Data on the drives: what we can and cannot certify
Or call the buying desk: (732) 996-6310
What we do not do
We are a buyer. We purchase hardware, take title, arrange the freight and resell it. We run no sanitization line, no degausser and no shredder, and we hold no certification that would make a statement from us about your data worth anything. Here is the whole of it, both columns:
What a buyer does for you
- Buy the hardware and take title to it
- Book the carrier and move the lot off your site
- Count what arrived against your list, in writing
- Route a lot through a certified processor when your policy needs one
- Pay you on agreed terms
What we will not claim to do
- Wipe, degauss, shred or otherwise sanitize storage media
- Issue a certificate of destruction, or sign one drafted by you
- Hold NAID AAA, or any processing certification
- Claim alignment with NIST SP 800-88
- Offer an audited custody trail from your dock to a final processor
If anything in the right-hand column is a requirement rather than a preference, use a instead of us, and we explain which certification covers which activity. We would rather lose the lot than take it under a description that is not true.
Your three options for the drives
Pick one before the pickup, not after. Which one you pick changes the offer, so tell us when you send the list.
Keep the drives
Pull the storage before we collect and keep it, destroy it, or hand it to whoever your policy names. We buy the machines without them. It costs you a little value per unit and it removes the question entirely, which for a lot of sellers is the right trade.
Best when your policy names a destruction method and you have to evidence it internally.
Wipe before pickup
Run your own wipe, your own tool, your own log, and ship the machines complete. You keep the evidence because your tool produced it. The drives stay in the units, so the lot is worth more than the same lot stripped.
Best when you already run a wipe tool and can export a report per serial.
Route it through a certified processor
Routing a lot through a certified processor is available on request. We name the processor for that specific job, in writing, before the collection is booked. You check the certificate in the public registry before anything leaves your building, and the lot is priced on that route rather than on ours.
Best when your policy requires a certificate from a certified processor.
There is no fourth option where we take the drives and tell you they were handled properly. If that is what you need, you need a certified processor, and we will say so on the call rather than take the lot and improvise.
Where NIST SP 800-88 fits, and where it does not
NIST SP 800-88 is a US government guideline on media sanitization. It describes three outcomes, clear, purge and destroy, and it is the document most wipe tools point at when they produce a report. It is a guideline and not a certification, so there is no registry to check and no auditor to fail. Anyone may claim alignment with it.
We make no such claim. We do not wipe, so we cannot align with a wiping guideline. If you wipe before pickup and your tool produces an 800-88 report, that report is yours and it is evidence you can hold. Ours would be a sentence on a website, which is not the same thing.
Paperwork we can and cannot issue
Two rows in this table are a flat no, and they are the two rows most sellers ask about first. The rest are questions worth asking before you agree a pickup.
| Document | Can we issue it? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Written offer for the lot | Yes. Before you commit anything. | States what we are buying, at what figure, and on what terms. It is priced on the whole lot, against current market conditions. |
| Bill of sale, transferring title | Yes. As standard, on every lot. | This is the document that records that the hardware stopped being yours and became ours. |
| Itemized receiving report | Yes. As standard, in writing. | What arrived, counted against what your list said. See the discrepancy procedure. |
| Serial-level report | Yes, on request. | Ask before you agree the pickup, not after. It changes how the lot is received. |
| Certificate of destruction | No. We do not issue one. | We are not a processing facility and we do not run a sanitization or destruction line. A certificate from us would attest to nothing. |
| Certificate of recycling | No. We do not issue one. | We buy hardware to resell it, not to recycle it. Where it actually goes is set out here. |
When you should simply keep the drives
Keep them, and do not spend another hour on the question, when any of these is true:
- your policy names a destruction method and requires evidence of it
- your auditor asks who destroyed the media and expects a named, certified facility
- the machines held regulated records and your legal team has an opinion about them
- you cannot say with confidence what was on them
The value in a corporate laptop is mostly not in its storage. Pulling the drives usually costs you less than the argument you avoid. We will still buy the lot, and what we buy and how the offer is built is set out here. If the drives raise a payment or liability question, that sits with our payment terms and insurance.
Questions about drives and data
- Do you wipe the drives?
- No. We do not sanitize in house. If the drives need to be wiped before the hardware leaves your control, wipe them yourself or keep them. Those are the two options that put the evidence in your hands.
- Will you give me a certificate of destruction?
- No. We do not issue one and we would not sign one. A certificate is a statement by the facility that performed the work, and we perform no such work. What the certification programs cover, and when you should insist on a certified processor.
- Do you wipe to NIST 800-88?
- We make no claim about NIST SP 800-88. It is a guideline, not a certification, and anyone may say they align with it because nobody audits the claim. We are not going to add ourselves to the list of companies saying it.
- Does it cost me money to pull the drives first?
- It costs you value rather than cash. A machine with storage is worth more than the same machine without it, so the offer moves. Tell us which way you are going before we price the lot and the offer will reflect it.
- What if a machine arrives with a drive still in it by mistake?
- We quarantine it and contact you before anything else happens. The drive comes out of the machine, it is set aside untouched, and you decide what happens to it: it goes back to you on our account, or it stays with the lot. Tell us the moment you realize, and tell us the serial if you have it. Do not wait for the receiving report.
- Is any of this different for school district devices?
- The options are the same three. The process around them usually is not, because student data and de-provisioning sit inside a district policy. How we work inside a district surplus process.
Send a list, get an offer
Send a list. We come back inside 24 hours with a written offer.
Get an offer
Tell us which of the three options you are taking. It changes the offer, so say it up front.