RE-PC: Recycled Computers and Peripherals — Attraction in Seattle

I really want to like this place - they're great to poke around at but I almost never buy because the pricing is just totally out of line. If you find your holy grail item and are willing to pay top dollar and come here regularly to hunt, then this is your place. I don't know if they sort by ebay high to low or what but you'll rarely get any deals here. Most (all?) Of their inventory is free donation/recycling so you'd think this would work like goodwill or thrift stores. However, items are often in very rough cosmetic shape and dirty but sold at the same price as mint on ebay.

Old consumer tube tvs with tint issues sold for $100+ that are often free on craiglist or marketplace. Couple that with a terrible 24 hour return period on tvs - I've tested a few in store and found color issues and busted inputs they either didn't test or disclose. You'd haul this all the way home and find out it needs returned and only have a day to do it. Retired enterprise networking equipment that is just beyond ancient going for more than brand new better consumer gear on Amazon or handed out for free from businesses in CL postings. Nearly all their video gaming stuff is sold higher than Pink Gorilla just a couple minutes away who actually have to pay for inventory and then go through the effort of cleaning it. For goodwill quality I expect closer to goodwill pricing.

My only purchase here has been a Sony 20" PVM they listed at an eye watering $2500 - literally hundreds more than equivalent eBay models that even included freight shipping. I counter offered to knock the piece down 30% so while massively out of line for what these cost a decade ago, I could at least let it go and hopefully break even if I ever sold it. I definitely wouldn't call it a deal but the one upside to something of this size was avoiding freight shipping from someone selling it cheaper and risking damage.Other local friends have reported some of the staff are more unlikely to haggle at all so you can't even count on trying to make a deal.

The selection is at least quite varied. The Seattle store has a lot of PC cases and TV's/monitors while the tukwila one has a better choice of printers and office equipment. If you just want to come peek around and see some fascinating electronics then at least the price...

GREG AND OTHER STAFF WILL DECEIVE YOU TO MAKE A SALE

I've been coming here for years. I just dropped way more money than I should have on a laptop because the price for the specs seemed really good. I noticed that it was the only one out of around ten that had the lid closed, and I also noticed that they kept shutting it after I opened it...

When I asked why it was hundreds of dollars less than the same model on newegg.com (a way better place to buy electronics), and straight up asked what was wrong with it, Greg, the manager I assume, or at least the eldest worker, got hesitant and said that was a valid question and nervously opened the lid. Everything seemed fine. I bought the laptop with $400 I shouldn't have spent because I'm losing my income and my housing and need a computer to work to not be homeless.

As soon as I tried the laptop not plugged in the screen started flickering like a strobe light. I'm neurodivergent and have had absence seizures before, and if I was epileptic THIS COULD HAVE SENT ME TO THE HOSPITAL. But +$400 is more important to you than that, isn't it?

It's extremely likely that they knew about this issue. Two staff members failed to inform me about this, both of them making a point to walk extra steps and shut the lid of this laptop when all the other ones were left open. The only probably reason they would have done this is because it was flickering on the sales floor and they knew no one would buy it if they saw that. I'm a psychology and neuroscience student and I can't imagine any way they wouldn't have known about this issue, especially since they set up the laptops. I asked what was wrong with it, they lied to me, they broke my trust and took advantage of me, and they likely will you too.

I'm never shopping here again, and I'm going to go through a ton of work to upgrade the BIOS, flash new firmware, or tweak the intel settings to get this to work because I don't want to return it and let them deceive another person and get another sale with...

They have a lot of mostly older stuff, but it's not all completely antiquated. There are some useful items that are priced well for sure - XBox 360 or PS3 for $30, various monitors, and EVERY kind of connection that passes current or data. However, they don't have a good return policy and if you spend a lot on an "as-is" item only to find that it doesn't work then you're out of luck. RecentIy, I bought an old (over 10 years old) processor and an A/V receiver but when I got them home and hooked them up, neither worked. I'm crossing my fingers they'll take back the receiver and just charge me their restocking fee (10%-20%), otherwise I'm out $75. That's an expensive paperweight! It's like gambling and the house always wins. The staff is knowledgeable and friendly and I haven't quite given up on it yet but, like I mentioned, their basically nonexistent return policy is hard to swallow. Hopefully I'll update this post with good news tomorrow. UPDATE: Life got in the way of my returning the receiver so I'm overlooking its purchase/return when considering the overall review of RE-PC. I changed it from 2 stars to 4 stars. The staff are knowledgeable and their selection is pretty wild. They have a bit of everything about 2 or 3 years old and older (not much new selection what-so-ever). I've got some adapters and cables from them that work fine, an old 2 Core cpu for an older computer I rebuilt that works, a couple sticks of DDR3 for that same build, and a working graphics card to hold me over until the GPU market comes back down to Earth. It's a Gigagbyte 660 OC 2GB and I don't have any complaints about it for $60. All-in-all, I'm becoming a fan of the place. It's definitely worth taking a look at their inventory if nothing more than to see the their museum-ish like displays of technologies of yesteryear. Last tip: avoid RE-PC if it's a warm day... no A/C and it gets hot as...