I keep hearing stories like this but all I see in thrift stores are like busted DVD players and other grimey old stuff that was second-rate even when released. In that awkward valley where it’s not vintage, and newer stuff is objectively better.
I think people caught on and the good finds are pushed to their auction sites and stuff now. =\
I’m happy with my X230 I got for $200 off eBay though, like 5 years back.¯_(ツ)_/¯
Goodwill is particularly bad about this. You can almost never find cool stuff in the stores anymore. It’s all siphoned off for ShopGoodwill.
It was definitely one of my luckiest finds, but I think another part of it was that it was a pay by weight bin outlet. A St. Vincent De Paul in my case. Stuff isn’t individually priced and you weigh your items on a scale when you check out and pay by the pound. It’s usually very cheap because mine has a maximum of $5.00 per item so even heavy things like typewriters have been cheap.
I’m surprised and impressed it made it to the bin outlet!
I keep trying to keep an ear out for these fabled “IT cycles” where companies will just dump Dells and Thinkpads once in a while, but have never been privvy to one myself.
Maybe indystry caught on and switched procedure, realizing they weren’t creating enough e-waste /s lol.
(To be fair, the last place I worked donated their laptops for tax breaks, which is good I guess. But wouldn’t let me even buy one off them, so I’m salty lol.)
My daily driver laptop is the T410 I found at a thrift store for $5.
I keep hearing stories like this but all I see in thrift stores are like busted DVD players and other grimey old stuff that was second-rate even when released. In that awkward valley where it’s not vintage, and newer stuff is objectively better.
I think people caught on and the good finds are pushed to their auction sites and stuff now. =\
I’m happy with my X230 I got for $200 off eBay though, like 5 years back.¯_(ツ)_/¯
Goodwill is particularly bad about this. You can almost never find cool stuff in the stores anymore. It’s all siphoned off for ShopGoodwill.
It was definitely one of my luckiest finds, but I think another part of it was that it was a pay by weight bin outlet. A St. Vincent De Paul in my case. Stuff isn’t individually priced and you weigh your items on a scale when you check out and pay by the pound. It’s usually very cheap because mine has a maximum of $5.00 per item so even heavy things like typewriters have been cheap.
I much prefer bin outlets because of this.
I’m surprised and impressed it made it to the bin outlet!
I keep trying to keep an ear out for these fabled “IT cycles” where companies will just dump Dells and Thinkpads once in a while, but have never been privvy to one myself.
Maybe indystry caught on and switched procedure, realizing they weren’t creating enough e-waste /s lol.
(To be fair, the last place I worked donated their laptops for tax breaks, which is good I guess. But wouldn’t let me even buy one off them, so I’m salty lol.)