How to Sell Used IT Equipment for the Most Money: 6 Easy Steps

If you would like a quote on selling used IT equipment in bulk, visit our sell used IT equipment page or go to the bottom of this post.

Knowing the best practices for how to sell IT equipment is an important part of making sure you get the most out of your equipment.

This article is meant for people who will have bulk amounts of equipment. If you only have a few pieces of equipment you can check out one of our previous articles that relates to your specific equipment:

More on the way.

Otherwise, let’s get to how to sell IT equipment

Thoroughly Document Used IT Equipment

Proper documentation is essential to a smooth transaction when it comes time to sell IT equipment. It is also important for making sure that you get the most for your equipment, that you protect the value of your IT assets, and can verify if any mistakes were made in identification.

NOTE: Do not take apart your equipment into various components unless you really know what you’re doing. This will usually lead to less revenue generation as a whole. While components can be more liquid, barebones systems have very little demand.

Here are the 6 steps to success selling used IT equipment.

1. Make Spreadsheet: Used IT Equipment to Sell

General Equipment Guidelines

Spreadsheets are especially helpful for bulk IT equipment, especially when selling servers, and to get multiple quotes you will need to have a good one. We have included a few general categories to include for all of your parts as well as the specific details required for selling each type of IT equipment:

• Contact info
• Age
• Condition
• Packaging (if you have original packaging)
• Model(s)
• Size (when applicable)
• Quantities
• Brand
• Model or Serial
• Type (when applicable)

Specific Parts: Detailed Requirements

Servers:

• System Model #s
• Hard Drive or SSD part numbers and quantities
• CPU part numbers or model numbers
• RAM part numbers
• Purchase Dates
• Service tags for any Dell Servers

Storage:

• Systems
• System Model #
• Disk Array Enclosure Model #
• Setup: Unified or Block?
• Drives
• Physical Disk Inventory Report
• OR List of Hard Drives by Part #

Network:

• System Model #s
• Condition
• Purchase Dates
• Pictures if available

Hard Drives:

• Hard Drive Model Numbers: ST1000DM003, OR
• HD Densities: 1TB
• Connectors: SATA
• Spindle Speeds: 7200 RPM
• Conditions: refurbished

CPUs:

• Processor Model Number(s): Intel i7 7700K, AMD Opteron 4386 SE, Intel Xeon E5 2690 V4, etc
• Quantity
• Conditions: Refurbished, broken cap, missing pad, used, new, etc

Memory:

• OEM Part Number: HP, Dell, IBM, etc.
• Mfg Part Number: Samsung, Hynix, Micron
• Quantity and condition

HBA

• HBA Model Number(s): QLE2672 OR
• Step Code: 832938043305
• Quantity
• Conditions: refurbished, new, etc.

Graphics Cards

• Equipment Condition– New in the box, refurbished, used
• Part Numbers
• Brand– EVGA, Nvidia, AMD, MSI
• Overclocked Y/N?
• Total Quantity

Computers

• System
• Model and OS: (Lenovo Thinkcentre m700, Windows 10)
• RAM Memory Specs & Quantity: (16GB DDR4, 12x)
• Drives
• Hard Drive Capacity: (1.8TB)
• CPUs, Model number & quantity: Intel Core I7 7700 7th gen, 2x

2. Take Pictures of Products & Product Numbers

This helps to show what the condition the used IT equipment is and the product numbers will verify exactly what it is, which is essential to accurate valuation and quotes. Without this a quote could easily be wildly off by incorporating a different part.

There are a lot of different variations of different types of equipment, and a small difference between components can make a huge difference in resale price, as discussed in our 7 common mistakes when selling computer equipment and illustrated here:

Remember to photograph the part numbers and not just a picture of your equipment. It doesn’t need to be instagram worthy, and your phone will do fine. Something like this is great:

3. Contact Different ITAD Vendors to get Quotes on Used IT Equipment

When you have a lot of IT equipment to sell it is important to know your equipment and explore your options. For those with bulk quantity, you are usually going to want to sell your equipment to an ITAD vendor instead of trying to sell it on eBay, Amazon, Reddit, or any of the other potential outlets, for a few reasons.

Make sure to contact multiple ITAD vendors, as each operation tends to have different pricing structures for the same equipment based on what they can do with it after purchasing it. If you don’t contact multiple companies and have a significant amount of equipment you could be leaving money on the table.

Make sure to ask them about shipping. Will they pay for packaging or shipping, or will you? This is an important thing to understand and incorporate into quotes to make sure you are adjusting accordingly.

As we will get into below, shipping is absolutely not a place to skimp to try and save extra money, as it can very easily end up costing you far more than the price of shipping if you don’t pack your IT assets properly.

4. Choose your ITAD Vendor

Consider all your options and make the best choice. We encourage you to consider:

• Price (including shipping considerations)
• Data erasure policies
• R2 recycling certification

A Hard to Measure but Important Factor: Trust

Another important factor to consider is trust, but we didn’t include it above because it is hard to measure and compare in importance. You should trust that whatever ITAD companies you are considering have your best interests in mind, as they should be helping you to get the most value out of your equipment so they can as well.

You and your ITAD company should operate as a team, not adversaries!

5. Ship your Used IT Equipment (Very Carefully!)

Original packaging is always best when available. Shipping is an important part of selling used IT equipment, and shipping costs should always be addressed early in the process, as previously mentioned.

Since a lot of people aren’t always sure how to correctly package their equipment, resulting in damaged equipment, we put together a collection of hardware packing instructional videos to guide you and help to make sure that your equipment arrives in the same condition it left in.

Condition of Your Equipment AFTER ARRIVAL Is Most Important

It does not matter if your used IT equipment ‘was in good working condition’ when you sent it if it arrives not in good working condition. Then we or another ITAD vendor can’t sell it and might have to scrap it or put time, effort and materials into fixing it.

Regardless of what platform you go through or if you sell to an ITAD vendor or not, this will affect everyone’s bottom line and potentially cause a lot of headache. Packaging is important, so make sure to consider this! Most ITAD vendors will provide you packaging for bigger orders, and if they don’t this is something that needs to be considered when comparing quotes.

Do not skimp on the packaging, as it could cost you much more money than the cost of the packaging when your equipment is broken.

6. Collect Your Money!

If you’ve closely followed these steps, you should be at the end of your successful journey of selling used IT equipment. ITAD vendors will have to process your hardware fully to be able to assess the value accurately and give you the money you deserve.

How Long Will It Take to Get Paid After I Sell Used IT Equipment?

Most ITAD vendors know that it is important for people to get their money as soon as possible and put a premium on getting IT equipment through their process so you can get your money.

With exIT it can take anywhere from 2 to 21 days to fully process an order and send payment, depending on the quantities of the equipment involved, but smaller orders should always be processed within the week.

If you’re looking to sell IT equipment you can start by submitting your spreadsheet and pictures to exIT here in the form below!

Have something to add? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!