# Omnibus Stupid MFers in the news thread (Part 2) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 5, 2024, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657 "2024-01-05T16:15:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 210
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4181 "2025-03-23T01:01:24Z")
I’m sure even a guy named Cletus could find such a thing were he looking for it. Maybe even in the dark. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4182 "2025-03-24T20:08:26Z")
Trade them in to who, Microsoft? Fucking Aquaman?! > **[Microsoft tells Windows 10 users to just trade in their PC for a newer one,...](https://www.xda-developers.com/microsoft-tells-windows-10-users-trade-in-pc/)** > > I'll give you five bucks for it. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2025, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4183 "2025-03-24T21:16:01Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Trade them in to who, Microsoft? If it was really that important to them, they’d have a trade-in program like the cell companies do. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4184 "2025-03-25T03:31:47Z")
Hell, I can donate my PC to a school or something, but no-one’s going to buy it, and I’d probably have to pay to have it recycled. Fortunately, this perfectly good machine is recent enough that it is supposed to be able to run Windows 11. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4185 "2025-03-25T15:16:25Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Hell, I can donate my PC to a school or something, but no-one’s going to buy it, and I’d probably have to pay to have it recycled. I remember over 20 years ago trying to donate monitors from the business I worked for, and nobody wanted them. I called around to multiple schools and charities. I ended up chucking them into a landfill. (That was before the landfills had rules against that.) ---
**Author:** ![dirtball](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dirtball/32/18772_2.png) [@dirtball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dirtball)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4186 "2025-03-25T15:49:22Z")
Doesn’t Staples take old electronics that people want to recycle? That is, assuming you have a Staples within reasonable distance? ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4187 "2025-03-25T17:35:34Z")
> [@dirtball](#): > > Doesn’t Staples take old electronics that people want to recycle? Don’t know about Staples, but Best Buy has taken my last 3-4 old computers and tablets. Haven’t tried a monitor, however. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4188 "2025-03-25T17:40:55Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > I remember over 20 years ago trying to donate monitors from the business I worked for, and nobody wanted them. Were they old CRT monitors? They typically have a lot of lead in 'em, and very few places are qualified to handle them for scrap. Modern flatscreen LCDs are a lot easier to recycle. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4189 "2025-03-25T18:03:44Z")
Does anybody pay you anything for turning them in, though? The usual meaning of “trade in” is that you get significant credit on the next purchase in return for the value of what you’re trading in. If the value of what you’re bringing in is zero (let alone if it’s a negative and you had to pay them to take it), then IMO it’s not a trade in. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4190 "2025-03-25T18:09:39Z")
Our county recycling center has an entire section just for electronics. They will take anything. Public hours are only twice a week, so they have a constant stream of cars bringing in everything, including pills, oils, batteries, plastics, and a half dozen others as well. Check your county. They may have similar good services. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4191 "2025-03-25T18:20:26Z")
> [@SunUp](#): > > Were they old CRT monitors? They were, yes. This was 2002 if I remember properly so CRTs were still a pretty standard monitor to use, but nobody wanted them. > [@SunUp](#): > > They typically have a lot of lead in 'em, and very few places are qualified to handle them for scrap. And I believe mercury, and some other nasty stuff, which is why not long after the landfills would never take them (I suspect a local environmental law kicked in). But at the time they didn’t care. Later I found a local store in the area (I worked in Seattle at the time) called “RE-PC” which would let you drop off old electronics and they’d dispose of it for you (and I looked them up, they still exist). And then years later a huge service statewide that would take electronics at drop-off places which is still around today. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Does anybody pay you anything for turning them in, though? Apparently RE-PC does… > **[Buy & Sell Computer Systems, Components, Printers](https://www.repc.com/buysell.html)** > > RE-PC buys and sells a variety of computers, components and peripherals at current market prices. The computer store I worked at (my first IT job) also took in old computers. We used a pricing guide sort of like this one: > **[Computer Blue Book: The official new and used computer price guide (Summer 1989)...](https://www.amazon.com/Computer-Blue-Book-official-computer/dp/0933325088)** > > Computer Blue Book: The official new and used computer price guide (Summer 1989) NACD \[Edward E. Burton\] on Amazon.com. \*FREE\* shipping on qualifying offers. Computer Blue Book: The official new and used computer price guide (Summer 1989) NACD Though the guide we used had the resale value, not the price we’d actually pay people to take in their old junk. So many times a hopeful person would bring in their computer trying to make money and I’d have to show them the book literally saying it was worth $1, and point out that would be what _we_ sold it for, and so we’d have to give them less than that amount to make a profit (if it was even worth the effort, which it obviously wasn’t). It was very useful to have an actual guide to show people so they’d know we weren’t just trying to insult them and we weren’t making it up when we told them how little their equipment was worth. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4192 "2025-03-25T18:49:20Z")
> [@SunUp](#): > > Modern flatscreen LCDs are a lot easier to recycle. And much easier to carry. I worked for 30 years in IT, and in the days of CRTs I almost broke my back schlepping all those monitors around, stairs up and down, especially in their final days when the real big ones became available. LCD monitors saved my back, and now that I’m retired I never have back pain. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4193 "2025-03-25T18:57:43Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I worked for 30 years in IT, and in the days of CRTs I almost broke my back schlepping all those monitors around, stairs up and down, especially in their final days when the real big ones became available. About 20 years ago, my (now ex) BIL needed to borrow a monitor for something. I had a very nice, very large, very heavy CRT that I lent him since I had just picked up a new, and my first, flat panel monitor. A few months later I was nagging him for it back since he has a tendency to forget that kind of stuff. When he brought back to me, I moved it back to my basement where my computer stuff was and I knew I screwed up. I didn’t have any use for it, and should’ve just let him keep it so it would’ve been his problem. 20 years later and it hasn’t moved from that spot. It’s kinda in the way too. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4194 "2025-03-25T19:08:11Z")
Goodwil,. maybe. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4195 "2025-03-25T19:17:55Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I worked for 30 years in IT, and in the days of CRTs I almost broke my back schlepping all those monitors around, stairs up and down, especially in their final days when the real big ones became available. Same here. A larger CRT is something that it might take two grown men of moderate strength to lift safely. More than once I injured myself with them. Fortunately, I was in my 20s at the time so recovering wasn’t difficult. I wouldn’t even think about it now. But I will say, swinging a CRT by the integrated VGA video cable to hurl it like a hammer throw into a landfill was therapeutic. (You could only get away with it on the smaller ones of course.) > [@Joey\_P](#): > > 20 years later and it hasn’t moved from that spot. It’s kinda in the way too. I probably shared this story before, but I once had a Packard Bell CRT monitor that died on me. At the time I was scraping by at the poverty level (the only reason I could afford a PC was because I built it with spare parts from the store I worked at) and I didn’t ever want to waste anything. I cut off the video cable, found a pad of foam rubber, and screwed that pad into the top of the monitor by hand with a screwdriver and some wood screws. (It was easy because there was a plastic grill on top to vent out heat and the screws went right into it.) The end result was a butt-ugly thing that made a great footstool. It could tilt and swivel and was just the right height. I put it in front of an old chair and it made for a comfortable place to read books. Garbage chic. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4196 "2025-03-25T19:29:56Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > A larger CRT is something that it might take two grown men of moderate strength to lift safely. My limit for carrying on my own was a 17", with the screen side against my belly because that was the heavier end. Any monitor larger than that needed four hands. ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4197 "2025-03-25T19:38:18Z")
Just a reminder, a kindergarten mod, as it were… We are not talking about sensible people doing good recycling things. This thread is about disasters. Idiocy. People not using their brain too hard, lest it combust. These people: > **[Royal Air Force engineers shamed by judge over theft of Paddington Bear statue](https://apnews.com/article/paddington-bear-statute-theft-vandalized-e140b66461ee439fc75ec2f14978d2bc)** > > Two British service members have admitted they broke and stole half of a statue of Paddington Bear. Prosecutors said Tuesday that Daniel Heath and William Lawrence were on a drunken night out in the town of Newbury when they tried to lift the statue... ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4198 "2025-03-25T19:38:59Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Apparently RE-PC does… > > [Buy & Sell Computer Systems, Components, Printers](https://www.repc.com/buysell.html) But what is the current market price for old computers? That reads to me as that they’ll pay you if you bring something in that’s readily marketable; but it doesn’t read to me that they’ll pay you for anything and everything that they take. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4199 "2025-03-25T19:44:34Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > > [@Atamasama](#): > > > > A larger CRT is something that it might take two grown men of moderate strength to lift safely. > > My limit for carrying on my own was a 17", with the screen side against my belly because that was the heavier end. Any monitor larger than that needed four hands. In the late 1990s, I drove a 1994 Honda Accord sedan and once bought a 17" CRT monitor for the office but could not get it in the box in the trunk. I think it fit on the front passenger seat though I can’t remember if I had to unbox it to do so. Flatscreen monitors are _so_ much easier to move. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2025, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657/4200 "2025-03-25T19:59:48Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > But what is the current market price for old computers? I’ll give you just one example that is pretty typical. A Dell Latitude 7420 All-In-One laptop was released 4 years ago. Brand new, the price was about $3,000. Today I can get one on eBay for around $300. It lost 90% of its value in 4 years. And that is the resale price; if you were to try to dump it on a store that would resell it, you’d probably be lucky to get half of that money from them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657.md?page=209) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/omnibus-stupid-mfers-in-the-news-thread-part-2/995657.md?page=211)