[weblacky]

I was thinking about what to do afterwards with this Fuel PIMM from Noguri and an Octane mainboard I've not gotten to yet that's dead from KayBee as well.  I do have some money into them...but not that much so I don't mind passing it along to a cause.

I was thinking about floating an idea here...community hardware loaner/dealer program?

I might be a good idea to have a few mainboards, CPUs, PSUs, and the like that can be loaned for troubleshooting and then purchased at full price if so desired?  I would be nice if there was a business owner that could place credit card authorizations/holds for safety, and the item would have to be mailed back within like 30 days?  If we could do this with REPAIRED parts (so the repair restores value, bad parts donated or purchased from a fund, repairs donated with some community funds for electronic components, maybe). 


I know some of us have our "spares" and sometimes...yeah they are worth a lot...no doubt and it's hard to trust people (I'm bad at sharing, I assume the worst will happen and I have to be okay with that when I go out on a limb for someone).  But with hardware failures starting to mount and supplies getting low perhaps this should be tried (even if we experience bad results with items being stolen, long term).

However I also see that this doesn't really solve the "end problem".  If that spare hardware works and now someone's back in business, this forces them to still return it and seek another replacement. While we cannot keep prices low, if we could do a try-before you buy sort of thing then even with high prices, some people might say it was totally worth it and once their system runs...they pay the previously stated price for the part and the loaner program now needs to use that new money to find MORE broken/working hardware to increase/enhance it's collection?  If not, the person pays to return the hardware on schedule, as planned (re-using the packaging).  Yeah, we would need to test incoming hardware and compared with pictures and whatnot and perhaps we'd HAVE to change something for the borrowing anyway (sliding scale based on the item).

I understand that this does constitute work and perhaps the person running it needs to be somewhat compensated for testing time and packing time and given the ability to run it a little iron-fisted and like demand scans of driver's licenses and a signed agreement to repay a certain amount or whatever upon damage or loss but maybe it's worth trying?

I'll also have a spare Indigo2 solid IMPACT graphics card as well after upcoming work on an Indigo2 and I have Indy and Indigo2 RAM I'll never used (too low density) but for testing, it works great!  So that's four items I've mentioned, right there!


I'm not going to be pushy but I'd like to ask, if we had a good checks/balances system to some kind of SGI loaner hardware program, would anyone be willing to participate?  Maybe we've reached this point where trusted members (having given enough personal info to Raion or something) could be allowed to pay for shipping to and from them to borrow basic system's hardware for testing purposes should other members agree this is really something that should be done (i.e. it could be the Indigo2's mainboard or graphics...we'll loan you a graphics card to break the stalemate).

And then we'll have dealer-level pricing on the parts, should the person just decide it works and they want to keep the repaired part(s) they can PAY Raion, that part's removed from inventory and sold to the user and that money is used to buy/replace the part from a dealer or as community funds to buy dead/damaged parts/systems off users for repair and such?

I realize this crosses several boundaries (you could just be a business/dealer that sells parts with a really generous return policy) and such.  Perhaps this entity could be setup as a legal non-profit it if gets big enough to pay for hardware loaning (doesn't need need to be just SGIs, could be PCs and Mac too).

I only bring this up because I feel bad getting some of this hardware for basically FREE, then fixing it, and then considering turning around and selling it for like full-price (though it would be nice to recoup what I did put into them) and as the hobby becomes more expensive, knowing that you can get a graphics card or PSU quickly, to test would mean a lot...the only issue would be once it works...the part has equal chances of either not being returned (fraud, theft, switcheroo) or wanting to be purchased outright (because it works!) and if we don't charge real retail rates, it will be abused as a cheap parts supply.

Anyway I'm open (I understand I could do this personally as well) but I thought perhaps Raion or others in the community could either further refine the idea or perhaps wanted to start something themselves.  I'd be happy to pass on what I can (when I can) to a part custodian as long as it's not a one-way street with take take take and no give.  If I get to do repairs on the dead parts purchased by the fund and there is some money for the repair, that would be even better for me (both ways, restored parts, and parts/shipping not coming out of my wallet).

But I know there are those people who have no problem paying a premium for something that works, that's already installed and in their hands and that money could buy up broken hardware for repair from other members and grow the inventory.

Anyway thoughts?

[Shiunbird]

The need is clear, but do we need to have a centralised program of sorts?
I, for one, would love to help more here, but my daily job makes it impossible. Managing such program would be very time consuming for anyone involved.

A few months ago, I helped grom371 troubleshoot his Octane. He shipped me his hardware, I tested it, shipped it back, offered my own spare in case of need. He paid for shipping here and back. In my opinion, it's better two have two machines up and running than to have one running and a spare for the case my own machine would break - assuming the exact same part would fail.

I like to have some faith in mankind, even though it's surely running thin. This is such a small community that, really, what would one gain by stealing something and ending up ostracised from the only community available?

So, food for thought... we could have a pinned thread or a page where we could publish our list of spare parts available for lease and our machines. We could get in touch and organize test and shares if required. For parts of higher value, the individuals involved could discuss case-by-case.

Am I being too naïve?

[Raion]

I've wanted to do stuff like this in the past but distance, bad faith actors and people who take hardware I gave them free/at a discount and didn't deliver were huge problems.

It's not exactly the same as what I was trying to do granted but I think that such things are fraught with pitfalls of the same variety. We have to deal with cross county shipping, inflation raising shipping costs to unaffordable levels, and more.

[weblacky]

Shiunbird has a good thought, maybe a "loaner" or "borrowing" section with posts is a good place to start as individuals. Similar to marketplace but not a sale.

And I agee, as I brought up, good faith actors are required and yeah...ripe for abuse. But it would be nice to have an advertised place. I don't have all the answers but I thought perhaps a group think on it might yield something better than to hope you're asking the right person at the right time to get a piece of hardware you need for testing/repair.

[Raion]

At some point we can discuss it -- unless you guys want to get more users on board. get a few more in different parts of the world to say "i'm in" and we'll add it.

[weblacky]

Okay, As I go through my stuff I'll decide if it's a donate or a sell and get back to this.