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posted by CoolHand on Sunday August 09 2015, @11:25PM   Printer-friendly
from the whats-old-is-new-again dept.

http://www.itworld.com/article/2956675/hardware/a-new-tool-for-pricing-used-it-

An electronics recycler has created an IT products database representing 9,000 manufacturers and 11 million equipment models. The products range from consumer to business equipment, such as network storage devices, routers, switches, as well as servers, PCs and office machines.

The database, called the Sage BlueBook, was launched this week in beta and will remain free to use. It will give prices based on condition, including non-working. It is but the latest option available to people and businesses trying to maximize the value of used electronics.

Houghton said the system scrapes data from a variety of wholesale and retail sources, including eBay and Amazon Trade-In. The "real magic," however, comes in cleaning the data to get valid model information that can be matched with transaction activity and product condition, he said. "The BlueBook tells you if the offer price is good or not," Houghton said.

Houghton sees a connection between sustainability and old electronics. "The real dream here is to eliminate the throw-away mentality for the used stuff. There is value in most used electronics," he said. Good pricing data, he reasoned, helps keep equipment in circulation.

"The transparency issue over the cost has always been a sore point for CIOs," Daoud said. There is "very little trust" in the secondary market for used electronics.

One of the problems with electronics is the velocity of price changes. For instance, an asset may have a certain value just up until the time that a new OS is released that changes hardware requirements. What will be difficult is tracking prices over time, Daoud said.


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  • (Score: 2) by davester666 on Monday August 10 2015, @07:54AM

    by davester666 (155) on Monday August 10 2015, @07:54AM (#220578)

    What? No field in the database for how many zero-day exploits are available for it?

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