Refurbished IT Equipment

[SkidMarkKing]

Hi there,

there are many businesses out there who refurbish computers, laptops, phones etc and then sell them on.

Wondering how these companies obtain the equipment? Is it all liquidation, auctions etc or simply buying from the public and reselling on? (not sure this would provide them with enough stock though?)

Thanks

 

[SkidMarkKing]

I used to work for one picking up kit and refurbing it to sell online.

I wanted to expand my business to do this as well as to provide to my local clients.

 

[SkidMarkKing]

Companies generally need to dispose of their kit responsibly i.e. data security and so on. This costs £10 per item to "recycle" (i.e. throw away!) tech. So I think it's quite appealing when a firm will take stuff away to refurbish it.

I diverted quite a lot from waste at my company by collecting it and storing under my desk, then in the quiet December weeks I'd wipe it all and ship it home. Then I would set it up and distribute it to charities, schools, community groups and stuff.

Might be a case of me reaching out to some larger, local business then? (Obviously all items will have NEW hard drives / solid state drives installed before being sold on)

 

[SkidMarkKing]

You can't just really reach out until you have the back bone in place. They need to be able to contact you to dispose of assets as well and you will NEED to keep an asset register. All forms must be signed by both parties and policies and procedures must be in place.

You need a certificate as well to say you can do all of this.

You would be classed as a reseller so you may need the Microsoft approval and support for OEM licences on systems (unless you put back on what was on the system in the first place).

Many thanks guys.

Any idea on the name of the certificate?

I worked in IT for almost 15 years and setup my own company providing IT support 3 years ago. (I have managed to build up some excellent google reviews for my area as well).

I know of a place near me who dispose of hard drives/data and give you a certificate once done.

 

[SkidMarkKing]

You can also get this certificate. It's just to make sure you are wiping the drives clean that you obtain from companies.

Under GDPR as well you going to have to be REALLY careful.

For the cost of new drives now I wouldn't be using the original drives.

Brand new would be installed and the old ones destroyed.

 

[SkidMarkKing]

You won't have a choice. Some companies will have systems with them already in the devices so you will have to wipe them correctly.

Every single drive has to have the care and attention so no data can be retrieved no matter who's hands it goes through.

When you say destroyed - which method?

Do you mean like EMMC storage where it's on the motherboard and not swappable?

 

[SkidMarkKing]

Any device with customer data on it weather it be solid state or mechanical.

Yup, sorry the way I read it when you said I wouldn't have any other option through me.

Part of the appeal in buying refurbished equipment is in the cost reduction through used items - installing new drives will negate that.

Especially in the server market, whereby I can buy 4 or 5 "refurbished and warrantied" drives from a reseller I use, for the same price as 1 new drive from HP or Dell.

A brand new 240GB solid state drive can be had for £20 now

 

[SkidMarkKing]

You will need to up the cost if you add a new drive. Can't take that loss.

Investigate wiping and recovery options, you don't always need to put a new drive in some systems as long as you make 100% sure the data can't be retrieved.

Ok, I am aware you can get dedicated formating software. Just a format through windows isn't good enough as you can use data recovery software to recover files so by new drives I was playing it super safe.

When I currently do work now the client always get the original drive back and I explain to them store it safely or completely smash it up.

Now to compose an email to send out

 

[SkidMarkKing]

For solid state drives including m2
Best thing I have found for secure wiping
Parted magic
It sends the secure sata erase command to the drive
Not just does some over writes
The good news is that's actually a lot faster than doing overwrites
I tried data recovery afterwards couldn't find anything
And it didn't care what manufacturer made the drive
Very useful not needing a specific manufacturers tool for each make of drive

Thanks for the recommendation.

Now to put an email together to reach out.