Future upgrades and possibly a trade in program?

I’ve had my 11th gen framwork for about a year now and I want to upgrade to the 12th gen. However, I do not have 700 dollars just lying around to do so. Not sure why the mainboards are so expensive but will there be a way for me to trade in my current i7 board for a 12th gen? Also, I’ve seen around that switching something like a track pad or a screen kind of eliminates that avoiding e waste thing. Whenever that hopefully happens will framework accept returns of old but still working parts?

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Very interesting thought on the trading program idea.

A reuse program would be cool. My plan is to buy the last mainboard that works with DDR4 RAM on clearance. Intel 13th Gen is supporting DDR4 but haven’t heard any rumours on 14th Gen supporting DDR5.

I’d love to see an official resale/marketplace section on the community forums. Could sell old main boards after upgrades, unused expansion packs, and those who have the ability could sell cases for the main boards to turn them into desktops. I’m just getting in on 12th gen but when I upgrade later down the line I’d love the ability to find a case through the community.

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They said they were planning a marketplace but I haven’t heard anything about it since. Kinda annoying as it was a great idea.

Could be wrong, that wasn’t the blogpost/forumpost that i read though.

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@anon81945988,
i don’t believe that at all. First of all, HOW do you possibly square the whole concept of modular hardware and Right To Repair without used/refurbished components? Like we do with cars and desk PCs all the time? That makes no sense and i wouldn’t think for one second of buying this kind of product without it. That is not the definition of “modular”.
Secondly, WHY couldn’t they either do refurbishing or have a “classifieds” page for people to trade their used parts?

i mean there’s no reason why they can’t either refurbish old parts or have a classifieds page to sell them. No point in designing interchangeable parts if you can’t sell a used part.

well that kinda defeats the purpose, don’t it? How are ya gonna have a modular laptop if there’s nowhere you can go to buy/sell your old parts? If you wanna upgrade a part, you’re just chuckin it in a box, there goes the whole point and profit in a modular computer.
If they can find a way to close that loop, then they’ll have a viable paradigm and a real advantage.

@mike_louaillier How about selling the second-hand parts yourself? On Ebay, Amazon, or event Reddit (r/frameworkmarket). No need to depend on “Framework the company” for that.

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All three of those make sense to me. Before I just ordered an expansion module I looked on eBay and a few Craigslist locations to see if anyone was selling one. Then I looked in the Framework marketplace to see if there were any returns or open box or refurb specials to be had.

Ideally I’d think the natural evolution would be a three tier marketplace:

  1. DIY sales on eBay etc. by individuals upgrading
  2. A “community marketplace” here for individual sellers
  3. An official Framework trade-in program and certified used marketplace

It will take time as they grow, of course. But even now there are returns and warranties to process, so those could be the seed for a used marketplace.

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One question I had is in regards to upgrades and e waste. I am not interested in repurposing mainboards. Would you guys ever have like a trade in program to help facilitate recycling?

Thank you!

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