this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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I think part of the problem is that selling second hand on gumtree and fb marketplace is just a nightmare for sellers. You can list it at a great price, and it'll stay there forever, except for the occasional person trying to score a freebie and insisting you deliver it as well. Or someone who is just going to resell it anyway.
I have a laptop that is $50, working, no takers.
So it's easier just to toss out unneeded stuff. Which I'll probably do with the laptop eventually.
Tried eBay?
It's scam/scalper-ridden too, and the fee + shipping hurts, but it's at least moderated. I've had success there. Just be vigilant about documenting your sales with photos/videos.
Sometimes there are niche trading forums that are still live. I'm considering one for used photography equipment.
But yeah. Craigslist was never a high bar, yet the loss of it to FB marketplace feels like a tragedy.
I cleaned the hoose and ended up with a box of stuff i wanted to toss. I listed everything in the box on nextdoor/fb for free and everything was gone by the end of the day. People love free stuff.
Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes you get the "I'll pick it up on the weekend", and then they no-show, and you have to contact everyone else again...
If you put it on freecycle.org with a pic of the stuff sitting on the curb, there is no calling dibs. It’s a competition between other takers and the rain which can inspire quick action.
Sounds good conceptually, but it doesn't seem very active in my area. Good to know it exists though.
Find your local hackerspace and donate it.
In my experience, all of the hackerspaces in my area are completely full, and have no space for further donations. I've been trying to offload some materials for a while, they just don't need them.
I have an address you can ship em to in that case.
Melbourne? Because shipping just isn't worth it, it's gonna be $50 minimum.
You send me a shipping quote and I'll send you funds so you don't have to pay freight. Feel free to DM me.
You're US based?, it's about $35 USD, but the laptop isn't worth that much.
If I can't give it away locally, it'll get ewaste recycled, so it's not going to landfill (at least not directly).
The unstoppable “I need it free for my cancer-riddled child’s birthday” vs the unmovable “I know what I got”
I am being reasonable, a laptop for $50 is a steal, and I've tried dropping the prices progressively, you just get nothing until it's free
Damn, that's that's bonkers. I'd jump all over a local opportunity like that, just to have something to piddle around with trying linux distros for entertainment. Even a crappy laptop at that price is a fun thing
Yeah, I did manage to give an old netbook away to a woman who was very excited to have it (I watched her skip down the path excitedly), and that almost made the effort of giving it away worth it.
It would be worth it :)
Gotta love wins like that
Edit: wrong comment replied to sorry
$50 seems to be about what a large portion of used laptops on ebay go for, so whether that's a good deal would depend on how nice a laptop it is
50AUD, so ~25USD. I think it's a good deal, given your looking at 400AUD for something similar at officeworks. And shipping at a minimum is $50 to get it anywhere useful.
But yeah, definitely not a "nice" laptop, it's no macbook or surface.
Final offer: $15 and you hand deliver it. I'm free between 3am and 3:15am (local time) at the public library in Anchorage, Alaska.
Public library is a step up, usually its some filthy alley behind a strip club
Ok that does sound like a good deal, if it's comparable to something sold new I'm guessing it at least has 8gb of ram, and therefore better than the other stuff available at that price. But yeah, still, I think there is just more supply than buyers in general. I was looking at stats on the sell through rate for a lot of cheaper used laptops the other week and it's often extremely low.
4gb sadly, but I think that says more about how shit the Australian market is than anything.
4gb is what I have. That’s plenty for linux.
It works, and even windows "ran", but it started to swap like mad if you opened too many browser tabs, even on Linux.
But it is technically enough.
I have 25 tabs open on Ungoogled Chromium w/the Sway window manager, without struggle, and a few other workspaces and browsers going. But Sway may be making the difference. I think things like Gnome and KDE can be a bit heavy.
Sway definitely helps, gnome was very heavy. But I can't give sway to a Linux noob...
Might be worth it to strip the RAM and SSD before tossing it.
Ram is soldered :( , but SSD will be extracted.
If you plan to toss it away, why don't you just give it to someone?
Because giving it away isn't free. It takes time and effort and wading through bullshit. I have given a few away for free already, and the amount of time I wasted just kills the process. At least at $50 I'd be breaking even on time,.
Can't you simply leave it in front of your house with a label written "free for taking" or something?
May as well toss it directly if it's exposed to the weather. And it would likely get me in trouble with the council for dumping.