If you're the guy who always has to have the next big thing, who can't stand owning gear that's "so last year," move along. This tip's for the folks that want quality gear that's gently used—and at a steep discount. The techies who have champagne tastes on a beer budget.
If you live in the city, you can probably count at least 10 universities nearby, ranging from big state schools to small technical colleges. But you know what they all have in common? They're filled with plenty of gently-used computers and tech accessories.
Every so often, usually when a school is given a technology endowment or a big donation, those labs full of 2- to 5-year-old machines are emptied out to bring in a slew of brand new tech gear. And guess what happens to the old computers? They're sold off at a huge discount.
Some technology sales are only open to employees of the university, while others are free-for-alls you can definitely get in on. The way to find out is to call a local school (you'll usually want to ring up the IT department) and ask if and when they sell off their old gear.
To get a good shot at buying a used Mac for cheap, try finding a school that teaches graphic design or film editing. They'll have labs full of upgraded desktop Macs that are ripe for the picking.
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Sounds like a great idea, never thought of this. Thanks!
I'm all about public sales from universities, my friends and I have scored some great finds for very cheap. But as a graphic design student of one of those universities, I would say those computers are not gently used. They are loaded with very taxing programs, and worked very very hard, usually around the clock as ours was a 24 hour lab. Just a warning that your used Mac from a sale like this might need some TLC.
You could also save about 50% and build your own Hackintosh.
This is a great idea, especially as my wife works for a university! I suppose I'd replace the original hard drive, clean up the case (blow out the dust bunnies) and enjoy it...
Ditto to cherylp. When there were only two places on campus to use Macs with design programs, those places were filled to the brim 24/7. Those machines have been put through their paces.
Any idea on how to go about looking up information on this? Do I go to the college website? I just did a search at a couple of my local colleges and didn't really see anything that resembled public sales. Of course, that's not saying that they even offer them.
crushthemall and others,
Usually colleges and universities have 'surplus' stores or sales--to sell items that no one else at the school wants or needs--these are often conducted through the Physical Plant/Facilities Management/Finance Departments and/or ReUse programs. If you search an school with 'surplus' you should find what you are looking for. The IT department might know when the 'puters are going to be sold, but most often they will not be doing the selling, which ever department that handles surplus will.
Some schools have very organized surplus programs--others not so much. Some have stores with set hours, others have monthly sales, like a school near me. They have designated computer sale days where they'll sell you a monitor, CPU, keyboard and mouse set for one piece of money. None of these have operating systems or other software--you'd have to come up with that.
FWIW university, along with state, surplus is a great place to get all kinds of things from jewelry seized from drug busts to all manner of machinery to lab equipment to vehicles to furniture and on and on. Some places have online and in person auctions/closed bidding, eBay sales, special sales of particular merchandize. They can be great sources and like thrift shops are all over the place with prices--although the place near me is consistently super inexpensive, I've been to other surplus sales where I thought they asked crazy prices for stuff that just sat there. Oh and don't necessarily trust what is on a website--better to call and confirm sale date and time. The school near me is notorious for not having sale because of weather or switching the dates.