We were thinking about taking apart our Nothing But Net competition robot this weekend for parts. We have used this robot for multiple educational presentations to get students interested in robotics and we would rather sell it to help students get excited about robotics than take it apart. We would like to sell it for more than it is worth in parts maybe through Ebay or possibly craigslist. We are thinking 3500-4500 dollars. The parts alone are probably over $3000.
Is your school interested in keeping the robot as something for their trophy case, or some arrangement like that? You guys made it to this year’s VEX Worlds and were the captain of the winning alliance for your division. That’s a huge achievement.
We are not going to keep the robot. It would be too much of an expense to buy new parts.
Yes, we are excited about our achievements this year, but we cannot afford to replace the thousands of dollars of parts we used for the robot. We are either going to sell it, or part it out.
Why not take it apart? Most of the metal can be cut down and reused, motors for sure and cortex along with pneumatics. That alone is already a great value.
Definitely an option. First off, we thought we might be able to make money by selling it. We also want someone to have it that can make good use of it.
We will probably take it apart unless someone wants it.
So I will just be the one to come out and say it, no one will buy your robot. I know of 1 robot sold like that in the history of VEX and that was 1103’s Round Up robot to Intellitek which was the best robot built that year and best programmed.
I doubt Leland from Green Egg would disagree and he would be the only one who could argue the point about Round Up.
So unless you can find a company who for some particular reason wants to show off your robot or convince your own school to buy it for a display case (both of which you probably wouldn’t get more than the cost of the parts) I do not believe selling it is possible.
I think the best course for you to take is slowly take the robot apart while documenting everything. Then, you get both the parts and a permanent record of the knowledge and engineering put into it. While there is no doubt that your robot was one of the best at Worlds, given the fact that the people most interested in VRC are the teams who have their own robots, I don’t think many people will be interested in buying the robot (at least, not at that price point).
Besides, if you disassemble, you can get started right away instead of having to wait for shipping
Well… we sold our 2011 Worlds robot too - to the Singapore rep for Vex and he has been using it for training purposes.
It was basically 90% inspired by GER, with minor modifications… eg. we didnt have money to get pneumatics, so we used motors for the needle intake instead.
(we were using 8060 and 8059 that year)
How much? I remember we sold it for about USD2200… and it was about 5 years ago, and factoring inflation…
I would suggest to not do either of those now. If I were you I would use that robot to go to local companies to fundraise the money you need. Companies love to see in action what their money is going to do. My team does this every year, then around March every year we take apart our old robot so we have more parts.
One of the things I really like about Tabor is that he is to the point
I agree with him very much that you will most likely not sell it for above the cost of parts. I saw 974X making lots of little adjustments and and modifications during worlds to the robot, and if someone bought it they would not know to do these little things or how to fix the robot if anything goes wrong.
Yea so that is a horrible example on parts cost to consumer cost. 974X isn’t a company and shouldn’t be looking to make profit like companies do.
Also really are you going to use this robot as much as a toaster or dishwasher? No, then you shouldn’t compare it to one in that way.
This is in all due respect to 974X as I was an alliance partner with them in a qualification match and saw their robot in the pits a lot. They spent a lot of time on that robot and it is definately one of the best in the world this year.
I would say strip out all the electronics, pneumatics, rubber bands, etc, and keep the metal assembled. Surely the metal wouldn’t be worth more than a couple hundred dollars. This way you can re use most of the robot and still keep the memory.
All right people… let’s cool down… (locking thread might be good here hint hint admin)
Now we’re just bullying each other.
@Cyber brains I’d say keep it on the market for a little while, but don’t let it sit there for too long, because odds are that you aren’t going to be able to sell it. Unfortunately, if teachers or someone were to want to buy a robot for STEM purposes, they’d probably buy a FIRST robot. Try to sell it, and if it doesn’t sell take it apart before too long into the Starstruck season. Good luck.
You could wait until July 20 when it gets great exposure on ESPN2! That could raise its value to someone that doesn’t want to take it apart.
It was the robot I enjoyed most a Worlds due to its unique design, yet still being very competitive. Your opened with your reveals and help and advice to younger teams made it that much better. Would be a shame to see it come apart but it certainly is understandable.
I competed with you at world’s and I would defiantly suggest making a CAD model and then selling the robot. I believe that it is something that needs to be kept together and could be used for education purposes if the right person aquired it. It’s too good to take apart anyway!
