2 May
2013
2 May
'13
12:59 p.m.
They just had an e-waste recycling event in town; different company to the
one that did such an event once before. Last time I was allowed to check
for vintage systems, but there wasn't anything useful there - just
few-years-old PCs.
This time around there was an entire dumpster full of vintage Apple
hardware, but I wasn't allowed anywhere near it - it all goes back to
Wisconsin for "processing". Apparently they do occasionally ebay some
vintage items, but the way this lot had just been tossed into the dumpster
makes me think that it's all off to the crusher. (and of course there was
the Disk II drive that I need, sitting right on the top of the pile!)
Of course it's their right to do what they want with it - it's just
frustrating not being able to save any of it.
Jules
2 May
2 May
1:53 p.m.
On Thu, 2 May 2013, Jules Richardson wrote:
They just had an e-waste recycling event in town;
different company to the
one that did such an event once before. Last time I was allowed to check for
vintage systems, but there wasn't anything useful there - just few-years-old
PCs.
This time around there was an entire dumpster full of vintage Apple hardware,
but I wasn't allowed anywhere near it - it all goes back to Wisconsin for
"processing". Apparently they do occasionally ebay some vintage items, but
the way this lot had just been tossed into the dumpster makes me think that
it's all off to the crusher. (and of course there was the Disk II drive that
I need, sitting right on the top of the pile!)
When such an event comes around in this area, I'll sometimes place an
ad in the local Craiglist and Freecycle, asking people to consider
donating their vintage equipment, rather than recycling it. I've acquired
a few pieces of equipment from those.
Mike Loewen mloewen at cpumagic.scol.pa.us
Old Technology http://sturgeon.css.psu.edu/~mloewen/Oldtech/
2:22 p.m.
When such an event comes around in this area,
I'll sometimes place an
ad in the local Craiglist and Freecycle, asking people to consider
donating their vintage equipment, rather than recycling it. I've acquired
a few pieces of equipment from those.
Can't you put a small table (or the back of your car opened) in this recycling
event saying "I pay $1 for old computers!"??? :D
3:01 p.m.
On 5/2/2013 2:22 PM, Alexandre Souza wrote:
I've seen very hostile reaction to such from the
"ecyclers" the ones
out here are mostly thieves and don't want the competition. And then
they do that.
I saw two very nice macs when I just drove thru the recycling place too,
but they can't touch it. There needs to be a way to fix that, it is
ridiculous the way things go now.
I wonder what some do that do score a lot of stuff, craigslist, or
advertising? Not sure. but it is a shame to have it go to the crapper
like that.
Jim
When such
an event comes around in this area, I'll sometimes place an
ad in the local Craiglist and Freecycle, asking people to consider
donating their vintage equipment, rather than recycling it. I've acquired
a few pieces of equipment from those.
Can't you put a small table (or the
back of your car opened) in this recycling event saying "I pay $1 for old
computers!"??? :D 
3:21 p.m.
On 5/2/2013 3:01 PM, Jim Stephens wrote:
On 5/2/2013 2:22 PM, Alexandre Souza wrote:
I've
seen very hostile reaction to such from the "ecyclers" the ones
out here are mostly thieves and don't want the competition. And then
they do that.
I saw two very nice macs when I just drove thru the recycling place
too, but they can't touch it. There needs to be a way to fix that, it
is ridiculous the way things go now.
I wonder what some do that do score a lot of stuff, craigslist, or
advertising? Not sure. but it is a shame to have it go to the
crapper like that.
Jim
I've worked with some of these types but, it never lasts long. The main
problem is they don't know anything about computers at all. Many come
When
such an event comes around in this area, I'll sometimes
place an
ad in the local Craiglist and Freecycle, asking people to consider
donating their vintage equipment, rather than recycling it. I've
acquired
a few pieces of equipment from those.
Can't you put a small table (or the
back of your car opened) in
this recycling event saying "I pay $1 for old computers!"??? :D from more of a waste management background and are
fairly shady. The
connection to gold recovery doesn't help things. As soon as
you express
an interest in anything they immediately suspect you are trying to rip
them off. The more interest you show the more it must be worth. They are
super paranoid. Many only seem to hire family members for the office and
distrust everyone else that works for them.
Some good non-profit ones out there but, they are usually restricted
from selling things due to their non-profit status.
Some do though. Some
of those even sort out the vintage stuff.
3:57 p.m.
I wonder what some do that do score a lot of stuff,
craigslist, or
advertising? Not sure. but it is a shame to have it go to the crapper
like that.
Here in Brazil I make sure that all my friends, neighborhoods (did I spelled it
right?), girlfriend(s) and enemies (who knows?!) are aware that I love old computers. And
of course, I visit regulary places that buys old electronics stuff. Last week I scored a
Mac Color Classic for mere $25. I'm in love with that, although it is so hard to
transfer software to it (I'm looking for a JAZ or ZIP drive for that)
Do the same where you live! Say "I recycle old computers" and have a happy
garage full of trash! :oD
4:12 p.m.
At 7:57 PM -0300 5/2/13, Alexandre Souza wrote:
Hehe... I like the "enemies" comment. Until I moved my office, it
was quite common for some piece of vintage gear, book, or software to
show up on the chair in my office.
Zane
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh at aracnet.com | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Photographer |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| My flickr Photostream |
| http://www.flickr.com/photos/33848088 at N03/ |
| My Photography Website |
| http://www.zanesphotography.com |
I wonder what
some do that do score a lot of stuff, craigslist, or
advertising? Not sure. but it is a shame to have it go to the crapper
like that.
Here in Brazil I make sure that all my friends, neighborhoods
(did I spelled it right?), girlfriend(s) and enemies (who knows?!)
are aware that I love old computers. And of course, I visit regulary
places that buys old electronics stuff. Last week I scored a Mac
Color Classic for mere $25. I'm in love with that, although it is so
hard to transfer software to it (I'm looking for a JAZ or ZIP drive
for that)
Do the same where you live! Say "I recycle old computers" and
have a happy garage full of trash! :oD
4:56 p.m.
On 05/02/2013 04:22 PM, Alexandre Souza wrote:
Maybe! The kicker is that I swung by there at lunchtime about ten minutes
after the thing had started. So all this Apple stuff turned up sometime in
those ten minutes, and had I been there then I could have probably taken it
When such an
event comes around in this area, I'll sometimes place an
ad in the local Craiglist and Freecycle, asking people to consider
donating their vintage equipment, rather than recycling it. I've
acquired a few pieces of equipment from those.
Can't you put a small table (or the back of your car opened) in this
recycling event saying "I pay $1 for old computers!"??? :D from whoever dropped it off. :-(
The guy I spoke to there (from the recyclers) was friendly enough, just
worried for his job if he let anything go from the pile.
I've sent the company an email just in case there's any way of stopping
this from happening next time (if there is one!) - it seems like a bit of a
waste of time on both sides if they have to ship this stuff ~300 miles to
their facility only for me to want it and have to have it shipped ~300
miles the other way. Of course I expect it's a long shot that we can come
to any kind of useful arrangement, but it doesn't hurt to try.
J.
5:09 p.m.
On 05/02/2013 03:53 PM, Mike Loewen wrote:
On Thu, 2 May 2013, Jules Richardson wrote:
Yeah, I was a little late in getting word out to some of the local facebook
groups, which is where folk seem to be moving lots of items (of any kind)
these days (even though it's an incredibly bad UI for that kind of thing; I
think people just find it convenient as they're sat on facebook a lot
anyway and don't have to put effort into visiting a different website).
Freecycle around here is pretty much dead (maybe two or three posts a
month). Craigslist might be a good bet, though.
What I really need is a way of getting the word out that I'm interested in
this kind of stuff at any time, not when I just happen to mention it on
<wherever>. Back when I lived in the UK, a lot of people knew that I was
into this kind of stuff and would send other people in my direction when
they happened to mention that they had something (a bit like Zane's comment
about vintage things just randomly showing up!) - but it took a long time
to get to that point, and it's harder here because it's the middle of
nowhere and never was a high-tech area. Maybe I just need to paint a sign
on the side of the van or something :-)
cheers
Jules
They just had an e-waste recycling event in town;
different company to
the one that did such an event once before. Last time I was allowed to
check for vintage systems, but there wasn't anything useful there - just
few-years-old PCs.
This time around there was an entire dumpster full of vintage Apple
hardware, but I wasn't allowed anywhere near it - it all goes back to
Wisconsin for "processing". Apparently they do occasionally ebay some
vintage items, but the way this lot had just been tossed into the
dumpster makes me think that it's all off to the crusher. (and of course
there was the Disk II drive that I need, sitting right on the top of the
pile!)
When such an event comes around in this area, I'll sometimes place an
ad in the local Craiglist and Freecycle, asking people to consider donating
their vintage equipment, rather than recycling it. I've acquired a few
pieces of equipment from those. 
6:31 p.m.
At 02:59 PM 5/2/2013, you wrote:
This time around there was an entire dumpster full of
vintage Apple hardware, but I wasn't allowed anywhere near it - it all goes back to
Wisconsin for "processing".
Any idea where it goes? Cascade Asset Management in Madison?
That place in Eau Claire mentioned a few weeks ago?
I know it's sad, but I don't know how it could be any other way.
If you want lots of people to give you stuff, you need to have a business
model to accept it all. If so, you need to have a way to dispose
of most of it. You can't afford to have a model that promises the
givers that their hard drives will be erased at the same time you
want to charge a decent price for an original software-filled drive
to the classic computer collector. You don't want to deal with the
people who will return to you angry because they can't install
Windows 7 on that Mac Plus. On top of it all, the only way to make
it all profitable is to scrap most of it for copper, iron, lead,
and gold.
- John
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alexandre.tabajara＠gmail.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
jws＠jwsss.com -
mc68010＠gmail.com -
mloewen＠cpumagic.scol.pa.us