There are many places where you can buy or sell your used hardware. In this article, we'll discuss the best thrift stores, auction, and advertising websites, and provide tips for selling and buying used hardware.
Part 1: Thrift Stores
01 What is it worth?
A question that you will certainly get in the second-hand store is what you have in mind for price. The trader can estimate what kind of meat he has in the tub and see immediately whether you have any idea about what you are selling. The price that you can keep for a product in a second-hand shop is about two thirds of the sales value on the marketplace. Do not look directly at the asking prices, but at the prices that are offered on a product. Also read: Buying a used PC? You should pay attention to this.
If the bids on a particular graphics card on Marktplaats or Ebay are on average 100 euros, the same card will fetch about 65 euros in the store. You can also look up an indication of the value on the website www.gadgetvalue.com. Traders use various tricks to get more of the price, don't be too quickly fooled. Competition between the stores is fierce, so if one store doesn't give enough for one product, you can also go to the other. Although you get less in return for your old laptop, computer or telephone at the second-hand store, it does save a lot of hassle via an auction or sales website. You walk out of the store with a full wallet without any worries.
02 Buying in the second-hand shop
Buying second-hand items in a store also has many advantages compared to a sale between private individuals. For example, a second-hand store provides a guarantee on all its products. The CeX even gives a two-year warranty on almost all electronics. Many other stores hold a one to three month warranty. As a rule, you are entitled to a sound product. This rule also applies to second-hand products.
Make clear agreements with the seller and do not agree with a month warranty on expensive products. A computer worth a few hundred euros, even if it is second-hand, should work without problems for at least six months. If necessary, have this noted on the invoice. The price is negotiable in many second-hand shops. Especially with products that take up a lot of space, such as large desktops, monitors or complete sound systems. Retail space costs money and the retailer prefers to get rid of large items as quickly as possible. Before you go on a ping pong tour, you can search the internet for what a product costs new and on the marketplace (you can also do that locally on your smartphone). Come up with some good arguments for taking control of the game.
03 CeX
CeX was originally founded in England and the store has expanded rapidly around the world in recent years. There are already fourteen CeX branches in the Netherlands. The CeX buys and sells media such as DVDs, Blu-rays and games. You can also go there for modern electronics, game consoles, computers and computer hardware and all accessories that come with it. They have display cases full of hard drives, memory modules, graphics cards and controllers. The prices at CeX are predetermined.
On the CeX website you can see exactly what a product costs and what it yields. If a product is not on the website, it cannot be taken immediately. The employee must then submit an application to a CeX office in India. In India, the price is determined. Sometimes this is arranged within ten minutes, but it can also take several hours. As a result, the prices at the CeX are non-negotiable. Prices fluctuate day by day. If there is a lot of a product in stock, the price will be adjusted accordingly. For example, you can sometimes find very nice bargains at the CeX, but at the same time you are disturbed by prices that are higher than the new price. The biggest plus of the CeX is the warranty: you get a two-year warranty on almost all electronics. This way you can simply trade in an old smartphone for a laptop with a two-year warranty!
04 Used Products
At Used Products they have a wider range than at CeX. In this shop they buy and sell sustainable, used products. For example, you will not only find computers and electronics, but also bicycles, musical instruments and televisions. When offering second-hand goods, a price is set by the employees. The price is negotiable in many cases, especially if you also want to buy a product. The store provides a standard one-month warranty on second-hand products sold. You can also find Used Products online. The website contains a large part of the assortment of all 56 branches. Used Products is also active on Marktplaats.nl. The price is also often negotiable online. Make sure you are really negotiating with the shop, there are clever criminals who misuse the name to gain your trust. If in doubt, always contact the branch by phone.
real money
At the beginning of September, 73-year-old René Hoose was imprisoned for months on the island of Cyprus because he paid with a counterfeit 20 euro bill. He had received the note from a buyer via Marktplaats. In Emmen, someone also paid via Marktplaats with a counterfeit 50 euro note. When the seller realized it was counterfeit money, he placed another ad and had the scammer show up. This time they informed the police, who immediately arrested the person. The criminal has been jailed for 10 months in absentia, but is still at large and may still be killing victims. Be very careful when taking cash. Even small amounts can be counterfeit. A simple counterfeit detector costs less than 10 euros.
05 Thrift Shops
Another place where you can find nice things is the thrift store. You will mainly find goods here that are not purchased by second-hand shops. Although it often concerns obsolete hardware, this is the place for collectors to score something nice. Old still working computers, expansion cards and of course cables (from USB to power) are often available for a few cents. The non-usable items are separated in the cycle. Electronic devices are stripped, so that plastic, metal and chemical waste all go to another depot and are recycled. If you want to get rid of your computer and can't get rid of it at the second-hand store, this is a great alternative. Don't forget to completely erase the hard drive with a program like KillDisk so that personal data cannot be recovered.
