# little help here please



## cristianrash (Jan 4, 2014)

Hi everyone, this is my very firt post, and i want a little help, i collect this matterial from old pc's and printers i used to own, and my qestion is about his value and how much gold, silvers, palladium, etc., can i obtain from them so, let go:

first: 
i got 10 mylars like this





and 2 like this





this motherboard:









several pieces like this:








most of them only have visible gold in pins like this:





this from old cell phones:





this piece have more visible parts of gold, but, i noted that if i scratch a little the green cover, it had more gold on the bottom:





i also have 5 to 10 grams of gold covered pins and 10 to 15 grams of monolithic ceramic capacitors
and some silver oxide batteries, like 5 pieces only...

so that is all, how much you think i can obtain?, worth the invesment?, any interesed in buy them like that? 

gretting my friends


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## solar_plasma (Jan 4, 2014)

just combine the words "yield" and "bga, flatpack, IC, mlcc, keyboard mylar, fingers, pins" in the search function and you will find all answers


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## butcher (Jan 4, 2014)

cristianrash,
Looks like you have one computer, tore apart, (basically a pile of trash). Is there some valuable metals in it? (Yes). How much? (Very little). Can you sell this trash? (maybe). Will you get much money for what you have there? (Probably not enough to cover shipping). What if you collected a garage full of this trash would that have value? (yes a little bit). Could you sell it and cover shipping cost? (Maybe). What if you spent a couple of years studying to recover and refine it, and you had a garage full of this trash would you make a lot of money? (Most likely not), could you learn to get the gold and silver off that trash, and enjoy learning about it? (Yes). Would learning to recover and refine gold silver and other precious metals be worth the time involved, the cost, and the dangers involved? (Only you can answer that question).

Spend some time studying, if you enjoy studying, and like learning then you will like the forum, all of the answers you are asking for or things about these precious metals and the scrap that you will wish to know and even things you would not even think to ask can be learned here on the forum. this is not for everyone but if it is for you you have found the best place to learn about it.


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## FrugalRefiner (Jan 4, 2014)

butcher said:


> Is there some valuable metals in it? (Yes).
> How much? (Very little).
> Can you sell this trash? (maybe).
> Will you get much money for what you have there? (Probably not enough to cover shipping).
> ...


This should be stickied or made part of Read Me!

Dave


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## cnbarr (Jan 4, 2014)

I agree as well, that should be at the top of "read this first"! Butcher broke it down in the most polite and understandable way, that should clear to anyone new.


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## sharkhook (Jan 4, 2014)

I can say that one computer won't be much, even though it may look like it. In my case, just to get started, bare minimum for recovering, not including other items for refining costs. I spent $7.98 for Hydrochloric Acid, one gallon, used coffee pot, $2.00, A bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide, $1.00. Coffee filters, $1.29. Funnels, $2.50. Extra containers for storage of used acid materials, $4.00. That just covers getting the gold off of the parts. Being new at this, I figure that one computer is a loss of money. Two is still a loss. If I recall right, 100 keyboard Mylars, assuming everything goes perfect, is around one troy ounce of silver. You would need more materials to work with and some very expensive acid to boot. I have around a total of $200 invested, not counting three trips in excess of 100 miles just to get a couple of the chemicals. With luck, 20 computers, 8 cell phones, and around 40 to 50 various odd boards, plus around 50 various cables I hope to produce around 3 to 5 grams of gold. That is allowing for my lack of know how. So after two months of this, a bit of change spent, and many hours of reading, I will still loose money. But, I have learned much over the past few months, and really enjoyed doing it, that makes it worth my time and effort. That may not be enough for you, and it isn't enough for most people. If you do stay after it, and learn it, it can very rewarding on a personal level. Read, read and then re-read, everything here, ask what you can't find, and then read some more. I have done less than the materials that have you shown, and worked with them, I just saved all of the recovered material and will process it all later. If you need quick cash, just sell it, if you want to learn some serious chemistry, and put a lot time into it, then start reading. Keep saving your scrap, and when the time comes for it to all make sense, then it may be fairly profitable for you.


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## butcher (Jan 4, 2014)

cristianrash,
You can make some money from what you learn here on the forum, but in general you have to process tons of electronic scrap, in general if you can get good scrap for free you can make a little money.

But basically where the money is made in my opinion, is not in collecting and processing electronic scrap, or even the higher value scrap like karat gold, or sterling silver, when you can find it cheap enough, the real money you make comes from your education, in knowing what you need, and how to get it cheap enough to make a profit, knowing how to determine what you buy is worth, if it really is gold, or knowing how to buy and sell, knowing how to process the material you get without losing values...

You can make some money or a profit, but that only comes from educating yourself.
Education in my view is where the real value is, not in a pile of scrap in your garage.


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## cristianrash (Jan 5, 2014)

thank you so much to everyone specialy to butcher, you couln't be more specific about this 

i think i'll take time to collet more scrap and maybe try in other occassion, thanks for the help


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## Pantherlikher (Jan 5, 2014)

Wait...wait.... What?... Thanks but you'll collect more and come back later?...
What about umm... maybe reading and learning alittle?...

B.S.


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## artart47 (Jan 5, 2014)

Hi Cristianrash!
This forum, Hoke's book and electronic scrap is a package that will lead you to a great understanding of the basics of safe recovery and then refining of metals. 
I started out just like you. Soon, I was picking up truck-loads of computer scrap. Even with the steel, copper aluminum and wiring etc. not to mension the gold I was producing, I would have made more per hour working at McDonalds. But! There was a saticfaction and a pride of what I'd learned to do.
Just take a look at our section "Types of PM scrap"
You begin to find wealth in all the things around you that have been there all along. Scrap jewelry, yard sales, medical test strips, catalytic converters even jet aircraft engines and all the expertise is here among the members.
With what I learned from reading and being coached along by Geo, Butcher, Lazersteve and many others I delved into other things. Now I have been making money from scrap jewelry I refine and I will probably do well as a small refiner someday and who knows, per-haps someone will have 20-30 jet engines they want me to dispose of cuz they wont fit in their dumpster Ha Ha!
You wont make much from e-scrap now but what you'll learn from it is pricless!
Good luck and welcome artart47


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## cristianrash (Jan 5, 2014)

artart47 said:


> Hi Cristianrash!
> This forum, Hoke's book and electronic scrap is a package that will lead you to a great understanding of the basics of safe recovery and then refining of metals.
> I started out just like you. Soon, I was picking up truck-loads of computer scrap. Even with the steel, copper aluminum and wiring etc. not to mension the gold I was producing, I would have made more per hour working at McDonalds. But! There was a saticfaction and a pride of what I'd learned to do.
> Just take a look at our section "Types of PM scrap"
> ...




thanks for that information, actually i made some money from aluminum recicling, i colect all type of alluminun objects and melted and sell in ingots, but the money is not so good, i'm interesed in silver and gold recovery, but i really need to learn a lot firts jaja, maybe matter of time and patience, thanks for your answer


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## maynman1751 (Jan 6, 2014)

The way I look at it is this is like any hobby. You invest money to get the equipment, supplies and anything else needed to participate in this hobby. It's like fishing, hunting, shooting, golfing or any other sport or hobby. You invest money to do something that you enjoy. If you catch some fish or shoot a rabbit to eat then you have made a 'profit' from your endeavors. Not near enough to pay back all that you have invested, but you have spent time doing something that you wanted to and enjoyed doing it. You can't or don't need to profit monetarily from everything you do. To me it's just so very rewarding to hold that little ball of gold metal in my hand and know that *I did that*!


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## AUJack (Jun 30, 2014)

I have 1,285 grams of keyboard mylars. According to my reading this amount will yield less than 2 ounces of silver, that is of course if I kept my math straight. I agree with the comments about enjoying this as a hobby, and reading. Chances are there will be very little profit. The way I see it, I haven't shared this here before...but I consider prospecting a hobby. There is very little return for a tremendous amount of research. Researching geology, mining, history. On average I will spend $100.00 or more on a weekend trip and come home with a half gram. I got lucky once and found 3 grams but that was a rare occasion. I consider this a more pointed science and with the right information a lot less luck. I'm still in the learning stages as well, best of luck.


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