ITParade.com facilitates buying, selling of used IT equipment; boasts safe environment
Research Triangle Park, NC — October 30, 2003 — The second largest used-IT exchange on the Internet, ITParade.com, said it plans to overtake eBay with this simple premise: encouraging — not just tolerating — communication between buyers and sellers of large IT systems.
The company's newly revamped Exchange Service handles $4 billion of inventory at any given time and has a roster of clients that includes AT&T, British Telecom, Intel and Siemens. "The average hardware sale on eBay is $147.00," pointed out Robert Davie, founder of ITParade.com. "We handle transactions in the $25,000 to $250,000 range, but they've even been as high as $1.1 million. We built our new system around our customers' need for communication and planning," he said.
With IT budgets flat, ITParade said blue chip companies are discovering used equipment. "We're getting a lot of interest in refurbished systems," reported Davie. "It's no secret that companies are getting serious about used equipment, especially for redundancy and disaster recovery."
David added that you can call the systems pre-owned, refurbished, used or whatever you'd like, but that the main point is smart buyers want to know the seller isn't a fly-by-night outfit. "We require our sellers to provide ITParade.com with industry references, and we thoroughly vet them. It's a lot of work, but our buyers like peer recommendations."
The payoff, according to Davie, is a safe environment in which buyers can search for and buy equipment. "We even let our customers receive equipment and test it for 30 days before payment is required. Sometimes a part that tests fine for the seller may not work in the buyer's system," he explained.
All of the 200,000 items from 800 companies that populate the ITParade.com Exchange come with a warranty (generally 30 to 365 days, depending on the seller and type of equipment) and a guarantee of service from the manufacturer. The buyer and seller can negotiate these warranties and extend them if they want. Buyers can solicit quotes and ask questions on any items listed.
