Think Geek has a growing pile of returns and damaged product that they’re trying to get rid of. The purveyors of technological oddities, like any other large retailer, sometimes have stuff that doesn’t work right, or has been damaged somewhere between factory and consumer. The broken bits find their way back to the distribution center and now they’re stuck with the task of doing something with it.
They can’t sell it, and we’re happy to say they don’t want to throw it out. So they’re considering giving it away to worth-while causes like Hackerspaces and schools. Looks like no real details have been hammered out as of yet. But if you belong to a Hackerspace or other group that can find a use for this stuff, click-through the link above and sign up to let them know you’re interested. The goldmine of reusable stuff is located in Columbus, Ohio and pick-ups might be available. Otherwise they’re going to need to find a way to cover the cost to ship boxes to those interested.
Don’t forget to document your projects and let us know what you use this stuff for.
[Thanks RenderMan]
A) first coment! Woot! B) damn. I just put up somthing just like that on the clasifides.
Excellent idea !
All broken things should have a second try before landfill.
Dated a girl who worked for support at ThinkGeek. She used to bring home returns all the time. I have plenty of “broken” Thinkgeek toys.
[troll mode]@Andrew: Dated? So she’s free now?[/troll mode]
Anyways, I guess shipping to russia is not an option, so I’ll stick to china suppliers =)
This is an absolutely wonderful idea. Good on you ThinkGeek!
Damn i love tg *proudly wears his
S
T
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University tshirts*
lol at them using “borked”
I’m wondering if this isn’t part of their April Fools tradition for this year
@Thopter: I hope not – considering they’re collecting names and addresses.
I was thinking of submitting an April Fools hack, but i’ve been busy and it’s kind of hard to photograph yourself with your working lightsaber prototype. the only reason i’m even saying this here is because my ‘lightsaber’ is broken goods. a cold cathode i’ve had forever, one wire came off, i’ve taken it apart and soldered a new wire on now though, and it has been repurposed as an artificial sun for indoor plants. if you’ve got some old cold-cathodes laying around, it’s the wire at the far end of the tube that you sever, and then instead of a solid tube of light, it becomes proximity-reactive, as it feeds off your electrons or whatever. the open wire is great for burning yourself and frying electronics, among other things. seeing what it can do makes me extra cautious about how i place cold cathode wiring in relation to my mobo, etc.
Weird coincidence, I was at the thrift store the other day and they had a huge bin of some musical shirts from ThinkGeek (like the drum set shirt, electric guitar shirt etc.) for 3 bucks a pop.
Awesome! Reminds me of ‘district 9′ in the slums the one alien has a load of computer parts just hacking it up!
I got a drawer of old modems and WIFI adapters n’ old radios and all sorts of crap. I figure a person could siphon any number of components out of that crap! Old remotes and laser pens…who knows????
Lots of things to tinker with! Or just salvage what you can!
Hey I was wondering if you still have those old items. I’d gladly take them for some current projects I’m working on