What's up with these ipods?

March 29, 2012 5:55 AM

ipod filter...What to do with all these non-working ipods? I have 4 older 20mb & 30mb original style ipods that don't work at all. Won't charge or do anything. Also, I have a 5-6 year old Nano that is in the same boat. Is there any hope for these or are they just trash? Any ideas? Thanks!
posted by mikedelic to Technology (14 answers total)

You can get 10% off if you give them back to Apple when you buy a new one. Maybe ask friends if they have plans to buy any? (I know this works in the USA, though I don't know about other countries).
posted by raccoon409 at 6:03 AM on March 29, 2012

If something on them works or the body is in good shape, people buy them for parts on eBay.
posted by theichibun at 6:08 AM on March 29, 2012

Are you absolutely sure they don't work anymore? I charged up a long-dead 1gen the other day and it came back to life. Same thing happened with an old iPod photo; once it charged for a few hours, I smacked it against a hard surface and ping! Back to life. Next stop: eBay.

There are also recommendations like this for opening things up and fiddling with them (which could, of course, result in you having no old iPods, just old iPod pieces). But again, smacking the thing against a hard surface was more than enough in my case.
posted by juliplease at 6:11 AM on March 29, 2012

I had one of those and I got a new battery put in - good as new now. Maybe there is someone local to you who might be able to try that? (It's probably not worth however much it would cost to get it done at an official Apple store, seeing as it might not fix the problem).
posted by KateViolet at 6:54 AM on March 29, 2012

I recently bought a 4th gen Nano on eBay and was amazed at how much completely non-functional units were selling for. You can specify that the item is for parts or repair only and that's a filterable search option in the sidebar.
posted by des at 7:00 AM on March 29, 2012

I know someone that has his iPods displayed from oldest to newest on a wooden shelf in his study room. It's actually pretty cool since you get to see how much they have changed over time. Think: the evolution of an iPod.
posted by livinglearning at 7:04 AM on March 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

It's the curse of modern gadgets. My Sony Walkman from the '80s and Discman from the '90s still work great, but nothing I bought between 1995 and 2005 works at all, including televisions, music players, or stereos. (The one exception are computers, which are built modularly and designed to be repaired rather than discarded.)

Best Buy will recycle them for you for free.
posted by coolguymichael at 8:26 AM on March 29, 2012

Repeating des, eBay is your friend here. I've just finished selling a whole bunch of items including a completely bust up camera for a decent return. So long as you make it clear you're selling them as non-working and the condition they are in you should be in good shape.
posted by eb98jdb at 8:32 AM on March 29, 2012

If you're in New York City, Tekserve has an electronics recycling event this Saturday.
posted by monospace at 9:30 AM on March 29, 2012

Also, I have a 5-6 year old Nano that is in the same boat. Is there any hope for these or are they just trash?

Apple sent me an email a couple months ago that said my five-year-old Nano was part of a cohort found to have a faulty battery and that as part of my long-since-expired warranty, I could send it back to them and get a new one for free. I did so and got a shiny new-to-me refurbished 8gb Nano with a touch-screen in exchange for my bricked 2gb first-genish Nano.

I registered my Nano with Apple when I first got it and had to provide them with the serial number on it to send it in to them, but I bet if you have the thing and the serial number, Apple has a way to tell you if it's part of the cohort. I was very excited to get my new toy for free!
posted by Snarl Furillo at 1:17 PM on March 29, 2012

Ebay or Craigslist. You can just put them up as a lot and easily get a decent amount of money for them.
posted by Slinga at 2:32 PM on March 29, 2012

If you don't want to try to sell them on Ebay for parts, ask around your friends. There might be people who are into electronics who would love to take them apart just to see their innards (and scrounge any bits that might be reusable in their own electronics projects). I would!
posted by lollusc at 4:22 PM on March 29, 2012

I once sold an iPod classic on eBay that I had "upgraded" with an oversized battery and kept sealed with duct tape. The audio jack was also inoperative. I pointed these things out and took lots of pictures: $60.00 at close.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:50 AM on March 30, 2012

Oh, and it's Gb, not Mb.
posted by oceanjesse at 7:51 AM on March 30, 2012