Buying CPU Towers

Hi There,

I have a local used computer reseller that I am trying to make a deal with to buy his old towers them. Assuming that they are complete (cpu, HD, MB pci cards, memory) would a good price to purchase be $90 per ton.

Does anyone have any experience in doing it this way. I am having a hard time finding enough free computers to gather enough materials to make it worth while to refine a batch.

Factors - I sell the clipped internal wires. The cases, screws, floppy chassis as clean steel. CDroms and Power supplies as dirty steel, aluminium from HDs and Floppies clean, circuit boards.

My problem is I not sure how many machines would be in a ton. I'm guessing a machine is 20 lbs making 100 machines roughly $1 per piece.

Let me know what you guys think.

$90/ton is a pretty good price if they are fairly complete machines. If they are older you should do pretty well. I also assume about 20lb/machine. It's nice to get free material but I've been in the same boat as you and end up buying them outright because I'm so eager to get to work.

Some of the old machines get a pretty good price as collectable/vintage on ebay. I'm kicking myself for tearing apart some very nice Kaypro and Tektronix systems. Also, some of the usable components like memory and cpu's sell higher than there scrap value on ebay.

Good Luck!

I will have to keep that in mind.(about some of the resellable stuff)

I was also thinking about charging $10 or $20 per ton to pickup. So really on paying $70 or $80 per ton. But I will have to work that out with them... The most important think right now is getting more material at a profitable price. I can write of the mileage and gas anyways.

Between the fingers and cpu's, you should have enough for a nice gold button! I'm stocking up on towers to dissasemble once it warms up.

I have got about 20 sitting out my door. waiting to be dismantled. with 30 more on the way.

I would say thats a good price.
Shop all around there are many recyclers specialty scrappers that will buy the cd drive for between .75 and 1.20 per unit
the mother boards have a value of .75 to 1.00 a pound
Last I heard power supplies were about .25 a pound
Hard drives also have a value.

Try this http://www.recycle.net/cgi-bin/exview.cgi?w=01&sc=0305&g=02

Of course there is scrap steel too.

I know of a company around here that does it he builds up a ton or 2 of each seperated than calls the scrapper who picks it up and he gets a check in 5 days.
You should be able to keep the really high yield parts and dump the rest for profit

Try this link it lists scrap market prices

http://www.recycle.net/computer/scrap/index.html?affilid=100000