I started buying and reselling technology at Loyola in 2008. Today I spend most of my time on pricing at SellMac, internal systems at Techable, and figuring out where AI is genuinely useful.
The record
I write things down while I am still inside them. Some of it is useful. Some of it is just what happened.
Before 2008
When I was a kid, my friend Steve and I used to ride bikes and build ramps around a creek near where we lived. Sometimes we took garbage bags down there and cleaned up what people had left behind.
I remember the childish thought that doing something good might somehow give you “superpowers.” Mostly, we were two kids picking up trash.
Steve comes back into the record later.
2008
At Loyola, I learned how to buy and resell technology. Great Buy Electronics (GBE) came next.
I inspected devices, took product photos, made early videos, and learned how quickly trust disappears when the description and the device do not match.
Steve was the first person to invest in GBE. He put in about $20,000 so we could build a more automated buyback operation. Tim worked with me part time.
Testing a Mac camera for an early Great Buy Electronics video.
Then somebody contacted me about buying seven Macs.
His name was Byron.
Around 2012
Byron and I stayed in touch, later partnered, and GBE became part of TechGator. Byron wanted Steve bought out, and Steve was bought out.
Tim continued part time. The company grew. So did the inventory, overhead, debt, cash pressure, and number of decisions that could not be made by instinct anymore.
Before 2017
The business stopped being sustainable. I took a buyout and left.
Byron kept TechGator and SellMac. TechGator later closed.
About two years later, Byron called.
2017
He offered me SellMac.com back for about $5,000.
I bought it.
Glendale Heights
Glendale Heights came first. Elk Grove Village followed.
Elk Grove Village
Elk Grove Village. Inventory on shelves, storage in the closet, and the photo setup in the next room.
Tim became full time when Techable started. He had already been there part time through GBE and TechGator.
2018-2020
The operation moved out of the house and into its first warehouse.
Tim had been there longest. Chan was second in the early team sequence. Chris was third.
Sometimes this is how the inventory showed up.
Our twins were born in 2020. At work, COVID compressed the technology market and made already difficult supply problems worse.
During that period, a vague message from Farid almost went unanswered. He needed five Mac Pros. When I asked whether he was reselling them, he said, “No. We’re Snapchat.”
Today
Techable helps technology find its next owner. SellMac helps people and organizations move devices they are finished with. SafeTech came from the protection problem after a sale. Secure365 came from the software, automation, security, fraud, and workflow problems inside the operation.
Techable Labs is the workbench around the current experiments: hardware, software, AI, and the systems that hold the rest together. It is not another company.
“The future of technology shouldn’t be disposable.”
Keep tech useful longer. No Parts to Waste. Those ideas came from years of seeing what could still be repaired, reused, resold, or recovered.
Steve believed early. Tim and the team stayed with the work. My family made room for it.
If you've ever trusted one of my companies, thank you. You're part of the reason I get to keep doing work I care about.
I still look forward to going to work. I know how lucky that is.
I'm keeping the record partly for myself, and partly because somebody after me may find something useful in it. These are my notes so far.
Elsewhere
Buying renewed or selling what you're not using keeps a device in use a little longer.
For reporters
Firsthand perspective on refurbished electronics, Apple hardware, device trade-in, repairability, reuse, ecommerce operations and the secondary technology market.
Media resourcesA few of the videos worth starting with.
How to Run Apple Diagnostics
A practical walkthrough for checking a Mac with Apple Diagnostics. This is the start of an evergreen how-to series.
YouTube
Right to Repair in the Real World
A real-world look at repairability, device longevity, and why keeping useful technology repairable matters.
TikTok
MacBook Staingate
Why the anti-reflective coating on some MacBook displays failed, what it looks like, and what owners should know.
TikTok
I post the short version on social. Techable Labs is where the YouTube work lives. The deeper notes live here.
Jonathan Brax