How does POS hardware buyback work and how is value determined?

Buyback is a way to recover value from hardware that’s being taken out of service instead of writing it off. For retailers going through refresh cycles, it can help offset the cost of new equipment or services.

Most programs start with a list… part numbers, models, configurations. From there an initial value gets put on it, but what the project actually returns depends on details that come up once things are moving. Timing matters. So does whether equipment is coming back in consolidated shipments or trickling in from individual stores. Cables, power supplies, completeness…those things affect the final number more than people expect.

At IW Technologies, buyback runs alongside decommissioning rather than as a separate step. The team handling equipment recovery is the same one feeding into valuation, which keeps those two things aligned rather than running out of sync. Payment goes out once the project wraps, and some customers opt to put that value toward future hardware or services instead of taking cash.

The goal isn’t resale for the sake of it. It’s to make better use of assets that still have value reducing write-offs and improving the economics of a full hardware lifecycle.