The fact that Lynch is both knowledgeable and colorful has landed himon NBC, in Fortune magazine and at the dais lecturing hundreds of WallStreet's heaviest heavyweights. He has become the public face of thesecondary market, and it's a face that has struck fear into hardwarevendors watching their customers being lured away by the titillatinglylow prices Lynch and his ilk can offer.

"You'll save money just by entertaining me," says Richard Hart, whoowns used hardware vendor H and H Technologies in Hickory, N.C. "Tella vendor you're looking at used gear, and they'll start cutting theirprices immediately. You're foolish not to at least inquire."

Brokers range from small-time entrepreneurs such as Hart to websiteslike Usedrouter.com to large outfits like ARC and Optimus Solutions, a$125 million company.

Brokers will trade 10 servers for five routers. If you ask them to,they'll hunt down a hard-to-find storage device. If you want, they'llrent you hardware. Everything's available. Everything'snegotiable.

Many buyers find this refreshing. Mainstream vendors can often seemunfriendly and downright stodgy next to a guy who's willing to knockoff 10 grand if you'll trade in that pile of laptops in thecloset.