Evil Ex-Roommate had a huge stock of obsolete computer hardware, software, and documentation. I’m not certain what most of it is, let alone what I should do with it now. Is there a market in ‘antique’ computer materals. How can I determine if any of it is saleable, and then where should I take it?
E-Bay is your friend. Do a search, plug in the software names and see what the stuff is going for (if anything, depending upon degree of obsolescence). As far as what the software actually does, try searchng the manufacturer out on the internet and see if there’s anything there.
We’re assuming you do have some legal right to sieze your roommate’s property and sell it.
Otherwise the advice given here would violate list rules about “telling how to commit an illegal action”.
Assuming you do have clear title to the stuff, and right to do whatever you wish with it -
Computers that will run (generally speaking) at least Windows 2000 are generally usable by charities. Trust me, they don’t want old Pentium Pros that can barely boot Windows 98. If a box will run XP, so much the better.
Random components (boards, drives, brackets, thingies and such are probably junk. Check in your area for computer recyclers - if you have a large enough heap, they may pick it up from your home for free. Otherwise, you may have to haul it to them to prevent being charged. Check out - they’re at the top of [url=http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22computer+recycling%22+montreal]this Google search.
If you can’t find anyone to take the stuff, there’s always the weekly trash. Put it out in boxes small enough for the trash service to pick up, and the stuff just might be gone before the trash is picked up. More and more, CRTs are not permitted in trash, so if there are any monitors, you’ll need to deal with them specially.
I don’t know if they’re in Montreal or not, but around here, St Vincent de Paul accepts most computer junk - they have arrangements with recyclers who take what they can’t use.
I of course assumed that the property was now Matt’s kind of by default. I mean, if he wanted his property, he wold’ve taken it with him, right?
Much like my Evil Ex-Roomie back in 93 taking off and leaving a good bit of stuff behind. Since he stiffed me two months rent, and ran up the long distance bill to unGodly heights, I don’t think I did anything wrong by disposing of his unclaimed and obviously unwanted property to recoup some of my (his!) financial losses.
That, of course, is why he’s the Evil Ex-Roomie. They realy do grow on trees, ya know.
Wow, I sure screwed that up…
Check out Recyclecomps - they’re at the top of this Google search.
Like others have said, I’d check out e-bay.
Of course, if you don’t know what it is, it’d be hard to look it up on e-bay. Heck, I’d be happy to pop up to Montreal and try to ID some of it if you want.
Considering he abandoned it while running away to British Columbia after stealing a bunch of money from Hamish in 2002, my guess would be “yes.”
Eonwe: Thanks! I may take you up on that.
eBay is a good start. As I recently said in another thread, I got rid of a couple old optical drives that way. They were both about 3 years old. Anyway, I only got about $30 total for both of them, but that was about a fifth of what I had paid for the new drives.
uh… older than that. ^_^;;