Old Cables, Real Money: What Your Legacy Adapters Are Actually Worth Before You Toss Them
Let's be honest — most of us have a drawer, a box, or some sad corner of a closet dedicated entirely to cables and adapters we haven't touched in years. Some of those connectors belonged to laptops we no longer own. Some came bundled with hardware that got donated to Goodwill half a decade ago. And some are just... there. Mysterious. Possibly from another dimension.
Before you do a clean sweep and dump all of it into the recycling bin, though, it's worth taking a few minutes to actually sort through what you've got. Because some of that stuff — and this might surprise you — has real resale value. Not life-changing money, but enough to make the effort worthwhile. And the stuff that doesn't sell? There are better options than landfill.
Here's how to think through it.
FireWire: Niche, But Not Dead
FireWire (IEEE 1394) got bodied by USB pretty decisively, but it hasn't completely disappeared from the market. The reason is audio and video professionals. A surprising number of older audio interfaces — especially from brands like MOTU, Presonus, and Focusrite — shipped with FireWire connectivity, and those units still sound great. Musicians and home studio owners who invested in that gear aren't necessarily rushing to replace it.
FireWire 400 and 800 cables and adapters show up regularly on eBay and Reverb, with FireWire 800 (the 9-pin variety) commanding a bit more. Expect $10–$25 for a decent cable, sometimes more if it's a reputable brand like Belkin or Apple. If you've got a FireWire PCIe card sitting around, that's potentially worth even more to someone trying to resurrect an older DAW setup.
The caveat: condition matters a lot. Bent pins or frayed cables kill the value entirely.
Mini-DisplayPort: Still Relevant in Surprising Places
Mini-DisplayPort had a decent run — Apple used it heavily from roughly 2008 through the mid-2010s, and it appeared on a range of Windows ultrabooks and Microsoft Surface devices before USB-C took over. The good news is that Mini-DisplayPort to HDMI and Mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapters still sell consistently.
Why? Because older MacBooks and Surface Pros don't stop working just because they're old. Plenty of people are still running a 2013 MacBook Air or a Surface Pro 3 as a secondary machine, and they need display adapters. The secondary market on eBay reflects this — quality Mini-DP adapters from brands like Cable Matters or Monoprice regularly sell for $8–$18 used.
If you've got a Mini-DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI adapter (the kind Apple sold for use with older 30-inch Cinema Displays), hang onto that one. Those go for $30–$60+ because they're genuinely hard to find and still needed for specific high-res display setups.
Proprietary Laptop Charging Bricks: It Depends Entirely on the Brand
This is where things get complicated. Proprietary laptop chargers are a massive category, and the resale market is all over the place.
Apple MagSafe adapters are the clear winner here. Both MagSafe 1 (the T-tip and L-tip varieties) and MagSafe 2 remain in demand because older MacBooks hold their value well and Apple stopped making these. A working 85W MagSafe 2 can fetch $30–$55 on eBay. The catch is that counterfeit MagSafe adapters are rampant, so buyers are cautious — if you're selling, having the original Apple packaging or being able to clearly show the Apple logo and branding helps a lot.
Dell barrel connectors and HP Smart AC adapters sell, but for less. Expect $10–$20 for name-brand units in good condition. Generic third-party chargers for these platforms? Basically worthless on the secondary market — too much competition from cheap new units.
IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad barrel-tip chargers have a modest collector market among ThinkPad enthusiasts, but it's not huge. If you've got a slim-tip Lenovo charger for a newer ThinkPad, those are more useful since Lenovo used that connector well into the USB-C transition era.
For anything truly obscure — old Sony VAIO chargers, Toshiba proprietary connectors, older Acer units — the honest answer is that the market is thin. You might find a buyer eventually, but it could take months.
Industrial and Obscure Connectors: Surprisingly Active Niche
This is the category most people don't think about. If you've ever worked in AV, broadcast, industrial automation, or medical equipment, you might have connectors that look completely alien to a typical consumer — DB25 serial cables, BNC connectors, SCSI terminators, even older RS-232 adapters.
These have legitimate resale value in specific communities. Legacy industrial equipment, older broadcast gear, and vintage synthesizers all have active communities that need these parts. eBay is the primary marketplace, but forums like Gearslutz (now Gearspace), Reddit's r/vintageaudio, and even Craigslist can connect you with buyers who know exactly what they're looking at.
The key is accurate, specific listing descriptions. "Old computer cable" gets ignored. "DB25 male to female RS-232 serial extension cable, 6ft" gets found by the person who needs exactly that.
What's Actually Worth Recycling (And How to Do It Right)
Okay, so not everything has resale value. Micro-USB cables from 2015, old 30-pin iPhone cables, generic barrel chargers for discontinued devices — the market for these is essentially zero. But that doesn't mean they belong in the trash.
E-waste recycling is the right move for electronics that can't be reused. A few solid options for US residents:
- Best Buy has in-store e-waste recycling drop boxes that accept cables and small electronics, no purchase required.
- Staples runs a similar program.
- Earth911.com has a zip code search tool that'll find certified e-waste recyclers near you.
- Call2Recycle focuses on batteries but often partners with facilities that take broader electronics.
Donation is worth considering too. Organizations like PCs for People and World Computer Exchange refurbish older tech for underserved communities — and they sometimes need the accessories that go with that hardware. A box of mixed cables might be exactly what they need to get a donated laptop fully functional.
A Quick Sorting Framework Before You Dive In
If you're staring at a pile of mystery cables and feeling overwhelmed, here's a simple way to approach it:
- Identify the connector type — both ends. If you can't name it, a quick Google image search usually does the trick.
- Check eBay completed listings (not active — completed, so you see what actually sold) to get a real price sense.
- Anything over $10 in resale value: List it. eBay or Facebook Marketplace both work.
- Anything functional but low-value: Consider donating before recycling.
- Broken, frayed, or truly obsolete: E-waste bin.
The whole process takes maybe an hour for a typical junk drawer haul, and you'll walk away with a cleaner space, a few extra bucks, and the vague satisfaction of knowing your old FireWire cable found a new home in someone's recording studio.
Not bad for stuff you were about to throw away.
