Hard drives are the new bling? Or are they the old bling now?

September 25, 2011 5:36 PM

Hey, remember when Hitachi said "The Hard Drive is the New Bling" and had that contest giving away a white gold and diamond hard drive charm?

Yeah, I won one of those charms. I have no idea what to do with this. It's been kicking around a drawer basically since I got it, and it is getting scratched. Can I sell this thing? Is there something creative I can do with this?

As part of an ongoing project to get rid of all this junk that I don't need, I'd like to figure out a use for this or get rid of it in some way so its not just something floating around. It's not that big, about the size of a quarter, link to pictures here.

Here's a forum link where someone posted the e-mail that was sent out accompanying these.

Sadly, the charm doesn't look anything like the images that accompanied Hitachi's original press release.

posted by curse to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

I like the look of the white gold with inset diamond, and I would wear it on a pendant or keychain. The engraving makes it look tacky, though, so I would probably spot weld or super glue a plain silver stamping blank to the back to cover the words. It's really very pretty & I'm a little jealous!

Alternately, if you don't feel like messing around with it, just sell it as scrap metal for some cash. Better to have cash than a useless piece of clutter (and if you don't love it, that's exactly what it is) floating around.
posted by studioaudience at 5:53 PM on September 25, 2011

How much are you willing to spend? I am sure you can find a jeweler willing to turn that into, say, a ring or pendant.
posted by spiderskull at 6:00 PM on September 25, 2011

Response by poster: Not sure how much I'd like to spend to improve this. Probably less than $100, but neither myself nor my wife are huge jewelry wearers. I suppose if I could repurpose this into another charm, that might be a good re-use for this.
posted by curse at 6:12 PM on September 25, 2011

I took a look on ebay to see how much you might get for it, but I couldn't find any current or past listings. Generic white gold and diamond charms get maybe $100. I'd probably ebay list it a couple of times to see if it sold, then take it down to a jeweler who buys gold to sell for scrap or give it to a friend if it didn't seem like it would get much. Honestly though, I think it's pretty ugly so take that into account with my answer.
posted by crabintheocean at 7:00 PM on September 25, 2011

If it was worth $500 new, as the original email suggests, I'd just sell it. Maybe get the jeweler to check out the quality of the diamond and if it's decent, get it re-set?
posted by limeonaire at 8:10 PM on September 25, 2011

It's only worth what someone will pay for it, and selling it depends on finding a buyer. Jewelry is notorious for dropping in value even more sharply than a new car from its original retail price, and this never even had a retail price - its price is made up just like special offer type goods that are only ever sold at a discount.

Totally agree about the diamond though, it's tiny but it could be a sweet reminder of winning this thing even if you don't want to keep the charm.
posted by crabintheocean at 5:29 PM on September 26, 2011

Response by poster: Yeah, I don't have high hopes for the value of this thing. I'm leaning towards selling the gold portion, and keeping the small diamond as a keepsake, somehow.
posted by curse at 11:34 AM on September 27, 2011