I love tinkering and it’s sometimes expensive to get hardware.
Do you know sites like Craigslis, forums(?), discords where a sell section exists?
I am happy for every answer.
Really depends on where you're located and what kind of cheap we're talking about. For instance, I buy the overwhelming majority of my equipment used or refurb -- anywhere from Amazon (warehouse deals) to Microcenter / Newegg (open box) to Ebay to sites like PC Server and Parts [0]. I also frequent thrift stores (got a perfectly good Epson Workforce 1100 for $9, just needed ink and a little love).<p>I will say that for some of it, stuff in the "really-cheap-in-comparison-to-MSRP, but still money" category, buying from a vendor that specializes in refurb/off-lease is a safer bet than a mishmash of Ebay parts just in the event that a given component is bad or unreliable. For instance, I recently put together a dual-Xeon box and the riser board was damaged in some way I couldn't repair; PCSP sent me a new one, problem solved. Would've been fairly costly had that been an Ebay buy (especially from a Chinese vendor, the shipping now! my god). All-in, I ended up with case, power supply, riser board, 2x E5-2667v4 CPUs, 256gb ram, GTX 1080ti for like $490. After using some other recycled parts and then selling some old stuff on Ebay, I ended up with a new computer for like 350 bucks... and for being essentially 10 year old equipment, it's shockingly performant.<p>You just never know what you'll find!<p>It takes time to research and decide what you actually want, then locate it at a good price, so you better be in love with the hunt hahaha.<p>[0] <a href="https://pcserverandparts.com" rel="nofollow">https://pcserverandparts.com</a>
My favorite sources are garage sales, swap meets, thrift stores, and storefronts for recycling centers. I haven't had much luck with online sources.
Some bigger cities have electronics recyclers and upsellers. Look for them on Google Maps or such. Thrift stores will often have printers, routers, etc.<p>Best Buy actually has a good certified used section (open box and returns) that sells them for like 20% to 30% off.
eBay and Woot for off lease stuff. Micro form factor PCs and HP thin clients (t640, t530, t730)<p>If you want a raspberry pi type of project and don’t need gpio, the thin clients are awesome and usually smoke the Pi these days.<p>With the cost of m2 ssd coming down as it has, you can get a lot out of these little devices.
A patient future of regular market monitoring accompanied by ready cash is the best preparation for scoring a lucky bargain.<p>Basically, you can trade time for money.<p>There is no website for easy arbitrage.<p>It also helps to be able to service/repair the tech you want...again trading time for money.<p>Paying market rate is fast and convenient.<p>Good luck.