[rixed]

Something I don't quite understand is why the price of a used dedicated server is impacted by anything beyond electricity and land prices. It's not like the RAM gets replaced by new one every now and then. That's old RAM chip that's been bought years ago (and I believe largely amortized by now).

Is there any collocation space from which you can actually buy and own a physical machine without going there, and pay only the rent and traffic? I miss calling a server "mine".

[aforwardslash]

You're not paying for the used server; youre paying for the used server and the replacement; thats how you can grow a business without assuming huge capex investments upfront.

I think its still common for colo spaces to have installation services for shipped-in hardware. You buy a server, configure it and ship it to the DC.