How it works
Ring us, or send the form, and tell us what you have — the type of machine and roughly how old it is is enough to start with.
Bring it in and we will look at it properly. Then you get a figure, and the machine you are buying gets quoted with that figure already taken off, so you can see exactly what you are paying. Like everything else here, the quote comes within 24 hours and nothing is committed until you agree it.
If you decide not to go ahead, you take the old machine home again. There is no obligation either way.
What we take
Laptops, desktops, all-in-ones and towers. Machines that work, and in many cases machines that do not.
That last part surprises people. A laptop with a cracked screen, a dead battery or a failed drive still has value, because the rest of the machine is usually fine and we have the bench to put it right. A machine that will not switch on is worth less than one that will, but it is rarely worth nothing.
What it is actually worth comes down to the model, its age and its condition. We are not going to guess at that over the phone and then change our minds when we see it — we look at the machine and give you a real number.
Why trade in rather than sell it privately
You get the money against something useful straight away
No listing, no messages, no meeting a stranger in a car park, no waiting for somebody who never turns up.
Your data does not leave with the machine
This is the part that should worry people about a private sale and usually does not. Everything that comes in here is wiped properly before it goes anywhere — not a factory reset with your files still recoverable underneath.
It is one trip
You come in once. The old machine stays, the new one goes with you. In a suburb where most people are on foot or on a train — Perth, McIver and Elizabeth Quay stations are all within walking distance of each other — one trip instead of three is worth something on its own.
It does not end up in landfill
A working computer that gets refurbished and resold has years left in it. One that goes in a bin does not.
If there is anything on it you still need
Tell us before you hand it over, not after.
If there are photos, documents or anything else on the old machine that has not been copied off, say so when you ring. We will sort that out first. Once a drive has been wiped it is wiped, and that is the point of wiping it.
We do not expect you to work out what is backed up and what is not, or to move anything yourself. Just tell us what matters and we will handle it.
What happens to the machine afterwards
It goes on the bench.
It is opened, cleaned out and checked over. The drive is wiped and the operating system goes on fresh. Worn parts get replaced. If the storage is slow or small, or the memory is tight, that gets fixed too. Then it is tested as a whole machine and goes out to somebody else with 90 days warranty on it.
That is the whole cycle, and in this suburb it turns over quickly. Perth is full of offices replacing hardware on a few-year schedule, and full of apartments and students who need a good machine without new-machine money. Trade-in is the part of the cycle where a household machine joins it. See what we do to a machine before selling it
Trading in against a build
A trade-in is not only for buying refurbished. If you are having a machine built, the old one can come off the price the same way. Custom gaming PC builds
Before you trade it in — is it worth keeping?
Sometimes the answer is that you should not replace it at all.
If the machine is only a few years old and the complaint is that it has got slow, that is usually storage or memory rather than the machine being finished. An SSD and a memory upgrade can make it feel like a different computer, and it costs far less than replacing it. We will say so if that is what we think, even though it is the smaller job. SSD and memory upgrades
What you need to bring
The machine and its charger, if you still have it. That is it.
You do not need the box, the receipt or the model number. You do not need to check anything, test anything or look anything up before you come in — that is our job, and it is the whole reason to bring it to a workshop rather than photograph it for a listing.
The practical details
- Firm quote within 24 hours, with the trade-in already taken off.
- No obligation. If you change your mind, the old machine goes home with you.
- 90 days warranty on whatever you buy.
- Monday to Friday, 10am to 4pm, Bayswater workshop.
Talk to us about a trade-in
Tell us what you have and what you are thinking of replacing it with. We will give you a figure for one and a price for the other.