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So I contacted a guy online that has 31 HP Chromebooks for sale. Only thing he says about them is that they are in need of batteries for most of them. He's asking $200 for all 31 laptops...
Think I'd still make money scrapping these out or is that just way too much to spend for them?
I know I'd basically have between 31-62 of them half size RAM (or might be the M.2 sticks) and then all the motherboards.. i just dont know what weights are for individual items to be able to rough out some math myself.

Thanks for any input y'all can provide me. I'm thinking of offering the guy $125-$150 but feeling like that may be too much also.

:/

If they work that’s money. Batteries cost about $20 in bulk packs.
These usually flip for 50-150 depending on specs.

If they partly work but are trashed, assuming the ram is removable and the wifi card is removable you’re still in the $15-30 range on parts.

If they don’t work, you’re looking at about $5-$10 per netbook in scrap, on the better side. But as low as $2-5.

Honestly it depends on what exact Chromebooks you are buying. Some are full real world laptops. Others are single board units with nothing removable. Some or not much more than a literal tablet board with a bunch of wires plugged into screwed-down ports.

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I believe the seller told me they were all from 2021 and that they all are completely intact and should work if supplied power. He says he hasn't removed anything from them.

If they are telling the truth: you have printed money at that price.
Worst case is you have low end single board units and flip them for $25-$50 on the low end.

Best case they are full fledged AMD or atom netbooks with otherwise standard boards. Removable memory, wifi, usb cards, ssd, that’s xlose to a hundred a unit with time and effort. A pair of 2GB ram sticks can fetch $25-30 on ebay moment. WiFi ABCN card $10-20 ssd over 512 $25-50+

Don’t even worry about selling the units, I wouldn’t. Syschk is free cross platform on gethub

Personally, honestly, I’d buy a 10pk batteries, test every system with SC, pull every part for ebay, and send the mobo and screen partial to boardsort. (I can’t do anything with a screen under 16” and have a pallet of them smaller in the garage for TerraCycle.
I’d sell the 10 best, part out the rest, and send the shells to Boardsort.


My own opinion

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With good batteries I sell these consistently for $30ea.

Depends on what they actually are but I’m with you.
There’s some that I would never pay for used or new. There’s a few, including HP, I’d charge to recycle.
There’s hundred dollar netbooks. And thousand dollar ones. And ten dollar ones they sell for $49.99

Hp themselves have a few models over time that are basically a tablet and a bunch of wired ports. So what you walk away with is where you start.

To better answer the OP:
We have no clue what you’re buying. A sample model number would tell me everything you need to know in a few minutes of work.
Your statement that they have removable memory is a great sign (I actually read your whole post now, sorry). That takes away the bottom end of junk.
So you’re somewhere between an ultralight board that goes high peripheral, and a full fledged mobo.

More accurately replying after reading the entire post:
Personally with what little has been said, if op has any level of basic troubleshooting experience with computers:
I’d take the deal
I’d buy a battery
I’d cobble together one working unit.
I’d download a bootable MemTest image for USB.
And if I didn’t have one, I’d buy the cheapest printer I could.

For me?
I’d test every single ram module, yep, that takes a while. When the test is down ctrl+prtscr, out comes the test results on paper with the memory’s embedded info front and centre. No ebay not-as-advertised claims you can’t win.
To hell with everything else. Memory prices are through the roof at the moment and SOD and proprietary modules are blowing away standard ram.

Honestly I’m still trying to wrap my head around my NIB 1tb Samsung SSD sale a few weeks back. I paid $79 for it. Looked at the prices and posted if for 99.99 with a $250 bin.
Sold it in under 1 hour BIN. (Actually I think it was close to about 3 minutes).

That stack of memory NIB and NOB in my workshop is very close to going up as well at this point.

Dude, if you can afford it take the deal. Seriously.
I’m seeing junk Chromebook’s selling doa for $1 plus $20 shipping. And I’ve asked a few people.
They are literally desoldering memory from dead laptops and tablets. Testing them out and selling them.
This market is beyond crazy.

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