Old Computer Equipment (1 Viewer)

[Mr. Ected]

What do companies do with old computer equipment? You know when they update laptops, where do the old ones go?

My wife and I are starting to get involved our kid's elementary school PTO and I as talking to our school's principal yesterday about a gift from the 'graduating' 5th grade class and conversation turned to that they don't have enough computers and other tech equipment for the kids. Besides the computer room, they have <25 laptops that get moved around to the kids rooms. Figure they don't need to be the best ever, so a laptop that is being replaced by an upgrade should be OK. They would like iPads for the kids too and those can be Gen 2, just something with a camera.

I figure a 'donation' of equipment to a school would qualify the company for a tax benefit of some sort, so they would get something out of it, besides charity.

Anybody heard or done anything like this? Is this something that I could even go to Apple for?

TIA

 

[Cliff Clavin]

We (bank) donate our old equipment to various charities / schools. Laptops/desktops have the hard drives removed though so there is some cost to the receiver but they usually find a 3rd party or fund-raise for those.

 

[Patriotsfatboy1]

I have done it in the past, so check with larger companies in town.

Some companies lease equipment, so they go back to the manufacturer or leasing company. Those often end up in the secondary market (Rakuten, Amazon, etc.) as refurbs. I have even seen people with companies that take them to 2nd and 3rd world countries and sell them.

The company is probably not going to have much tax incentive to give them to the school. One reason is that you are probably not an approved 503c charity. The other is that they already likely depreciated the asset completely over the last 3 years, so it has no value on the books to them.

 

[butcher boy]

We're 27 floors up in downtown San Francisco. We throw our old computers out the window and watch them shatter onto Market St. Extra points if it hits a bicyclist.

 

[Abraham]

Many organizations donate. Some resell. For example, in Austin there is a chain of places called Discount Electronics. They sell lots and lots of Dell machines that have come back to Dell after leases expire.

 

[lod01]

We run them into the ground. We give ourselves raises instead of replacing the equipment after 5 years. I've stretched some to as much as 9 years. When we are done with them, they don't have much use.

 

[dozer]

People often have their hearts in the right place when they try to donate computers to schools, but this isn’t usually a good thing unless the computers are less than two years old.

The school is on the hook to pay for the disposal of computer equipment after it is no longer useful, which happens pretty fast.

 

[E Street Brat]

Why the tax break? What are ya some kind of teabagger

Be a patriot and just give cash to the government . They know best how to use it

 

[lod01]

People often have their hearts in the right place when they try to donate computers to schools, but this isn’t usually a good thing unless the computers are less than two years old.

The school is on the hook to pay for the disposal of computer equipment after it is no longer useful, which happens pretty fast.

They shouldn't be paying to get rid of any equipment. I have companies beating down the door to pay me for the scrap computers. I agree that if it is over a few years old it should be reformatted or it really won't run optimally.

 

[Cliff Clavin]

People often have their hearts in the right place when they try to donate computers to schools, but this isn’t usually a good thing unless the computers are less than two years old.

The school is on the hook to pay for the disposal of computer equipment after it is no longer useful, which happens pretty fast.

They shouldn't be paying to get rid of any equipment. I have companies beating down the door to pay me for the scrap computers. I agree that if it is over a few years old it should be reformatted or it really won't run optimally.

Yeah, the only thing we pay for is the truck to come pick it up ($100?). Lots of recycling depots are happy to have it.

 

[gameday]

We tried donating used PC's to the local school system and it was a disaster. As stated previously, either the harddrives have to be removed or the harddrive has to be wiped. Either way, a legal copy of MS is not on it. It costs more for the school to secure that license than the pc is worth. The last time we donated equipment (about 300 units) the school called us back after a few months and told us to come back and pick them up. They no longer wanted them. What a fiasco. I've talked to other CIO's in the area and they tell me similar stories. Total hassle.