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Listing HDD Reader Head/Arms help

I'm rather new to ebay, but i'm trying to list up some Reader heads i got off of a Seagate Hard drive.
I am a college student who does IT internship and during intern, the college was going to through out some HDD SATA drives that they had, they're a bit tough and the drives were taking forever, so i offered to take them apart to destroy the data as per law. out of taking them apart, i kept the reader heads in perfect condition and destroyed the discs to get rid of the data. i transported the heads back home with me in a backpack. taking note that these are very fragile, i ducktaped them inside a cardboard box so that would not take damage at all during the trip. 
They're in perfect condition and i'm trying to list them on ebay but there is no "parts" for the hard drives in the listing. 
could someone tell me how to list these ?

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Re: Listing HDD Reader Head/Arms help

@wren-yen   I wonder if you would get more relevant replies on the Electronics Board?? Perhaps? 

 

You can use the drop menu (arrow in upper right of your post) and have the post moved there if you want.. 

That's where I would ask.. 

~Pika~
People in life that are the happiest don't have the most,, they make the most of what they have...

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Re: Listing HDD Reader Head/Arms help

@wren-yen 

 

Have you signed up for Managed Payments, providing a checking account and your SSN, so you can be paid?

Have A Great Day.
Message 3 of 8
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Re: Listing HDD Reader Head/Arms help

Internal work on hard drives is done in a clean room.

 

I would not risk trying to use your heads. You have totally ignored the appropriate processes. I would strongly recommend you throw them away or use them as a paperweight.

 

It would be unethical to sell them without disclosing they have been in an inappropriate environment, and were probably damaged.

 

There are non-destructive ways to wipe the disk in accordance with the appropriate standards.

 

Message 4 of 8
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Re: Listing HDD Reader Head/Arms help

Hi @wren-yen and welcome. Have you sold anything before this on eBay? (Just to give us an idea of where you’re at.) Are you using the app to list?

 

Under Condition on the listing form, there should be a choice listed as “For Parts/Not Working”.

 

For more info, see link below discussing computer and other device parts by category and the corresponding condition field choices. Below that is a link on how to craft a listing from scratch, so to speak. 

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/listings/creating-managing-listings/item-conditions-category?id=...

 

https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/creating-listing?id=4105

Message 5 of 8
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Re: Listing HDD Reader Head/Arms help

Find a similar item and scroll to the bottom of the page (way, way down) and you can see what category was used. 

 

Inateck USB 3.0 to IDE + SATA Converter Hard Drive Hdd Reader W/Box Disc UA2001 | eBay

 

 

Screenshot 2025-05-15 185633.png

 

 

Also eBay will put it in the category they think is best suited based on the title when you start a listing.  If you find a similar item listed there's a link on that page to sell one like this and it will put it in the same category.   The categories are not always what you think they should be or politically correct so to speak.  

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Re: Listing HDD Reader Head/Arms help

@wren-yen 

 

I will have to echo what was said by @tobaccocardyahoo 

 

Hard drive heads are extremely delicate and require precise handling, not to mention care to protect from dust, deformation, etc.  From the description you explained, there is no way anyone would want to buy heads that have been subjected to this sort of "dismantling".

 

Your intentions are good, but your procurement is not.

 

Most buyers looking for HDD parts, are going to want to buy the hard drive to take the parts out themselves directly, not trust the removal of the parts to others.

 

I sell a lot of HDDs myself, and some buyers do purchase them to use for repairing a drive they need to retrieve data from. This is why I sell only good functioning drives and list them by their model and firmware, so a buyer needing one for parts can find what they are looking for.

 

A defective drive may already have defective parts, and may not work for a part source in all cases.

 

This is something you really need to research and understand prior to listing items.  Not to mention, in general drives are pretty cheap when selling good used ones.  Most of mine are listed between 10-20 bucks each. For good, tested and wiped drives.  I actually purchased hardware to professionally wipe drives and software for diagnosing any model of drive for issues.


Just something to keep in mind.

Gator08041971  •  Volunteer Community Mentor 2024
Member of eBay since 2000

Message 7 of 8
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Re: Listing HDD Reader Head/Arms help

I just happened to look at your listing:

 

gator08041971_0-1747365759464.png

 

 

This will not work.  You have duct tape (leaving residue) on the parts, taped to cardboard.  And 20 each?  Some of them appear bent in the pictures.....   I mean....  The heads are now touching each other, which they are not allowed to do...  There are so many things wrong with this...  I mean, even finger residue would ruin these heads.

 

What made you think you could sell these?  I'm genuinely curious.  These are 3TB server drives, assuming these all came from the exact same model and version/firmware even.  You could probably buy the entire drive whole for 20 or less, depending on the seller.

 

And if these were pulled from different models and versions/firmware, how do you know which is which?

 

I don't want to make you feel bad but as a first outing selling items, this would be a bad choice in my opinion and not likely to sell for anything but maybe crafting projects...   Unless there is a drive part market out there for these I'm not aware of that will buy parts in this condition?

 

Now if you were wanting to sell whole drives, that would have been a better option than this.  And yes, they can be wiped, though some entities prefer physical destruction as the only certain way vs proven electronic erasure methods.  But if being physically destroyed, then just toss it all, you don't save parts of it like this as none of it will be reusable unless its properly disassembled, which frankly, these weren't.

 

Sorry.

 

Good luck though.

Gator08041971  •  Volunteer Community Mentor 2024
Member of eBay since 2000

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