# computer opportunity



## Anonymous (Jul 13, 2007)

Hello everybody,
Well i came across this opportunity to buy some computers and monitors for about $ 500.00.
There is about 50 monitors and about 60 pentium II/III computers...which came from a bank. 
I was thinking about buying them but im not sure if its worth it for gold recovery since i just started doing it. In fact, i still havent even done one batch of scrap that i have.

I just want to see what some of yall think about this deal. I know the Pentium 2 systems are hard to sell, so i will most likely take those apart for scrap. In regards to the monitors, i was thinking of selling those to mom and pop computer shops for 5-10 bucks.
thanks


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## Noxx (Jul 13, 2007)

This is a lot of comp 
But I don't really know if it would worth it...
For the P2 you would have to recover 8.33$US of precious metals to don't loose any money. I don't think they have that much.... But maybe Steve will have a clue ?


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## Anonymous (Jul 13, 2007)

i just did a recount. Its actually 149 computers and 91 monitors. I would say 75 % of the monitors are in working condition. Same with the computers.


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## Noxx (Jul 13, 2007)

Well, now this is about 4.5$US per computer. I think profit is possible. If you have a place where to keep them dry, you could resell them for 20$/each and get a good profit. The others non-working could be scrapped.


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## blueduck (Jul 13, 2007)

I did tech work out of a mom/pop computer shop, and we would buy pallets of monitors and pallets of PII and PIII computers from College campus surplus sales for a few dollars each, most all working and toos the monitors away cause they were usually dark, though we sold a few between 10-20 each, most were junk for resale..... the boxes we used for broad wireless servers or repeater towers, and customer recievers, most had very little if any harddrive space and would work for our unix applictions..... then we found other means for customers and nixed the boxes even if it cost a few dollars more the time saved in conversion was worth it. 

I guess what i am saying if you need some boxes for your own network operation then use what is good and either peddle the rest for what you can get [dont expect much] and scrap the rest...... the monitors probably are not worth the time to salvage metals from what i read, but some scrap yards will take them and give you a few cents for them.....

the processors and some of the hard drives will have Au and Pt in them enough to scrap out and the boards will have enough Multi-layered Ceramic Capacitors on them to go for the Pd......

there may not be a whole lot more you are gonna save back until you get really good at precipitating the different metals out..... I aint there yet either.

William


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## lazersteve (Jul 14, 2007)

The CRT (tube type) monitors are considered dinosaurs by todays standards. If the unit is in excellent shape and 17" or larger you may find a buyer willing to pay a few bucks, but otherwise they are scrap. The video cable ends are very lightly gold plated. The remaining portion of the precious metals would be found in the circuit board components. You can harvest the CRT yoke coils and internal wiring for it's copper content if you are willing to spend the time harvesting it. The components on the board may be worth the time to pluck components off of, but I haven't done any yield studies on them because I have plenty of gold bearing scrap to process instead. 

When I consider harvesting scrap items, I weigh the difference between my time spent and the value of what I can get in that amount of time. If the item provides poor yields for the time that I have to invest in harvesting, it is either not scraped or moves to the bottom of my things to do list. You can spend a lot of your valuable time for a few dollars in scrap or you can spend that same amount of time harvesting high yielding items.

Personally I cut the end off of the video cable and haul them by the truck load to the local dump. 

The cpu towers are a different story. If the unit is not functioning or the cpu is below 1 GHz, I pull everything out of the tower and sort the parts by type. Then I concentrate on the highest yielding items first. I process the items in passes. The first pass I strip the highest quality portion of the item (finger, pins, ceramics, etc.). I combined the left overs and make a second pass for parts that are harder to get, but still contain valuables (like SMD capacitors and black plastic IC packs). I make this second pass when I don't have any high yield scrap to work. The left overs from pass two are blank cards and steel plates which get put in large boxes and sold to scrap yards. The working 1GHz+ machines can be sold to supplement your investment costs, chemicals, and labor overhead.

Always keep your metals (aluminum, stteel, etc.), plastics, and cards in separate bins as you sort. You don't want to waste your time resorting something you have already touched twice. This also helps save time when you take it to the scrap yard. The steel tower parts are great for dropping base metals from solutions.

Steve


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## lazersteve (Jul 14, 2007)

The CRT (tube type) monitors are considered dinosaurs by todays standards. If the unit is in excellent shape and 17" or larger you may find a buyer willing to pay a few bucks, but otherwise they are scrap. The video cable ends are very lightly gold plated. The remaining portion of the precious metals would be found in the circuit board components. You can harvest the CRT yoke coils and internal wiring for it's copper content if you are willing to spend the time harvesting it. The components on the board may be worth the time to pluck components off of, but I haven't done any yield studies on them because I have plenty of gold bearing scrap to process instead. 

When I consider harvesting scrap items, I weigh the difference between my time spent and the value of what I can get in that amount of time. If the item provides poor yields for the time that I have to invest in harvesting, it is either not scraped or moves to the bottom of my things to do list. You can spend a lot of your valuable time for a few dollars in scrap or you can spend that same amount of time harvesting high yielding items.

Personally I cut the end off of the video cable and haul them by the truck load to the local dump. 

The cpu towers are a different story. If the unit is not functioning or the cpu is below 1 GHz, I pull everything out of the tower and sort the parts by type. Then I concentrate on the highest yielding items first. I process the items in passes. The first pass I strip the highest quality portion of the item (finger, pins, ceramics, etc.). I combined the left overs and make a second pass for parts that are harder to get, but still contain valuables (like SMD capacitors and black plastic IC packs). I make this second pass when I don't have any high yield scrap to work. The left overs from pass two are blank cards and steel plates which get put in large boxes and sold to scrap yards. The working 1GHz+ machines can be sold to supplement your investment costs, chemicals, and labor overhead.

Always keep your metals (aluminum, steel, etc.), plastics, and cards in separate bins as you sort. You don't want to waste your time resorting something you have already touched twice. This also helps save time when you take it to the scrap yard. The steel tower parts are great for dropping base metals from solutions.

Steve


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## blueduck (Jul 14, 2007)

Steve

in your post above you say you do after the capacitors, do you desolder the pins to get all the palladium or do you just clip off the end wires on top the board? 

Is it worth more to desolder is what i am asking.... cause a person is not saving the little pieces to use again [been there done that] heat dont matter and lots of heat to remove solder dont cost a whole bunch of time... building something to loosen the solder with might be a thing to think of if it is feasible.

William


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## lazersteve (Jul 14, 2007)

William,

I typically use my heat gun to remove the pins and components. If the pins are on newer boards I just chisel then off because the part of the pin that goes thru the board is not gold plated.

Steve


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## hilld2000 (Jul 17, 2007)

Steve,

Do you have a rough idea what the value of a PC may be in terms of its scrap value?

Say, a typical PII with an ethernet card, a graphics card, 2 or 3 sdram modules, a soundcard...

I am asking because a local company regularly auctions pallets of 'working' PC's (around 20 or so to the pallett) and these can go for anything from £1 to £10 ($2 to $20)...

At $0.05 per PC I would guess the scrap value is worthwhile....
At $0.50???? Not so sure....


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