Secondary Market
The secondary market is asics sold secondhand and out of rebuild. Price there comes from the current price of hash rather than from what the previous owner paid.
What the secondary market is
For generations older than two years the secondary market is the main one: asics like that are no longer made. Sellers include private owners, service shops after repair and sites refreshing their fleet.
Price follows simple logic. An asic is worth what it will earn before it stops being profitable, so the price tracks the price of hash and falls ahead of a halving. What somebody paid for it two years ago carries no weight.
The warranty is usually gone already: with most makers it runs 180 days. So the risk is entirely yours, and the only thing that lowers it is a check before you pay.
The past life of the asic gets a separate look. Traces of oil speak of immersion, fresh thermal paste and solder marks of repair, new fans of overheating. Repair by itself is no death sentence, but the price has to account for it.
Quick reference table
| What gets sold | asics secondhand, after repair, out of a fleet refresh |
| What sets the price | the current price of hash and how close the halving is |
| Warranty | usually over, with most makers it runs 180 days |
| What lowers the risk | a test under load before you pay |
| What to look at | traces of oil, of repair and of replaced fans |
What to check before you pay
Hashrate under load for no less than an hour, not a minute after power up. Problems come out on a warmed up asic.
The count of live chips on every hashboard and the spread of temperatures between them. An asic with two boards out of three does sell, at a different price.
Stock firmware or custom, and whether you can go back to stock. Along with that, access to the control board: locked access is a job of its own.
The serial number against the seller invoice, and ask to have the claim history checked with the supplier.
Work out payback on your own rate rather than on the seller promises. A cheap asic on a bad rate stays a loss.
An example of the logic
The seller powers the asic up and a minute later shows the spec sheet hashrate. An hour on, with it warmed up, the figure comes out lower, and on one board part of the chips do not answer. Walking away is not compulsory: from there the price gets worked out on two working boards out of three.
Related terms
Where to go next on the site
Hardware
- ASIC Miner knowledge base
- ASIC Chip and Hashboard knowledge base
Numbers
Software
- Bitmain Stock Firmware firmware
- HashCore Toolkit firmware
Questions and answers
Is an asic after repair worth taking
It is, if the repair is named and the price accounts for it. Hidden repair is worse than declared repair.
How can you tell an asic sat in immersion
By traces of fluid on the board and in the connectors, by the smell and by how clean the heatsinks are. Such an asic is not necessarily bad, but the seller has to say so.
Is there any point in old generations
Only on very cheap electricity. Work out the breakeven point on your own rate before the purchase rather than after.
How the terms connect
Every link in the chain is clickable. Orange marks where you are now.
Looking for an ASIC miner
The catalog holds 212 models. You can compare them by hashrate and by joules per terahash, then plug your own rate into the calculator and see what stays in your pocket.
Page written and checked by Denys Klimchuk. Updated .