There are plenty of ways you can repurpose old tech to give it a new life. Sometimes, however, devices are so old as to be virtually useless for modern purposes, and if devices won’t even turn on anymore, there’s not much you can do with them. You may be able to sell old and broken devices for more than you think.
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I was given a bunch of old tech
Waste not, want not
Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek
My dad moved home recently, and when packing up his stuff, he found a bunch of old devices that he no longer uses. He’s always been a true geek like myself; in the early days of personal computers, he won a magazine competition for writing a program to generate prime numbers in the fewest lines of code.
As we sorted through his house, we kept finding more and more tech that he no longer had any need for. There were some Kindles, multiple iPads, and some Amazon Fire tablets. Since he didn’t use them anymore, there was no point in moving them to his new home, so he passed them on to me.
I was hoping I could use some of the gadgets for my smart home, and while one tablet was usable as a smart home dashboard, there were problems with many of the others. An iPad Air 2 and a Kindle Keyboard both looked in great condition, but wouldn’t charge. The rest of the iPads were second-generation models, which can’t run most modern apps. I could have repurposed them, but I already have a repurposed old iPad and don’t really need more.
One man’s junk is another man’s treasure
Even broken devices can sell
Credit: Adam Davidson / How-To Geek
With so many broken or obsolete devices, I figured I’d have to throw a lot of them away. I didn’t think anyone was going to want a broken iPad or a Kindle that you couldn’t charge.
Out of curiosity, I had a quick look at eBay to see how much they were worth. I fully expected to find that they were worth pennies at most. To my surprise, many of the devices could sell for a reasonable amount.
I was initially skeptical of the prices people were listing some devices for. Just because someone was asking that much didn’t mean anyone would be willing to pay it. But when I switched to looking at sold items, I was surprised to find that some items had sold for pretty good amounts of money.
People had sold second-generation iPads for as much as $20, despite them being so old that there’s very little you can do with them. A working Kindle Keyboard could sell for as much as $60.
What really blew me away was how much I could get for devices that wouldn’t even work. An iPad Air 2 that wouldn’t even start could sell for as much as $20. It seems that for many people, harvesting components or repairing and reselling devices makes these broken iPads worth more than I had expected.
A cheap upgrade was well worth it
I could sell for much more with a new battery
One device that didn’t work was the Kindle Keyboard. This was annoying, as working devices could sell for $60, but dead ones were going for around $10. I’d wondered about trying to use it to make an e-ink dashboard for my smart home, but the large keyboard at the bottom of the device didn’t give it the best aesthetics.
On a whim, I checked to see how much it would cost to replace the battery. I found one on AliExpress for about $8. A bit of research revealed that this was a fairly simple repair, so I bit the bullet and ordered the battery. It took a while to arrive, but the repair was reasonably simple to do once I’d managed to get the case open.
Instead of being able to sell the dead Kindle for $10, I was now able to list it for $60. Even with the cost of the battery, I still netted over $40 more than what I would have gotten for the broken device.
Turning the junk into a mini PC
Buying second-hand saved more money
Credit: Andrew Heinzman / How-To Geek
Once my repairs were done, I was ready to start listing. I didn’t sell everything on eBay; I listed some of the stuff on Facebook Marketplace first, since it was far less hassle to have someone come and collect the stuff than having to post it all out. I sold a few bits this way, and the rest went on eBay.
In total, I ended up selling two second-generation iPads, a broken iPad Air 2, a Kindle Keyboard, a third-generation 7-inch Amazon Kindle Fire HD, and two 2019 Amazon Fire 7 tablets. After factoring in the cost of the replacement battery, I ended up making about $150.
I took that money and spent it on a mini PC that I found on Facebook Marketplace that someone had barely used. In effect, I managed to swap a bunch of old and broken devices for a mini PC.
CPU
Celeron FCBGA1264 3.6GHz
Graphics
Integrated Intel Graphics 24EUs 1000MHz
The Beelink Mini S13 Pro desktop PC is a ultra-compact computer powered by the Intel N150 processor. Shipping with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 500GB SSD, this micro desktop is perfect for a variety of workloads. From running simple server programs to replacing your old PC, the Beelink S13 Pro is up to the task.
Your old junk may be worth more than you think
While I was initially hoping to repurpose the old tech that my dad gave me, the fact that the vast majority of it was either too old to run modern apps or wasn’t even able to power on made selling it the easiest option. I was genuinely surprised by how much I was able to make, so you might want to start rooting through that junk device drawer to see what treasure it contains.
