Goodwill Clearance Center? — #12

Post #12 by phreakindee

Source Forum	68kMLA
Category	Peripherals
Post Date	Tue, 18 Aug 2009 - 16:56
Original URL	https://68kmla.org/bb/threads/goodwill-clearance-center.18260/

Post

Most thrift stores for some reason have this aversion to computers.

Click to expand...

While it is disappointing, I can understand why thrift stores don't want to sell computer gear.

I recently walked into a Salvation Army. They had 3 computers (one of which was tempting), and approximately 20 CRT monitors (again, one of which was tempting). The former, unfortunately, are hard to sell. Even if I wasn't making a big move in the near future, I would have to put as much serious consideration into buying a $5 computer as a $5000 computer -- just because it is too easy to acquire too much. As for the monitors, those are just toxic waste.

Then there are other complications, ranging from staff who don't know what the stuff is to donors who don't know how to maintain their privacy.

It's too bad, but I totally understand their anti-computer dontation attitude.

I can understand the space and hard to sell part, especially regarding old computers - once they're older than 5 years at most they are regarded as useless to most.

The privacy thing is always blown out of proportion. Like the Goodwills here, just take out or erase the drive and off you go. Found several early 90s machines without a HDD.

Still, common sense should be used. I just got a Performa 6400 at a pawn shop... And wow. There were about 30 floppies, all filled with personal data, about the most I have seen in a conquest. Taxes, IRA data, business data, family history/stories, two disks labeled "memoirs"... Pretty bad. It's a good thing I'm not the type to take advantage of that, it's all you need to become this person really.