Pyerate
Member
Hey all,
I've been going through these forums for over a year and a half, became full member after I learned a lot. Now, it's time for my first post/topic of question.
After years of collecting (my eye is always on the look out for a deal) I've had friends accuse me of back dooring stuff. My job is not worth that at all, I make way too much to risk that by doing something like stealing a few transistors. Not that any of you would suggest that. I have never stolen anything. You earn more when you work more is how I've been raised. Closest though is when I have taken stuff out of the garbage, but bartering is my butter. Being a reliable electrician gets you a lot more open offers.
Ok
For over a decade I've hoarded electronics of all types knowing that one day I would have enough time to start studying the chemistry and processes for refining precious metals. 2 years ago the time finally came. First I started by buying the books and reading forums. I eventually bit the bullet and went all in on glassware, practicing in my porch and garage using numerous different processes to get a more thorough understanding and grasp of what worked best in my situation. Over A year ago I began building a full-fledged laboratory in my 20x30 steel building after I ran power out to it. Since then I now have marble slab countertops, full hazmat lockers, acid resistance coating on the walls and floor, a decent fume Hood with 2 charcoal filter tanks, two sinks with running water of which both drain into independent storage tanks for future treating of the wastewater properly. I even built a water reclamation setup that allowed me to be completely self-contained and reuse my water after neutralizing, filtering boiling and condensing, and a final reverse osmosis that goes into clean storage tank. After purchasing 2 larger used tanks, the 2 old 500 & 700 gl tanks now collect rain water. Best part is that 75-90% of everything making up my lab/shop, besides glassware & consumables, was all reclaimed, built, repaired, salvaged, and or repurposed in some way from all over the PNW, which saved me quite a bit of money.
1yr to 6 months ago came the big push. First I broke up the single space of the 20x30 building into three independent rooms, a walkway & even have stand up room for storage, and all utilities on top of the 15' high ceiling.each room having a dedicated purpose. As an electrician I was very cheap to higher, this allowed me to fork out more for high quality upgrades on all the power and doubled my air flow. I'm now almost, but not quite at negative pressure throughout the 2 rooms. I even Put in a urinal that goes into its own drain field. Since one room has very loud woodworking equipment I fully insulated and sound dampened every wall, ceiling, and the steel skin of the building. It's allowed me to install a very nice sound system as well. I even figured repurposing my old wood burning fireplace. With the high air flow it's allows very good transfer of the heat without need of excessive duct work or extra blowers. I was very lucky and managed to acquire two 2500 gallon poly water tanks that were 5 years old for 1500$, one for fresh and one now for waste. And then the final coup de gras, I had 16, 350 watt panels placed on the roof. Bringing a total of 51 panels on my property. I am almost making 14kw (says my sense all).This finally completed my goal for a fully self-contained/self-sufficient green lab & wood shop. Since I have not been able to afford a battery bank yet I have to switch the main panel back on during nights, all extra goes back into the grid and reflects on my bill. I now rather be in my shop then anywhere else, and sometimes even sleep in my hammock instead of in the house LOL. I'm single so it don't matter, I have no one to upset
Now that everything is up and operational, and I have learned and lost quite a bit along the way, I still find myself lost at a certain decision. While I have never fully wasted out any of my material, as I have picked up new tips and tricks and have been able to recover more, using less, and more easily as time progressed. I will restart my solutions from scratch by reintroducing everything I have extracted. That means that I still am working with and recombining agents that I started with 2 years ago LOL. I have at least 7 55gl barrels full of concentrated solutions in a shed outside. Not counting all of the side experiments I have going on, and random containers of all sizes including a 35 gallon fish tank that I use for reverse plating. Labeling EVERYTHING in detail is the key. It was a hard lesson learned.
Sorry, my ADHD kicked in and I sidetracked.
I have found that the one thing I seem to be able to acquire the most of is gold (& silver) plated pins, especially those of military spec. Currently I have over 200 kilos of untouched, mostly military spec pins, mainly full & partial plated gold with a good amount of silver plated. The one thing I can't get myself into stripping is all of the other components I have that are gold-plated or filled.
Prior military service & then an aircraft electrician, now a marine electrician,I have come up with a plethora of full plated diodes of all types, transistors, relays, chips of all types, even full gold solder boards ETC. The problem that i have is everywhere I read says you can get more by selling it, especially if it works, but then they go ahead & strip it anyways. I looked up some of the items I have and I have seen upwards of $400 for a single transistor! Now those are still in original packaging and brand new, well from the 60s new. A majority of the stuff I have is also brand new, but not in packaging.
Is it worth continuing to collect all this and sell it as bulk wholesale?
Should I independently break up each component type into groups and sell them as sets or solo?
Where would I even start and how would I know how much to get or ask for? Prices vary so much sometimes.
I swear I have so many types and just by looking at prices for a handful of them, if I keep up the way I'm going I could pay off my house in another couple years, solely from selling those parts off independently (if all the stars are aligned perfectly). I am a methodical thinker though and I know that something is only worth as much as there is a need and a want for such part, like art. This is my problem and I remain vexed on what to do. So, I instead just keep filling up plastic organizer boxes and stacking them in the corner. I am quickly running out of space and have become very creative when it comes to making more space. But you can only squeeze so much blood out of an orange. I don't know the first thing about selling anything, as all I've ever done is acquire. And that goes for anything. I don't sell, I give away, barter, trade but have never sold. I've seen so many different inputs from people but it seems that no two can agree and when it comes to a best served place for resale, cliental to look out for, or how long it should be kept on the market, I've seen anything from the week on upwards to forever. Just posted on eBay and every other resale site and forget about it, to even hiring somebody to do the work for me but no one has ever provided me I reputable person or company that would do that.
Until I can get these questions answered and figured out I've mostly been working on the plated pins, pcbs & cell phones, but I can't stop looking at this massively growing pile of electronic components knowing how much some of these are worth. And it would be nice to pay off all my solar panels and come even at the minimum on my endeavor from all the money I put in.
Nothing is certain in this game though and that isn't a promise that they'll sell though.
Input? Suggestions? personal experiences? Any inside insight is helpful insight. I'm going to attach a picture of the most recent box I'm currently filling up just so you have an idea of what I'm working with. I can provide more if needed but I like to keep my stash close to my heart if you know what I mean. This box isn't even near the best one, I took out all large transistors and other more pricey items and placed them into their own special holding zone. thank you for taking the time to read this excessively long thread.
I've been going through these forums for over a year and a half, became full member after I learned a lot. Now, it's time for my first post/topic of question.
After years of collecting (my eye is always on the look out for a deal) I've had friends accuse me of back dooring stuff. My job is not worth that at all, I make way too much to risk that by doing something like stealing a few transistors. Not that any of you would suggest that. I have never stolen anything. You earn more when you work more is how I've been raised. Closest though is when I have taken stuff out of the garbage, but bartering is my butter. Being a reliable electrician gets you a lot more open offers.
Ok
For over a decade I've hoarded electronics of all types knowing that one day I would have enough time to start studying the chemistry and processes for refining precious metals. 2 years ago the time finally came. First I started by buying the books and reading forums. I eventually bit the bullet and went all in on glassware, practicing in my porch and garage using numerous different processes to get a more thorough understanding and grasp of what worked best in my situation. Over A year ago I began building a full-fledged laboratory in my 20x30 steel building after I ran power out to it. Since then I now have marble slab countertops, full hazmat lockers, acid resistance coating on the walls and floor, a decent fume Hood with 2 charcoal filter tanks, two sinks with running water of which both drain into independent storage tanks for future treating of the wastewater properly. I even built a water reclamation setup that allowed me to be completely self-contained and reuse my water after neutralizing, filtering boiling and condensing, and a final reverse osmosis that goes into clean storage tank. After purchasing 2 larger used tanks, the 2 old 500 & 700 gl tanks now collect rain water. Best part is that 75-90% of everything making up my lab/shop, besides glassware & consumables, was all reclaimed, built, repaired, salvaged, and or repurposed in some way from all over the PNW, which saved me quite a bit of money.
1yr to 6 months ago came the big push. First I broke up the single space of the 20x30 building into three independent rooms, a walkway & even have stand up room for storage, and all utilities on top of the 15' high ceiling.each room having a dedicated purpose. As an electrician I was very cheap to higher, this allowed me to fork out more for high quality upgrades on all the power and doubled my air flow. I'm now almost, but not quite at negative pressure throughout the 2 rooms. I even Put in a urinal that goes into its own drain field. Since one room has very loud woodworking equipment I fully insulated and sound dampened every wall, ceiling, and the steel skin of the building. It's allowed me to install a very nice sound system as well. I even figured repurposing my old wood burning fireplace. With the high air flow it's allows very good transfer of the heat without need of excessive duct work or extra blowers. I was very lucky and managed to acquire two 2500 gallon poly water tanks that were 5 years old for 1500$, one for fresh and one now for waste. And then the final coup de gras, I had 16, 350 watt panels placed on the roof. Bringing a total of 51 panels on my property. I am almost making 14kw (says my sense all).This finally completed my goal for a fully self-contained/self-sufficient green lab & wood shop. Since I have not been able to afford a battery bank yet I have to switch the main panel back on during nights, all extra goes back into the grid and reflects on my bill. I now rather be in my shop then anywhere else, and sometimes even sleep in my hammock instead of in the house LOL. I'm single so it don't matter, I have no one to upset
Now that everything is up and operational, and I have learned and lost quite a bit along the way, I still find myself lost at a certain decision. While I have never fully wasted out any of my material, as I have picked up new tips and tricks and have been able to recover more, using less, and more easily as time progressed. I will restart my solutions from scratch by reintroducing everything I have extracted. That means that I still am working with and recombining agents that I started with 2 years ago LOL. I have at least 7 55gl barrels full of concentrated solutions in a shed outside. Not counting all of the side experiments I have going on, and random containers of all sizes including a 35 gallon fish tank that I use for reverse plating. Labeling EVERYTHING in detail is the key. It was a hard lesson learned.
Sorry, my ADHD kicked in and I sidetracked.
I have found that the one thing I seem to be able to acquire the most of is gold (& silver) plated pins, especially those of military spec. Currently I have over 200 kilos of untouched, mostly military spec pins, mainly full & partial plated gold with a good amount of silver plated. The one thing I can't get myself into stripping is all of the other components I have that are gold-plated or filled.
Prior military service & then an aircraft electrician, now a marine electrician,I have come up with a plethora of full plated diodes of all types, transistors, relays, chips of all types, even full gold solder boards ETC. The problem that i have is everywhere I read says you can get more by selling it, especially if it works, but then they go ahead & strip it anyways. I looked up some of the items I have and I have seen upwards of $400 for a single transistor! Now those are still in original packaging and brand new, well from the 60s new. A majority of the stuff I have is also brand new, but not in packaging.
Is it worth continuing to collect all this and sell it as bulk wholesale?
Should I independently break up each component type into groups and sell them as sets or solo?
Where would I even start and how would I know how much to get or ask for? Prices vary so much sometimes.
I swear I have so many types and just by looking at prices for a handful of them, if I keep up the way I'm going I could pay off my house in another couple years, solely from selling those parts off independently (if all the stars are aligned perfectly). I am a methodical thinker though and I know that something is only worth as much as there is a need and a want for such part, like art. This is my problem and I remain vexed on what to do. So, I instead just keep filling up plastic organizer boxes and stacking them in the corner. I am quickly running out of space and have become very creative when it comes to making more space. But you can only squeeze so much blood out of an orange. I don't know the first thing about selling anything, as all I've ever done is acquire. And that goes for anything. I don't sell, I give away, barter, trade but have never sold. I've seen so many different inputs from people but it seems that no two can agree and when it comes to a best served place for resale, cliental to look out for, or how long it should be kept on the market, I've seen anything from the week on upwards to forever. Just posted on eBay and every other resale site and forget about it, to even hiring somebody to do the work for me but no one has ever provided me I reputable person or company that would do that.
Until I can get these questions answered and figured out I've mostly been working on the plated pins, pcbs & cell phones, but I can't stop looking at this massively growing pile of electronic components knowing how much some of these are worth. And it would be nice to pay off all my solar panels and come even at the minimum on my endeavor from all the money I put in.
Nothing is certain in this game though and that isn't a promise that they'll sell though.
Input? Suggestions? personal experiences? Any inside insight is helpful insight. I'm going to attach a picture of the most recent box I'm currently filling up just so you have an idea of what I'm working with. I can provide more if needed but I like to keep my stash close to my heart if you know what I mean. This box isn't even near the best one, I took out all large transistors and other more pricey items and placed them into their own special holding zone. thank you for taking the time to read this excessively long thread.
Attachments
Last edited:
