Getting rid of excess tech is hard

"jminer" (jminer)
02/25/2020 at 13:00 • Filed to: None

So my wife and I have been cleaning up the house preparing for a big move. The bad part is we’ve lived in a large house for 10 years and we each like to collect various things and are both tinkerers. This has led to entirely too much stuff! The folks at Goodwill know who I am now, and I’ve also been spending a ton of time selling things on FB marketplace.

Occasionally I come across something that makes me go ‘damn this is neat but I should get rid of it anyway because I don’t have that much use for it’. Last night that happened.

This was actually my spare N64 - I have another in better shape. I fired it up to test last night and it worked perfectly, popped each of these games in (that are either duplicates or I don’t play) and tested the controllers (which both have a bit too much play in the joystick for my taste) and put it on FB.

Aso yes I played GoldenEye on it before it got listed

These things make me sad that I’ve had this in a drawer for nearly 10 years for little actual reason other than it being a spare. My house, garage and basement are all full of these sort of things. Hell last night I also found a PS2 and a ton of games in the same cabinet.

As someone who’s going through their vast collections this year, try to keep everything at same levels. It’s exhausting to deal with it after. I have a stack of hard drives and old laptops I don’t want to deal with but have to.

PS - if you live near St Louis and want some old tech it’s yours. I have several older towers and laptops stacked up waiting to go to the e-waste place.

DISCUSSION (63)

Sovande > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:04

I like to carefully box it up, wrap the cor ds up neatly and individually and then throw it all in the dumpster.

Chariotoflove > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:04

That’d make a fun retro game day for some one or some family. Hope it finds a good home. It reminds me to pull out my Atari simulator.

Tripper > Sovande
02/25/2020 at 13:06

I do the same thing only I let them sit around a few years first.

benn454 > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:07

IL side or MO side of the river?

HammerheadFistpunch > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:10

I know that feel. I have 2 computer towers I don’t know what to do with so They’ve just been sitting. What I’ve been thinking about doing is just building up the cheapest media server I can find, but I have to think I could buy one for less than I would spend building one.

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:10

As long it’s a spare...I still kick myself for selling my original NES.

jminer > benn454
02/25/2020 at 13:13

MO, near Arnold

jminer > Sovande
02/25/2020 at 13:14

Lol! That’s what I’ve been doing but with an e-waste center near me that’s a better option if it’s worth less than $60.

Sovande > Tripper
02/25/2020 at 13:14

I knew I forgot a step.

jminer > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s
02/25/2020 at 13:15

Yeah, it's my spare and while working fine is in worse shape than my other so off it goes!

jminer > Chariotoflove
02/25/2020 at 13:15

I imagine someone will use and enjoy it. They're hella fun.

Nom De Plume > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:18

Think back a few years why you would want a backup copy of GoldenEye. Better keep that one around for when the other wears out.

jminer > HammerheadFistpunch
02/25/2020 at 13:18

You can probably start with them as is and then grow your it depending on your needs. I run a sizeable home lab and you can do a surprising amount with an older desktop.

If you’re building do a Ryzen 5, they’re an amazing combo of price and performance.

You can also always start with a raspberry Pi. I actually run several services in my home off of them.

Homelabbing is a fun hobby but it does quickly turn j to a rabbit hole. My main home server has 30TB of storage on it now! It runs a bunch of VMs, Plex and general data storage.

Thomas Donohue > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:20

Curiously, what’s the $60 threshold? I s the e-waste center that far away that you factor in time/mileage costs? Or is $60 your patience/time threshold for dealing with all the &**#@ when trying to sell something?

jminer > Nom De Plume
02/25/2020 at 13:22

For a while I just bought every N64 cart I came across in a thrift shop, garage sale and so on. Even if it fails a lot of companies make N64 clone carts so playing the game in the future if it fails is not too hard.

There's also always emulators, not the same but definitely easier.

jminer > Thomas Donohue
02/25/2020 at 13:25

The second. I refuse to deal with people or meeting up for less than $50. It’s just not worth my time and aggravation.

The place is actually like 5 miles from my house and they don’t charge so it’s easy to use. It’s just whether or not it’s worth trying to sell or just making sure it doesn’t end up in a landfill.

I'm a system engineer and have done a ton of end user support over the years so I've always had way too much tech in my house too.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:29

I know this struggle. Our basement is 1400sq ft, and that’s lotsa room for shit to accumulate in.

What we need is a carefully controlled fire.

Thomas Donohue > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:31

Yeah, I need to adopt this strategy.....all kinds of gadgets and crap. Not crap, but I don’t use it, so it’s crap.

I keep telling myself “Cumulatively, i ts worth thousands!!!” while it gets older, loses value in most cases, and just takes up room.

jminer > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom
02/25/2020 at 13:33

Same - 1500 sq foot house with full basement and just me and my wife... This eq uals way too much stuff

Dusty Ventures > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:34

How much for you to throw the contents of that photo in a box and send it to Mass? Asking for a friend...

jminer > Dusty Ventures
02/25/2020 at 13:39

For a fellow Opponaut ? I’d toss it in a box and ship it to Mass for $10 0 so I can stop typing yes to idiots on FB who hit that ‘is it still available button’ and don’t follow up after I type yes.

I’m surprised as hell people dicker over this, its set at a very good price (1/2 of ebay) and people are still screwing with lowballing me. 007 and Zelda are both $35 games plus a parts console is $60. Not counting the 2 controllers or 11 other games! I just don’t want to deal with individual auctions on ebay or selling feels for this.

jminer > Thomas Donohue
02/25/2020 at 13:42

It’s hard to do - and I’ve always been bad at this. It took some serious effort on my part to start this process. There was a lot of ‘I wanted to do this with it’ or ‘well I paid this for it’ but when I stopped and thought - fuck I bought that 12 years and moved it once already it needs to go!

I’ve been lucky and over the last few months have sold $5k in tech and tools on FB which was really nice but it’s a lot of work too. It dried up this January bit is picking up a bit again after people get past their Christmas shopping hangover. It adds up quick actually if you price things good and probably 3/4 of sales I don’t end up with much dickering around on.

Pickup_man > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:44

I recently had a similar problem, I had a tote full of game systems and games that I haven’t played in years, but didn’t want the hassle of dealing with people for the $30-$50 they were worth individually, and didn’t want to get pennies by selling them to a second hand shop (plus waiting the several hours it would have taken them to test everything). Luckily I took a road trip recently and along the way was a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. Him and his wife happen to be big gamers and didn’t have a lot of the systems/games that I did. I was more than happy to just give them away, but it just so happened that he had a motorcycle that he lost interest in and hadn’t ridden in years so we ended up trading.

Noodles > jminer
02/25/2020 at 13:49

We have a NES with Duckhunt, and that orange gun. I can't get it to work. I've blown in the cartridge and wiggled it back and forth old school style. Still won't work. Super bummer.

jminer > Pickup_man
02/25/2020 at 14:00

That’s a happy little trade there! It’s always fun when things like that work out.

jminer > Noodles
02/25/2020 at 14:01

That’s rough - these old systems are getting less and less reliable. You’re often better off with emulators or 3rd party systems.

Also duck hunt won’t work without a CRT so it’s really getting difficult to play anymore anyway. They’re also really sensitive to what type of converter you use to get it to HDMI on a newer TV.

TheRealBicycleBuck > jminer
02/25/2020 at 14:04

I’d have a hard time getting rid of it. Growing up, I never had my own game console. I started with a PC in college and didn’t buy a game console until the XBONE came out.

My daughter had the opportunity to play a Game Cube several years ago. She liked it so much that she spent her birthday money on a GameCube of her own.

benn454 > jminer
02/25/2020 at 14:05

Cool, I’m near Columbia. I don't see a link to your FB ad. How much were you wanting to get for everything?

jminer > benn454
02/25/2020 at 14:13

I didn’t post a link didn’t feel like pimping it here - asking $140 on FB at the moment. We’ll see how that goes.

If any Oppo wants it though I’d definitely do a deal and happy to ship.

jminer > TheRealBicycleBuck
02/25/2020 at 14:15

This one was hard to part with. I’ll admit thought that I kept a console in better shape with the games I want to play more :) so I’m only cutting my N64 collection in half...

I’ve owned several XBOX 360 and now a One, but the 360s wer e mostly used as Media centers. The one gets pulled out to play first person shooters every now again but I game on PC and my Switch more honestly .

BaconSandwich is tasty. > jminer
02/25/2020 at 14:21

Dang. Don’t mind me asking, but how much did you list the N64 at?

Edit: I should read all the comments before posting...

jminer > BaconSandwich is tasty.
02/25/2020 at 14:29

I don’t mind at all I listed it at $140 but we’ll see where it ends up after back and forth with folks. It’s rare that I post something even at a good price that people don’t try to push it down. Doesn’t matter if it’s the cheapest or best posted already they want it for 80% what you’re asking.

benn454 > jminer
02/25/2020 at 14:30

Are you on the oppo discord? I'm interested if you want to talk privately.

jminer > benn454
02/25/2020 at 14:34

I am not - what’s the link to it?

you can also email me though at wonkothesanest@gmail.com

i86hotdogs > jminer
02/25/2020 at 14:44

Hey, jminer. I’ve got a buddy who lives in St. Louis. I (he) could take that off your hands at a price you name.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > jminer
02/25/2020 at 14:45

You reminded me that I need to do this with an XBox 360 and some games.

jminer > Snuze: Needs another Swede
02/25/2020 at 14:49

Yeah- stuff sits in boxes unused way too long in our big houses. We want to buy a smaller place to help us with this issue. If we don’t have space, we buy and keep less.

TysMagic > jminer
02/25/2020 at 14:51

we did this last year! I would highly suggest going for an estate sale. This takes out the emotion because someone else sells your stuff and you get a big ol lump of cash - does it suck to see some of it go for pennies? Yes, but most of it did not and it’s allllll gone. Well relatively, then the rest to goodwill.

TheRealBicycleBuck > jminer
02/25/2020 at 14:51

Once a PC guy, always a PC guy. Our XBONE is primarily a streaming device. We bought it to play BlueRay and act as an interface for Netflix, etc. I did want to try some gaming, but with it hooked up to the living room TV, my wife usually vetoed any gaming.

I inherited a smart TV, so I’ve been thinking about swapping it into the living room and setting up for games in the office.

jminer > TysMagic
02/25/2020 at 14:54

That’s not a bad idea - We’ ve been piecemealing it as we go through a room, hobby or project to decide what we don’t need. Honestly we’be been giving a lot of it away anyway.

I don’t feel like we have enough to run it through an estate sale company but I may be wrong. Outside of tools a lot of it is pretty niche stuff.

jminer > i86hotdogs
02/25/2020 at 14:57

I’m definitely game for that. What are you (he) interested in? Feel free to shoot me an email at jacob.kresse @gmail.com and I can get more specific/work out details.

I’ve got a fair bit of both old and not-quite- new tech that I’m clearing out. Everything from a dual socket Xeon HP Workstation, to 2nd/ 3rd/4th gen i core stuff, stack of c2d laptops, G3 imac and such plus a Playstation 2 and bunch of games and kit with it.

benn454 > jminer
02/25/2020 at 14:58

This link looks like it still works

https://discord.gg/x35U6mN

jminer > benn454
02/25/2020 at 15:00

I’m in it - same username

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > jminer
02/25/2020 at 15:05

Damn I need some spare parts to fix my see-through jungle green N64. My kid always wants to play it with me (aka get destroyed by me on it) but it powers up but doesn’t output video anymore :(

jminer > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
02/25/2020 at 15:08

I would love one of the translucent N64 units. I had one when I was a kid but it got lost somewhere. Mine are both black - which work but don’t look nearly as cool. I can’t bring myself to pay what a clear unit goes for though.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > jminer
02/25/2020 at 15:12

that’s exactly why I want to fix it! It’s my original that I got brand new when I was 12 for Christmas. Love the thing and it’s amazing that my 7 year old wants in on it when he has access to a nintendo 2ds, nintendo switch and xbox 360 but he wants to play it.

I’m sure I can find some points local in detroit though. Just have to do it at some point.

jminer > MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner
02/25/2020 at 15:23

It might just need a good cleaning on the slot. Also mine are picky about the A/V cable you are using and the adapter to the TV.

Take a cartridge and pump it in and out of the slot 15-20 times fairly hard (not hard enough to break anything) but hard enough to try to dislodge any corrosion in that slot - then take compressed air (or ideally a compressor if you have it) and blow the hell out of that slot. That ’s what got this 2nd unit of mine to output video last night after it sat for a while.

The N64 relies on the cartridge to finish booting and output video so if there is a bad connection there it won’t work.

jminer > TheRealBicycleBuck
02/25/2020 at 15:27

We mainly run a Roku as our streaming devices now. It works better than the xbox did anyway. Mine probably only gets turned on once a month maybe - then it has to update and it bothers me.

I love my switch as a companion while I travel though. It’s a blast.

MontegoMan562 is a Capri RS Owner > jminer
02/25/2020 at 15:28

Interesting. I’ll give that a try! Thanks! I hate seeing it just sit there

Snuze: Needs another Swede > jminer
02/25/2020 at 15:30

I would really think through a move to a smaller place if your only reasoning is to help minimize your accumulation of stuff. Proportionately less stuff in a smaller space will feel just as full. Choosing to not buy/not keep stuff is a mental exercise and independent of your living situation. I say this because I’ve gone through / am going through the same thing myself. I was always a pack rat but have as of lately finally had my fill of shit and am working my way (slowly) through de-cluttering the house.

jminer > Snuze: Needs another Swede
02/25/2020 at 15:36

That’s exactly where we are, slowly going through 15 years of collecting shit.

The move is definitely not only for that, we’re trying to make a big relocation this year to California and less stuff to move is a big bonus and if we get a smaller place that’s more motivation to both clean out now and keep stuff small later.

TheRealBicycleBuck > jminer
02/25/2020 at 15:51

My kids gave me a Roku-enabled TV for my bedroom and it’s so much better for streaming than either the XBONE or our “dumb” TV in the living room. I’m getting motivated to make the swap!

Snuze: Needs another Swede > jminer
02/25/2020 at 15:51

That makes sense. I read it as “get a smaller place as a reason to have less stuff. ” Like one of those tiny house people - “I want to spend money on experiences, not my house and stuff”. Like the experience of your laundry taking a week to dry because you have to hang it outside in the winter because your joint is too small for a dryer. But I digress...

I was one of those people who “collected hobbies ” and was also always broke. You’d think I’d have figured this out but it took a while and some insight from my wife to get a grip on my spending. So that was step one - stop accumulating so much junk . I still buy stuff but now I kind of work through an informal checklist - Do I want it? Why? Will I use it? When? How often? etc. My wife has always been much better about this, with one glaring weakness, clothing .

But we’re on step 2 which is getting rid of stuff we don’t need. It’s a slow road. Here I’m taking the lead - she doesn’t buy as much stuff, but it seems to be harder for her to give it up. It doesn’t help that her parents unloaded like 15 totes of “her” stuff on us (and by that I mean like 1/3 of it is hers and the rest is just their crap they didn’t want to deal with so they gave it to us.)

jminer > TheRealBicycleBuck
02/25/2020 at 15:54

Yeah, I’ve not looked back. The Xbox has been demoted to game only duty, with the rare Blu Ray.

I still use the set top Roku boxes instead of the integrated ones, that's just me being picky though.

jminer > Snuze: Needs another Swede
02/25/2020 at 15:56

We’ve been at this nearly a year and it’s hard as fuck to change that mindset. I go through a similar mental process that has really helped cut my acquisitions down.

I also used to collect hobbies - do a ton of research, but a bunch of gear then lost interest and find a new hobby to do the same. That meant I ended up with a bunch of shit I didn't need.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > jminer
02/25/2020 at 16:32

Sometimes it’s good to know that other people go through the same thing.

We still buy stuff, just not as often, and I like to think our buying has shifted to things that are investments. Or at least won’t lose us money. For example, we have furnished a lot of our home from estate sales, and it’s more expensive than Ikea, but we have bought some really, really nice furniture at steep discounts. Our best find was a pair of Kittenger nightstands for $200 that are worth like $1200. Stuff like that I don’t even bat an eye over anymore. A few years ago that would have been inconceivable, I’d have gone to Ikea and bought the cheapest crap they had and wasted the balanced on some electronic gadget that would now be worth next to nothing.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > jminer
02/25/2020 at 16:43

Are these available? I will pay whatever shipping to WA and whatever price . I need this, these, all those.

jminer > Snuze: Needs another Swede
02/25/2020 at 17:10

We’ve been doing the same. Spend $1k on a laptop to last 5 years instead of $500 for one that’ll go 18 months. Bought a really nice set of leather Lazy boy chairs for like $1k but 2 years in they’re still awesome instead of us already complaining.

Growing up is hard, but it’s been good at t he same time.

jminer > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
02/25/2020 at 17:12

I’ve got 2 Opponauts that have expressed in terest before you so I’ve pulled down my local ad. If it doesn’t work out with them it’s yours.

Vintage gaming is definitely a fun rabbit hole to get sucked down.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > jminer
02/25/2020 at 18:55

As they say: he who snoozes, doth loses :(

TysMagic > jminer
02/27/2020 at 11:34

We tried one company who suggested another due to what we had. The second company was happy to work with us and we exceed both our expected sales numbers. I highly suggest at least looking in to!

To drive home that this was not fancy stuff by any means, I’m under 30 and this was a cookie cutter home in a plain neighborhood. The house was furnished by a lot of early post college stuff still.

jminer > Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo
02/27/2020 at 20:02

The two ahead of you seem to have lost interest. If you still want it email me at wonkothesanest@gmail.com and we'll figure out details and I'll ship it out to you.

Dr. Zoidberg - RIP Oppo > jminer
02/27/2020 at 20:06

I just emailed you :D