Dumpster Diving and Basement Cleaning

What's the difference?

[Brett_Tabke]

Well, I have just about completed the sadest computer related task of my career.

I'm headed to the local land fill with an entire pickup box full of Commodore Computers and related stuff. Two decade worth of work. Sorta bummed, but it needed to be done.

On the plus side, I get my basement back.

Thanks Commodore. (rip: 1968-1992)

[Mardi_Gras]

That's the downside to having a basement - stuff you might have thrown away 10 years ago just gets put downstairs. Sooner or later, there is a price to pay...

It is a sad day to get rid of all that old equipment, I am sure.

[jdMorgan]

Brett,

My condolences...

My old IMSAI 8080 CP/M machine is looking anxiously over my shoulder at your post. :)

Jim

[TREEMan]

Silly question, have you thought about throwing all that stuff on Ebay?

You'd be surprised what people will buy, if only for nostalgia :)

[Mike12345]

Sacrilege!

[TREEMan]

I actually think my Apple IIC had a stroke after I read the top post in this thread.

[john316]

What's the difference?

Dumpster diving is what happens after you unload the truck.

[EliteWeb]

Donate em to the school district :D or a library they can always use good equipment like that!

[TREEMan]

Or send them to the Smithsonian, they've been starving for a good exhibit lately. ;)

[mivox]

Youd be amazed what people will buy on ebay... if the stuff still works you should sell it.

[sun818]

Local land fill

Good idea Brett.

I once sold an Apple IIc on eBay for $0.01. Are they worth more than that? Is it really worth taking pictures, figuring out shipping costs, and packing these things for secure delivery?

[Brett_Tabke]

New residents of the local landfill: 4-cbm 128's, 3-c64's, 4-sfd 1001's, 4-1902 monitors, 4 ram expanders, books upon books, 8-1581's, 10-1541's, cartridges, accessories, and thousands upon thousands of disks (4 big clothes baskets full of disks).

All totalled it was 770 lbs worth of cbms. Cost $5.95 to dump it. That's a whole lot cheaper than days upon days of packing and shiping involved in ebaying them. I bet it wouldn't have brought $200 on ebay.

The only thing I kept was a pair of super-cpu's for ebay.

[cornwall]

Gosh, its so long ago, but I think the first computer I ever had was a Commodore Pet.

[lawman]

My first one was a Trash 80 Model I. I sure don't miss cload.

lawman

[HarryM]

Landfill?

I think dumping electronic gear in a landfill may be illegal in the UK, and almost certainly is in Europe.

Think environment!

[mivox]

Another good argument for eBaying it.... computers aren't exactly constructed with "earth-friendly" organic biodegradable materials. ;)

[Brett_Tabke]

They took the metal and monitors in a separate pile HarryM - they do recycle what they can.

[HarryM]

I have to agree about Ebay. You can sell anything there.

One day no doubt that's where my old Acorn BBC-B will end up. But not yet! ;)

[HarryM]

Sorry Brett!

I guess it's the difference in UK and US English usage. To me 'landfill' just evokes a hole in the ground. In the UK a landfill is the last resting place for trash, but not the place an individual usually has access to.

[mivox]

Heheh... it varies around the US. Up here, most people just go pitch their trash in a dumpster, which then gets picked up and dumped in the landfill (ie: hole in the ground). I don't think garbage computers get recycled very often up here.

A lot of more 'urban' areas (ie: most of the lower 48 states) don't have public-access dumpsters, so if you want to throw away something that doesn't fit in your regular garbage can, you have to take it to the county landfill, where you are charged a variable fee for the staff to dispose of it properly. They'll usually have different sorting areas for various kinds of recyclable and/or toxic garbage.

[edited by: mivox at 8:35 am (utc) on Dec. 31, 2002]

[Brett_Tabke]

Ya, this was a classic landfill, but they do recycling there to of metal and toxics.

[amznVibe]

hey don't knock dumpster diving ;)
I live in a college town that's 50% students
and every year at the end of the terms
I end up with some decent goodies
(like this 19" monitor I am using)

If it don't fit into the car when they
gotta go, its gotta go... -aV-

[mivox]

Dumpster diving? Pah! Up here, we have "resuable areas" at all the local trash drop-off stations. Big covered cement slab, where you can find appliances, furniture, building materials, computer equipment and amazing amounts of like-new clothing. :)

But I'll admit... the best stuff is always at the University neighborhood station at the end of the school year.... hehehehe.

[Mike12345]

At my old college they used to throw the old stuff out of the second floor window to make sure it breaks. That way they could stop us from recycling it ourselves.

Apparently they are putting power station type things o top of land fill sites now, in order to use the methane to produce electricity or something. Not sure if thats true but saw something about it on "tommorrows World". :)

More completely irrelevant rubbish from me. :)

[Brett_Tabke]

Yes, they pull "caps" over the landfill (cover them with a tarp) and allow the gas to accumulate.

[Mike12345]

Are they in wide spread use in the US? , I think i saw one in derbyshire over here but it might of been just a shed on top of a hill. :)

[rogerd]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've heard of a Commodore 1541... used to sell a boatload of them.

No Amiga stuff in the landfill trip, Brett? Or is that sufficiently current to hang on to for another few years? :)

[Ed_Gibbon]

Is it really worth taking pictures, figuring out shipping costs, and packing these things for secure delivery?

Note that on Ebay you can "Search completed auctions" and see ending prices for completed sales within the last (I dunno) . . . 30 or 60 days. Very useful.

I found a beautiful manual typewriter in its original case in the trash a few months ago. It worked perfectly and seemed very little used. It even had a good red/black ribbon in it. I looked on Ebay and saw that several similar models had been offered for sale, but had gotten no bids or had sales of only a few dollars. I let my kids (aged 10 & 4) play with it -- probably will be the only time in their lives they will actually touch one!

[skibum]

Computer collectors ring in the old [news.com.com]

Techies, known more for their skills than sentiments, are waxing nostalgic for vintage models from Apple to Zenith--and occasionally paying good money for them.

[celerityfm]

I always thought that the term "Dumpster Diving" referred to people who dug through dumpsters and garbage cans for computer related materials, manuals, data sheets, etc-- especially password lists or anything else that might help them hack into a system that belongs to a target company whose dumpster your checking out.

I think a few movies even portray this act (I'm 99% sure the movie Hackers did).

You may want to ask Eliteweb if I'm correct ;)