How to profit from an IT specialist at a flea market?
Arriving in St. Petersburg, you must definitely visit the Hermitage, the Russian Museum and the flea market on Udelka. I go there at least a couple of times a year and go to this unique place, like a museum. There you can find not just everything, but everything in general, even what you were not going to look for. Antique dishes and dug old coins, Soviet documents and vinyl records, samovars and pioneer forges, and also a bunch of all kinds of junk that slightly rumpled citizens sell directly from oilcloths laid out on the ground.
Having rummaged a little in this dump klondike, sometimes you can find the most real treasures, or buy some interesting little thing for a cheap price. Anyone else, but personally, it gives me unspeakable pleasure to walk along the rows of assorted goods, ask the price, chat with sellers and other buyers. It charges with positive energy.
On my next visit to Udelka, I suddenly thought: why not look at this flea market through the eyes of an IT specialist? And I began purposefully to look out for all kinds of computer devices among the junk spread out under the feet of passers-by, to be interested in prices, to bargain. It is clear that buying any equipment is more difficult than a shovel at a flea market – it is always a lottery. Whether the device is working or not is a big question, it is usually not possible to check, one can only take the sellers’ word on it. But all the more interesting. I love pleasant surprises. So, what can an IT specialist do in a flea market, other than a bunch of anonymous SIM cards from major operators that are sold there on every corner?
Among the old types of PCI and AGP form-factor, as well as memory modules scattered here and there, you sometimes come across almost entire devices. For example, for this charming Acer Aspire 5030 on AMD Turion 64, the seller asked for 1000 rubles, but the laptop turned out to be without a power supply, a bottom cover and a cooler removed. Therefore, I refused to buy it. The price immediately fell to 700 rubles, but I remained adamant.
The Samsung netbook looks as if Kamaz has been stomping on it for a long time. Without a battery and a screw, the seller estimated it at 500 rubles, and gave the motherboard for fifty rubles.
A whole box of routers was found nearby – choose for every taste: from 50 to 150 rubles. Efficiency, of course, is an unknown quantity.
Awesome thing – a vintage mechanical adding machine, terribly heavy, but very atmospheric. Defective, but can be restored, or simply put on the shelf as it is and scare guests with it. 150 rubles.
Chinese 3D pens for 300 rubles: somewhere the plastic feeding motor is faulty, somewhere – the heating element. If desired, you can collect one worker from two.
Tablet Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 with cracked screen, 300 rubles. Include, according to the seller, did not try. When, turning it in my hands, I put it in place, the owner insinuatingly asked: “What, dear? How much will you charge for? “
The motherboard ASUS P5GDC-V on the 915th chipset with some kind of stone on board, according to the owner, is serviceable. Steward. ASUS P5 series motherboards are practically eternal, so it is quite possible to build some kind of “typewriter” on its basis. For an additional steward, the seller offered to choose some kind of RAM from the shoebox for her – a whole bunch of them were presented there.
There are many game wheels on the market, all for 150 rubles, most of them are complete with pedals. Half of them even have a USB port, some are for gaming. One steering wheel was with feedback, but the device works or not, again, it is not clear.
The system engineer is assembled from the now defunct Kay company. Characteristics unknown. The degree of serviceability is unknown. Inhabited by viruses. Price? Three hundred (a joke about a tractor driver). In principle, one power supply unit costs about the same there. If it works, of course.
There are a lot of push-button phones and old smartphones on the flea market. Prices range from 100 rubles and how long will the impudence of the seller be enough. In general, it is quite possible to equip a call center of a leading Russian bank with this assortment, and then regularly replace the devices after each shmon.
The only one hundred percent working computing device on the market is wooden office abacus. 150 rubles. All my life I dreamed of learning how to handle them, but never bothered to.
There are a lot of monitors of different sizes and calibers on the market, the price, again, starts from 300 rubles. If you wish, you can buy a slightly beaten TV all over the wall to watch your favorite TV shows. To the question “how much does it cost?” the seller slyly asked: “how much will you give?” Yes, not at all: I simply will not carry this monster on myself.
Among the broken and not very tablets, I suddenly found the first iPad with 64 gigabytes, model A1337. The iPad obviously flew at an angle to a hard surface, but the screen and the touch were not damaged, the case was not too worn too much – the device was definitely taken care of and carried in a case. I bought it for 300 rubles.
An autopsy showed that as a result of a fall on the charging loop, one of the attachments flew off, due to which the battery was dropped to zero and is no longer charged. So whether the tablet is locked or not, it was not possible to check. After replacing the loop, we will find out :).
It is clear that it is difficult to get any serious benefit from traveling to the flea market: they sell, basically, trash, and even that is in a badly killed state. Well, for example, the same iPad can be driven on Avita for spare parts for about 1500 (one display module will easily go for 1000), but this, admittedly, is not a good business. I visit flea markets for a different reason. There you need to enjoy the atmosphere, leisurely strolling between the rows, and then buy some old winrard device to repair it and enjoy the result.
So I restored several old laptops from the 90s (including the magnificent Apple PowerBook), the classic “bug” BK 0010-01 … And I also fulfilled my childhood dream – I bought and put in order a rare game from the Elektronika plant, a relative of the famous “Wait for it!”. True, in my “Electronics” with the romantic title “Secrets of the Ocean” the main character is not a Wolf with a basket collecting chicken eggs, but an octopus that catches divers.
In general, a walk through a flea market allows you not only to have a good time, but also to feel nostalgic: where else can you find the same charming collapse with films and music from different eras? You can buy a Kvazar player on a nearby tray, insert batteries into it, take an audio cassette as a steward, and go in search of adventures to the dashing chords of Yura Khoy. “I am as healthy as a boar, I have my accordion …” Years go by, but eternal values remain!
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