VALUE NEWS:
Don’t Settle for Less: Resale Values from Retired IT Assets - Revisited

In May, 2007 Cascade analyzed resale values and trends for more than 60,000 desktop and laptop computers it tested, cleaned, repaired and/or refurbished for resale and reuse over the prior four years and issued a white paper entitled, “Don’t Settle for Less: Resale Values from Retired IT Assets.”  The company revisited this study in May 2008 and updated the data collection and analysis of the secondary markets for refurbished desktop computers and laptops.

More than 85% of the equipment Cascade resells is generated by Fortune 1000 companies with 3-4 year refresh cycles. The study reveals that resale prices for these items dropped at an average monthly rate of 2.02%.  This is below the commonly cited monthly depreciation rate of 6-10%, but is a 7% faster monthly decline from the 2007 findings.  Prices paid for the average retired desktop computer fell during the past year, primarily due to a greater mix of older equipment sold in the secondary market.

The study also demonstrates how a company with a consistent three year refresh of its equipment experienced a rise in the resale price of its laptops over time. The information presented in the updated white paper offers useful benchmarking data for enterprises embarking on IT asset retirement management and helps to establish the value to be gained through active planning in responsible IT asset disposition.  The full report can be downloaded here.