I had a laptop that has been sitting in my office for about 6 months. The thing was too slow to even run Windows 2000 and had cracked LCD hinges, so I didn’t bother to repair it. So there it sat. What do I do? Pay a recycling firm to get rid of it for me? Risk dumping it in the garbage and getting a fine from the city?

I looked to eBay where I thought I could sell it. The model of the laptop I owned was going for about $150. That was for a model that had working LCD hinges though.  I would be lucky to break $100 selling the thing on eBay. So I broke out my tool kit and started to take it apart, piece by piece. I thought I could probably get more for the laptop selling it per part. I was right. Here were my results.

LCD - $55
LCD Cable - $11
Sound Card - $5
Keyboard - $22
Motherboard & Processor - $40
DVD-ROM Drive - $19
Palm Rest with Touch Mouse - $12

My total made was about $164 for an item I didn’t even use anymore. More than a fully functioning laptop. I also have a hand full of parts I could maybe sell for a couple of dollars each. No matter how old the item, somebody will want it or like in my case, parts from it.