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We have a couple of servers we no longer need now that we are fully hosted on a managed host (rackspace). They were purchased for over $10,000 each but we realize that over time their monetary value drops. Anyone have suggestions or experience selling these in a proper way? They are dual xeon processor 2U rack mountable with 4+GB RAM, intel boards, 6x 72GB 15,000 RPM SCSI Drives with raid controller redundant power supply. We are in Southern California area. I can be more specific on any information if there is interest. I know there is ebay and the like but these servers are like the family dog that has to be given up and we are looking for a proper home for a fair price. I will end up auctioning it off if need be in the end though. Thanks in advanced for any help!

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Consider donating them to an educational institution and taking a writeoff. – Dennis Williamson Jul 23 '10 at 17:31
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Just as an additional hint: Make sure that you properly wipe the data of your hard drive, unless you want to have the buyer recover it and post it on the internet. – Michael Stum Jul 23 '10 at 23:16
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They might have cost a lot when you bought them; but around here something like that would go for about $100 each. Brand new servers with 3 year warranties that are more powerful than those only cost ~$1500; putting a warranty on those would cost 2 or 3 times that (if you can still buy extended warranties for that hardware). – Chris S♦ Jul 24 '10 at 4:04
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"these servers are like the family dog"... even Ol' Yeller got put down. Consider developing a realistic depreciation schedule for your hardware, EX: over five years value of the kit drops to zero. – medina Jul 24 '10 at 5:07
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up vote 5 down vote accepted

eBay and Craigslist are your best options unless you want to seek out local resources outside of Craigslist.

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+1 for CL, you can actually try-before-you-buy. Too many sellers on eBay way overcharge on shipping. – jscott Jul 23 '10 at 17:10
so there is really not a place where big companies buy servers from that i was not aware of. i thought maybe there was a place that companies like google or some other large consumer of servers would buy wholesale or something and I could sell to them. Let me see if any more answers come up before I mark your answer as "answered" and thank you for answering! – RandyMorris Jul 23 '10 at 18:51
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@RandyMorris: The big [for varying values of "big"] companies I've worked with/for usually require vendor support contracts on hardware purchases. Not sure how many Grey Market dealers offer such support. – jscott Jul 23 '10 at 20:10
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up vote 4 down vote

Southern CA might be better, but up here in the Great White North, it's hard to find other people to buy (or even to receive as donations) our old servers. Every few years, we have a couple of old servers and a few old PCs, and I've never found a good way to dispose of them other than disposing of them. The times I have been able to sell surplus equipment, I've used Craigslist.

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I usually recycle old stuff using Free Geek Columbus in Columbus, OH and I have some other local sources as well. – Warner Jul 24 '10 at 4:15
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