Want to Quit Mining? Here’s How to Sell Hardware and Avoid Losing Your Money

In recent weeks, we’ve published a series of articles on mining: what it is and how to start it, how mining pools work, and how to maintain a mining farm. However, there is another relevant topic we would like to share with you. Sometimes miners decide to quit mining, so they want to sell their graphics cards at a good price. In this article, you will learn how to sell your mining hardware to get the greatest possible benefits and avoid financial losses.

Signs It’s Time to Sell Your Mining Hardware

Any miner would want their graphics card to serve as long as possible and bring mining profits, but selling it for good money after it’s out of service is impossible. What’s the best time to sell it, then? Experts say that the average graphics card’s lifespan is around 3 years. It depends on several factors, such as overclocking, cooling, etc. And of course, the manufacturer plays a significant role. After three years of use, fans stop working, thermal paste has to be replaced, and chips become obsolete. Thus, the best time to sell your graphics card is when it still works and remains useful for the buyer. Especially as it’s possible to sell the whole hardware, not by parts.

Selling the Whole Mining Rig at Once

With this option, you don’t have to take apart your rig, you spend less time negotiating with buyers, and you save on advertising costs. Graphics cards are always in demand: some use them for mining farms, while the others assemble gaming computers with them. In the latter case, preserved packaging will be your advantage since gamers usually ask for component boxes. Also, it’s better to save your motherboard backplate that is usually removed while assembling a rig. You’re better off keeping it in place as buyers may need it to build a gaming PC.

Don’t forget to wipe all personal data, mining configurations, and all commercial Linux distribution settings of your hard drive. Simple formatting is usually not enough since it preserves the possibility of deleted data recovery. To make sure it’s impossible to restore your data, use free software like Secure Erase that is available for SSD and HDD.

Selling Graphics Cards Apart

This way may be more profitable since standalone components usually cost more. However, this method has its shortcomings — you will spend more time searching for buyers, while some of the details may be out of demand (like small data storage units, low-performance processors, housings, and PSU synchronizers). Having the original VBIOS restored beforehand would ensure that the chips will work properly for gamers — without this, non-standard timings and low voltages may lead to games failing.

What’s the Graphics Card Service Time After It Has Operated For Years at Full Capacity?

As mentioned above, a graphics card is most effective when used for three years. If a chip has been properly maintained, its service shouldn’t be a problem. If it has worked for 3 years and is now being purchased by a gamer, that doesn’t mean it will fail in the near future. Most likely, it will serve well for a few more years.

There are two critical factors that can damage graphics cards — the chip soldering failure and sharp temperature changes. This happens when you turn off mining and the graphics card quickly cools down from 80°C to 30°C. In the same way, if a gamer launches a game that requires excessive processing power, the system will rapidly heat up. However, modern graphics cards allow for thousands of such heat-cool cycles without any harmful consequences. Moreover, if you constantly mine and don’t suspend the process too often, your chips will be safer than if you’d frequently turn mining off.

Recognizing Graphics Card Problems in Advance

The first symptoms of graphics card problems may not be visible, but the good news is that you can monitor the miner’s work and detect all issues in a timely manner.

Most often, problems start with the cooling system and the memory rather than with the chip itself. Fans are easy to maintain and change, but chips or memory require more investment. If a GPU breaks, you’ll have to re-solder chips, which needs special equipment and skills. However, you can learn about the problems in advance by monitoring the number of errors in the mining process. If you mine on Hive OS, errors will be displayed in red in the video card string as well as be shown in the mining software logs.

As for errors, if there are fewer than 30–40 a day, they won’t affect mining much, so there’s no need to worry. If the number of errors is steadily growing, this is the reason to start taking action. First, turn down overclocking: for instance, decrease memory frequency from 2,100 to 2,050 MHz. In any case, these errors point to memory wearing, not a chip breakage — so the video card is still good for gaming. To make it serve well for gamers, restore the original VBIOS and run a few tests (3DMark benchmark, for example). If you don’t see artifacts (vertical lines or squares), a gamer will be able to use the chip for a few more years.

When Is the Best Moment to Sell?

Whatever the performance of the graphics card may be after years of use, its price will be much lower than the one you bought it for. It is likely that you will sell a chip at around 20% of its original price, if you bought it at a price peak. For example, a rig made up of 7 video cards RX 470 4 Gb bought in 2018 for $3,000 can be sold only for $500–600 in 2021. The price decline of such cards is not something you should worry about — during their lifetime, they will pay for themselves several times over.

Now, here’s a tip on selling your video cards. The demand grows as Bitcoin goes up, and so does their price. When the first cryptocurrency is about to set new records, it is the perfect time to check the prices and possibly sell your equipment. There’s a strong correlation between Bitcoin’s and graphics cards’ prices: when Bitcoin plunged to $3,400 in March 2020, the demand for GPUs was at its lowest. When crypto started to grow again in late 2020, even rigs with 4 GB video cards sold well. If you are about to sell your chips, keep track of the market situation — a bullish mood will help you get more money for the same bargain.

Key Takeaways

We hope this guide has provided you with a better understanding of what to keep in mind while selling your graphics cards if you decided to give up mining. The key takeaways are the following:

• Don’t throw away any graphics card components while setting it up as a rig.
• Keep track of its memory performance and cooling system.
• Try to turn off the mining process less often to preserve your chips.

While GPUs can serve for many years if they are properly maintained, their optimal period of use is 3 years. Sell your graphics card when the crypto market is booming. There is greater demand for mining software, and you are more likely to make a profit.