About these solid state hard drives PHOTOS!!!! Now With

[silversaddle1]

I have a destuction order on them. Customer wants them destroyed, that's what we do. I don't like it either, but that's just they way it has to be.

You should try realy hard to convince your client to only destroy the data. Not the physical drive. Finding the right softwares and procedure is a must. Even spending 20 hours to pitch your client in this case is worth it.

Every time you make 1$ out of these drives you are missing between 50$ to 75$ easily...

My2c

So here's the deal. Yes, the drives are worth more whole than scrap. I know that. But let's just say there were a total of 200 of these SSD's in the unit. So even at the top end, that would only be $15,000.00 total. That's very little considering the fact that this company has locations in 13 states and 1000's of scrap computers and servers a year, not to mention all the other stuff we get from the networking side.

 

[artart47]

Hi! My Friends.
It's simple! Your character and your word. How much does it cost to repurchase those if you lost them?
i.e. what would Harold do?
Art.

 

[goldsilverpro]

If you've taken this material and have agreed to destroy it, then DESTROY It, all of it. Your reputation is all important in this business. Don't be greedy.

 

[jason_recliner]

These drives were over written twice before the unit was shut down. Even so, the customer wants the drives destroyed. So be it.

Despite specifications of 3 (and up to a whopping 35) passes with random data, once is actually enough even for magnetic media. There's a theory that there's a measurable magnetic remnant, but it's only theory. Because Nixon tapes. They were wiped once, and no one has been able to access them. If you disagree, I'll give you a million dollars* if you can recover what I have wiped off a HDD with just zeros, once.

Now the problem with modern magnetic drives is that they contain a chunk of spare blocks, say 2048 spares. In a fairly simplified description, if a sector becomes unwritable (because let's face it, they're built to a price), one of the spares is selected and the original one is dumped from the table. But when you later decide to sequentially wipe the drive, the original sector is untouched.

This is an important point so frequently missed: It doesn't matter how many times you wipe a drive. If the original sectors have been remapped, they are never erased. And that means that some person with no inter-human relationship skills whatsoever will be able to recover a segment of it.

Solid State Drives are a different ballgame, with their 'wear levelling' etc., but they also typically have spare blocks so a similar principle applies as for a magnetic medium. There's no 'remnant' in SSD, so once you block erase them they are erased (all 1's). There are also self-encrypting drives, where you only need to destroy the key and everything is instantly useless. But that's only useless "today". For there's no telling what might be recovered by the fuzzy quantum computing technologies of tomorrow.

I find the theory all very interesting but for business the bottom line is just as you say: The customer wants it destroyed. And the customer gets what he pays for or you have no business. I am sure no-one here doubts Scott's ethics.

I had a bag full of mobiles given to me by a mate on the police force, on trust they be destroyed and I don't look to see what's on them. Some were current models and the environmentalist in me was sad to see them smashed. But smashed they were (he never asked, though I did take a photo) for his trust is worth more than a few bucks.

* Fully redeemable up until yesterday.

 

[kurtak]

I am sure no-one here doubts Scott's ethics.

Which is why his story (business) is one of success :!:

* Fully redeemable up until yesterday.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Enjoyed the rest of your post to 8)

Kurt

 

[silversaddle1]

This is a very good customer of ours. They will allow re-sale of equipment at times, but servers, computers, and storage devices, no way. I have sold pallets of new Cisco phones we have picked up from them, not to mention cabling, racks, etc. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and destroy it and wait for the goodies in the next load.

 

[rickbb]

Not to mention the hassles of resale/retail, returns, complaints, etc. Most day's I'd rather just scrap it that even try to re-sell stuff.

Path of least resistance. Since I get all my e-scrap for free, it's all profit to me.

 

[silversaddle1]

Not to mention the hassles of resale/retail, returns, complaints, etc. Most day's I'd rather just scrap it that even try to re-sell stuff.

Path of least resistance. Since I get all my e-scrap for free, it's all profit to me.

There ya go!

 

[anachronism]

Not to mention the hassles of resale/retail, returns, complaints, etc. Most day's I'd rather just scrap it that even try to re-sell stuff.

Path of least resistance. Since I get all my e-scrap for free, it's all profit to me.

There ya go!

Haha and people say I'm dry.

 

[kurtak]

Not to mention the hassles of resale/retail, returns, complaints, etc. Most day's I'd rather just scrap it that even try to re-sell stuff.

Path of least resistance. Since I get all my e-scrap for free, it's all profit to me.

There ya go!

Haha and people say I'm dry.

Per what I highlighted in red - then ether you are not handling enough material to make it worth while - or - you are not maximizing your profits

If you are handling larger amounts of material & not taking advantage of resale you are loosing out big time

Example - about a year ago I bought 218 pounds of gold RAM from a guy as scrap RAM - at the time scrap (gold) RAM was going for $14.50/lb - I paid $12.50/lb - so was looking at a profit of only $436 if I simply turned around & resold it as "scrap" RAM

Instead - when I got it home I went through it & picked out all the RAM that qualified for resale - don't remember exactly but think it was like 6 - 8 pounds - that 6 or 8 pounds of resale RAM paid me right at what I would have got (actually about $100 "over") if I had just turned around & sold it all as scrap RAM - so I actually made a (small) profit on selling 6 - 8 pounds - out of the 218 pound - by sorting out & selling the resalable RAM

That means the remaining 210 pounds of "scrap" RAM was ALL profit --- 210/lb X $14.50 = $3,045 + $100 (profit from resale RAM) = $3,145 profit

So - by sorting out the resale RAM it more or less comes down I got the 218 pounds of RAM for free - even though I actually paid for it --- my profit changed from only $436 if I had just turned around resold it as scrap RAM - to a profit over $3,000 for sorting out the resale RAM

Now - lets say - as you say - you get it all for free to start with - on that 218 pounds the profit would have doubled to "over" $6,000

But that's not the end of the story - because I did not just sell the 210 pounds of scrap RAM as scrap RAM --- instead - I sent it in along with some other "high grade" boards to a smelter for processing which I also made a profit on "over" what I would have made if I sold that load of boards out right as scrap - I just can't tell you how much of "that" profit was due to the RAM because it was mixed with other high grade boards - BUT - the RAM certainly contributed to that profit - meaning my profit on the above Ram was something greater then the above

And I didn't have to deal with any of the problems you talk about (in red) because I didn't do the "actual" reselling - instead I sold it to a company that pays a premium for it as "resalable" RAM & "they" do the reselling

Kurt

 

[silversaddle1]

Not to mention the hassles of resale/retail, returns, complaints, etc. Most day's I'd rather just scrap it that even try to re-sell stuff.

Path of least resistance. Since I get all my e-scrap for free, it's all profit to me.

There ya go!

Haha and people say I'm dry.

Per what I highlighted in red - then ether you are not handling enough material to make it worth while - or - you are not maximizing your profits

If you are handling larger amounts of material & not taking advantage of resale you are loosing out big time

Example - about a year ago I bought 218 pounds of gold RAM from a guy as scrap RAM - at the time scrap (gold) RAM was going for $14.50/lb - I paid $12.50/lb - so was looking at a profit of only $436 if I simply turned around & resold it as "scrap" RAM

Instead - when I got it home I went through it & picked out all the RAM that qualified for resale - don't remember exactly but think it was like 6 - 8 pounds - that 6 or 8 pounds of resale RAM paid me right at what I would have got (actually about $100 "over") if I had just turned around & sold it all as scrap RAM - so I actually made a (small) profit on selling 6 - 8 pounds - out of the 218 pound - by sorting out & selling the resalable RAM

That means the remaining 210 pounds of "scrap" RAM was ALL profit --- 210/lb X $14.50 = $3,045 + $100 (profit from resale RAM) = $3,145 profit

So - by sorting out the resale RAM it more or less comes down I got the 218 pounds of RAM for free - even though I actually paid for it --- my profit changed from only $436 if I had just turned around resold it as scrap RAM - to a profit over $3,000 for sorting out the resale RAM

Now - lets say - as you say - you get it all for free to start with - on that 218 pounds the profit would have doubled to "over" $6,000

But that's not the end of the story - because I did not just sell the 210 pounds of scrap RAM as scrap RAM --- instead - I sent it in along with some other "high grade" boards to a smelter for processing which I also made a profit on "over" what I would have made if I sold that load of boards out right as scrap - I just can't tell you how much of "that" profit was due to the RAM because it was mixed with other high grade boards - BUT - the RAM certainly contributed to that profit - meaning my profit on the above Ram was something greater then the above

And I didn't have to deal with any of the problems you talk about (in red) because I didn't do the "actual" reselling - instead I sold it to a company that pays a premium for it as "resalable" RAM & "they" do the reselling

Kurt

So what is your time worth? 210 pounds of memory will take some time to sort. Now once you sort it, you have to market it, pack it, ship it, all takes time to do. Now I understand how you came up with your profit margin, and it's a respectable number, but when you have truckloads of this stuff to do all the time, where do you find the time? Ya see what I'm saying? I do resale memory on Ebay, quite often in fact. But it's only stuff 4gb and above. Anything under I don't mess with. I do have a buyer that will work on a sort and settle method on memory, but have never done it.

 

[anachronism]

Kurt, Scott you've pretty much nailed it guys.

Kurt you're prepared to buy a batch and front up the money based upon a minimum guaranteed return and then you enhanced that massively using the means available. Scott has to take a commercial decision based upon how best his time is spent in relation to the equipment coming in. It costs money to make proper money, there's no way around it.

 

[rickbb]

I don't do large volumes, certainly not 100's of pounds of ram. And I never buy it, at most I will drive a couple of hours to get a pickup truck load of complete PC's. Most of what I get is more than a few years old. Old enough to have a low resale value and have tons of other people selling something similar, if not exactly the same.

Dealing with sorting, cleaning, answering questions like "will it fit in xyz, has it been tested, do you offer a money back warranty" and so on. It's 5 to 8 years old, (or more), when I get it, almost obsolete, why would I test it and offer a warranty when it's barely still viable.

I have sold to a guy that does the reselling, sold him 20 hard drives at $5 each. They all came from working systems, (I know they were because they were my systems for my day job), he claimed 3 of them didn't when he got them and wanted a refund on them even though the terms of sale were very clear to be as is, no claim of warranty at all. I gave him the $15 and never did business with him again even though he has contacted me wanting more.

Just not worth the trouble to me, I hate dealing with that kind of thing. I sell all my hard drives to a e-scrap buyer by weight and am more than happy with the return I get. Could I get more if I really wanted to, sure. Do I want to, oh heck no.

 

[kurtak]

So what is your time worth? 210 pounds of memory will take some time to sort. Now once you sort it, you have to market it, pack it, ship it, all takes time to do. Now I understand how you came up with your profit margin, and it's a respectable number, but when you have truckloads of this stuff to do all the time, where do you find the time? Ya see what I'm saying? I do resale memory on Ebay, quite often in fact. But it's only stuff 4gb and above. Anything under I don't mess with. I do have a buyer that will work on a sort and settle method on memory, but have never done it.

About 12 - 14 hour to sort that much RAM - trust me - when you do that much RAM you get REAL good at it - for one thing you get to where "a lot" you can recognize just at a glance (don't even need to look at the labels to read the numbers) & just throw it in the scrap bin - those that you need to look at the label for the numbers because it may or may not qualify you figure out real quick where the numbers are so it only takes a couple seconds to see if its good or not - of course there is always "some" (the odd balls) that takes "a bit" more time to look at - but most of it falls in the "once you are familiar with what to look for" it really only takes seconds to determine good or bad

Once its sorted - put it in a flat rate box - send it to Dynamic - wait for the return check - no "marketing" involved & don't need to test it ether

$3,000 for 16 hours work (including the time to box it & take it to the post office) makes my time worth about $180 an hour on that job

But I also see your point when dealing with "truck loads" of material "all the time" - it comes down to where & how to use your time - based on how much you get in - what you get in & how often it comes in

For me - that "sometimes" come down to a question of whether it is worth while (or not) to hire a guy for a day &/or a few days - which I do from time to time (when I am swamped) he is a good friend & is retired & he is GOOD at what I need him to do when I need him to do it

Kurt

 

[snoman701]

Kurt....

I assume you speak of this mysterious EDO ram that I'm yet to find a piece of.

What are the visual differences that key you in quickly?

 

[jason_recliner]

Snoman, one big clue is that DDR and DDR2 (even the newest are more 5 years old now) look almost the same, but DDR3 has its slot quite offset making them identifiable in a split second.

I'm sure Kurt has plenty more tricks. And Kurt, I really enjoyed reading your tale too.

 

[snoman701]

So is it all the DDR3, or once you identify as DDR3, then you look for the letters EDO?

 

[anachronism]

No there's a range of types of RAM dependant upon when and what it was made for. EDO is old stuff used for 486 and below machines. DDR came later.

 

[snoman701]

So how does one learn to sort RAM for resale vs RAM for refining?

 

[g_axelsson]

So how does one learn to sort RAM for resale vs RAM for refining?

You study!

Read and do research on the web to find out which types of ram there is and what you have, do searches on ebay to see what sells and for what money, check with bulk buyers what they are buying.

There is no definite guide to how to sort and sell as the market always is changing as new types appears and the types and sizes people buys are changing.

Göran