and east coast dot coms that have gone under.

I've gotten some great deals there, and seen lots of things go for too much. Know what you want, and what it's worth.

Re:conventional auctioneers

[56ker]

I suggest you decide upon what you want then check out the online retailers to see which offers it cheapest. If you do need a lot of them you could qualify for a discount if you're buying in bulk. Remember to take into account tax and postage as a lot of sites advertise their prices without these - then add them at the end. Just out of curiousity what's your business going to be doing?

Try www.bid4assets.com

[Ramen Noodles]

Had spme good luck with http://www.bid4assets.com

Not limited to IT, but try James G. Murphy

[SnakeStu]

Conventional auctioneer James G. Murphy Co. [murphyauction.com] auctions off a lot of stuff, and I believe they have locations around the US. I've seen a lot of ex-dot-com stuff for auction through them, but what they have to offer varies depending on availability of lots.

Then again, if you don't find the hardware you're looking for, they usually have backhoes for doing your own trenching... :)

What's wrong with EBay?

[fallacy]

If it's good enough for NASA [slashdot.org], then it should be good enough for the rest of us ;-)

They want to sell pr0n ;)

[Adrian Voinea]

deeperMotive asks: "A friend and I are knee-deep in starting a business and are in need of some semi-industrial strength scanners, along the lines of the Canon 5020.[...]"

Don't tell me... going into the high-resolution pr0n business! That's just what the 'net was missing! ;)

Now seriously, I think eBay is the best place to buy the scanners. The only other place I know of is James G. Murphy Co. [murphyauction.com]

Dovebid.com

[bleeeeck]

I've seen some pretty cool stuff on Dovebid.com [dovebid.com]. They have real life auctions AND you can bid on stuff on line while the auction is going on. I thought it was pretty neat...

MIT Flea market!!

[j-turkey]

This isn't an auction site -- but you may find what you're looking for (in limited quantities) at the MIT Flea Market in Cambridge, MA.

They're on the third Sunday of each month, April through October...there's a little bit of info here [harvard.edu] (it's the best site I could find on short notice -- but still sucky).

I haven't been in over a year, but there is usually some useful stuff there...and even some not-so-useful stuff that's juts damn cool (like IPC's, Sparc 5's, old SGI's, and Alphas).


-Turkey

Re:MIT Flea market!!

[Enry]

MIT Flea - Yesterday's Technology Today

I'll be there this weekend selling some old crap I don't want anymore.

Heh.

[colenski]

...+3 interesting to see the paucity of comments on this one. No one wants to give up their good auction URL's - I know a great one but I'm shutting up; a small auction site that is /.'ed will undoubtedly drive the prices up. Sigs suck.

uBid

[gentlewizard]

I bought some older PIII/550's from uBid [ubid.com] and got a great price. Competition is pretty intense, but if you follow the auctions for your desired machine type, especially in the evening and on weekends, you can usually find a particular auction with few bidders. Selection is not always the best, but if they have what you want it's a good deal. Good luck!

rent it

[KurdtX]

I work for a company that makes software for companies that do a lot of scanning (industrial-strength OCR), and as we like to be able to test scanners to see if they have any issues with our software. We get new ones on a monthly cycle; it would seem that we rent them, but it also might just be some deal we have worked out. Even places like Kinko's might be able to set you up with a few-month rental - assuming you'll only need it for that period. And renting will save you some cash until you can afford a "real" one.