Redeploy internally
The cheapest option if you have somewhere to put it. Dev and test environments, a branch office, a lab, cold spares for the kit still in production. Costs nothing but rack space.
They came out of the rack months ago and they are still on a pallet in the storeroom. Here is what your actual options are, what the hardware is likely worth, and the two mistakes that quietly cost people money.
Replaced during a refresh
“We’ll deal with it later”
Value falls the whole time
Now it is urgent and worth less
Not step 4
Four realistic routes, roughly in order of what they return. Which one fits depends mostly on whether the hardware still works.
The cheapest option if you have somewhere to put it. Dev and test environments, a branch office, a lab, cold spares for the kit still in production. Costs nothing but rack space.
Worth doing for one or two units of a model you still run — a matching chassis and a shelf of DIMMs is cheap insurance. Worth doing for twelve of them almost never.
What we do. Working hardware goes back into service with someone else, and you get paid for it rather than paying to store it. This is where the money is for most people.
If it was leased or financed, it is not yours to sell — check the paperwork before anything else. Missing a return window is an expensive way to find out.
Very common and entirely sensible. Keep two as spares, sell the other eighteen. We will price whichever subset you decide on.
Pulling parts out to "sell them separately" usually nets less than selling the machine whole. Ask first — it takes an email and it is frequently the difference.
People consistently guess wrong about this, and the guess is nearly always low. The chassis is rarely the valuable part.
A five-year-old 2U server sounds like it should be worth very little. Then you open it.
Inside there might be twenty-four memory modules, two processors, eight drives, two power supplies and a set of rails. Each of those has its own market, and several of them are in demand from people running the exact platform you are retiring.
Populated memory in particular is frequently worth more than the chassis holding it — which is why "it's an old server, it's probably worthless" is the most expensive assumption in this process.
Want the detail? Read the valuation guide — it walks through how to find your exact configuration and what moves the number.
Both are completely avoidable, and both are decided before anyone quotes you anything.
Hardware depreciates on a curve that gets steeper, not flatter. A server that sits on a pallet for eighteen months is worth materially less than the same server the week it left the rack — and nothing about it improved in the meantime.
Pulling the memory and drives to sell separately turns one complete, sellable machine into an empty box and a bag of parts. It almost always nets less. Ask before you do it.
Rails, caddies, bezels and power cords look like packaging and get thrown out during a clear-out. They are worth money, particularly across a batch.
Forty identical machines out of one refresh price better per unit than forty mixed ones. Selling ten now and thirty next quarter usually gets a worse number on both.
List whatever you have below — a rough guess is completely fine, and you can correct it later. You will get a written offer broken out per unit within one business day.
No minimum, no obligation, and we pay the shipping whether it is two servers or two pallets.
More often than people expect. The chassis itself may be modest, but the memory, processors and drives inside it frequently add up to a number worth having — and those are the parts most people forget are in there. It costs you one email to find out.
There is no hard line, and it depends more on what is inside than the year on the invoice. If it powers on and it came out of service working, send us the list. If it genuinely is not worth anything we will tell you that plainly rather than string you along.
Yes. There is no minimum here. Two servers in a closet is a normal enquiry for us, and they ship on a prepaid label we email you.
Usually yes, though it will be worth less than it was two years ago — hardware depreciates on a curve that steepens. That is an argument for asking now rather than an argument for not asking.
We only buy hardware that was working when it came out of service, because we sell it on to be used again. Tell us which ones are questionable when you send the list — we would far rather know upfront than find out at check-in.
Then they are not yours to sell, and you should go back to the lessor first. We check ownership before we pay, so it saves everyone time to establish this early.
You send a list, we send a written offer broken out per unit, and if you accept we arrange and pay for the shipping. Payment is by ACH once it is checked in against the agreed list. No obligation at any point.
Send the list — any age, any quantity, anywhere in the USA. Written offer back within one business day.
Get an offer →