For many businesses, getting a reasonable amount of cash for idle capital assets is a big improvement. Typically, companies depreciate used or surplus equipment or donate it to charity for a tax write-off. Sometimes, businesses list secondhand equipment on land-based exchanges or sell it at live auctions. But the longer it takes to unload secondhand equipment, the more the value of the equipment rusts away. Used heavy industrial equipment, which can take a long time to sell, rarely fetches more than 10 to 20 cents on the dollar when put on the block.
Computers depreciate even faster.
So they sit there. PCs depreciate at a rate of at least 1 percent a week. He said he didn't know. Then he shook his head and said he wasn't even sure where the old PCs were. They're starting to.