I write to correct some errors in the discussion related to our current costs. www.WorldComputerExchange.org sources and tests donated computers for partners in developing countries. Based on the current amount of computers we ship, the share of costs we must receive per donated Pentium is US$57.50 ($40 for Power Macs). Our per-computer costs will decrease as we continue to grow to scale. The e-deal "blue book" value of the average working computer that we ship is about US$300 so we report on our website that they are "worth" that. We find that our current average shipping cost to an ocean container port in Africa is about US$12 per computer - less to South Asia and South America. Of our first 21 shipments, only one has had to pay customs - the rest have been able to get waivers of the duty because of their educational and charitable goal or with the assistance of their government or of the UNDP. There are many other costs for tech support, teacher training, and content that we and our allies work to help reduce for our partners in developing countries.
Best wishes, Timothy Anderson www.WorldComputerExchange.org "Guido Sohne" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was in a thread elsewhere that discussed this same issue and I also > thought that shipping used PCs makes perfect sense. The problem is the > actual cost of the used PCs when other overheads are taken into account. > Appended is an excerpt from an email I wrote concerning this:- > > ------------------------------------------------ > I've done a little research to put this issue in perspective ... The > website of the World Computer Exchange claims that: > > "WCE has shipped 6,434 computers in 21 shipments worth $1,931,200 to > connect 784 schools with 306,200 students in the following 15 countries: > Bangladesh, Benin, Bolivia, Cameroon, Georgia, Guatemala, India, Kenya, > Lithuania, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda". > > I pulled out a calculator and assessed the above figures. > > It works out to about $300 per PC. 21 shipments implies that there are > 306 PCs per shipment. Seperately, it was mentioned that it costs $20,000 > per container to ship the PCs over which works out to $65 per PC. > > With those figures, it appears that shipping Walmart PCs at a cost of > $65/PC (assuming it costs the same to ship them as the used PCs) on top > of the *retail* price of $199 is still below the cost of shipping the > used PCs. ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
