# Is There A Market For Old Cell Phone Parts?



## scrapparts (May 18, 2017)

I know of a cellphone store owner that has some old and broken cell phones that were taken apart. Besides the main boards, is there a market for the other parts of what I saw like, the batteries, the back covers and the lcd screens?

If so, I will ask him if he wants to sell them. My question for anyone that knows is how much would each of the separate parts be worth in bulk format?

Thanks
scrapparts


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## kurtak (May 18, 2017)

The company I sell e-scrap to is currently paying $1.13 for cell phone batteries & $1.48 for lap top batteries

Boardsort is paying 90 cents for cell phone batteries & $1.50 for lap top batteries

That's a "per pound" price

Kurt


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## joekbit (May 18, 2017)

Cell phone boards carry one of the highest precious metal ratios of all modern electronics. WHY! The size. Au is the only metal with the malleability needed to produce the connections needed. The problem is you need a large number of them to even get 1 pound of boards.

The last I checked, and it was a while ago. Cell phones averaged about 1 USD in Au per board. with the advent of smart phones I'm sure the number would be much higher. check out the link, call them.

https://northernrefineries.com/index.htm

So far I have not had any dealings with them but you might get some real answers from them.


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## scrapparts (May 19, 2017)

Thanks for the replies. I was told that the newer phones (smartphones) have less gold inside of them compared to the older phones. I did however see the insides of both together and there is hardly any gold in the newer phones, from what I saw. If what I saw is true as to smartphones and older cell phones (flip, bar, slider, etc) I would say that the older phones definitely has more VISIBLE gold than newer(smartphones). I could be wrong, but it seems to be the case from the phones I've seen that were already stripped apart.

I would like to process the cell phones because I can see plenty of gold plated pieces inside of them, not including the boards. 

Anyone know about the screens as far as their value?

scrapparts


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## anachronism (May 19, 2017)

I can confirm that there is a marked difference in the gold yield between older mobile phone boards and the newer smartphone boards. 

The newer style boards contain much much less gold by weight as manufacturing processes have improved, margins have decreased, and projected life cycles have dropped.


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## joekbit (May 21, 2017)

I could very well have it backwards.


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## scrapparts (May 21, 2017)

I looked at some more smartphones and I also did a online search for "inside smartphones" and what I saw in person and online is that 1) most smartphones boards are 1/3 to 1/2 the size of older cell phones, 2) smartphones have very little to no gold on the boards, 3) gold on the smartphones are in the form of pins and connectors, like the usb, headphone jack, sim card slot, antenna and maybe some ribbon connectors. Other than that, there's hardly any gold inside of the smartphones from the box full I saw yesterday.

That's why I was wondering about the lcd screens, because that appears to be the heaviest part of smartphones, and I thought maybe they had some values in them. I'll do a search on smartphones lcd screens and see if I can come up with some information as to if they're worth anything alone.

scrapparts


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## richard2013 (May 22, 2017)

More gold are in side the IC( Integrated Circuit) hidden, I think you only see connectors and pcb plating


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## richard2013 (Jul 19, 2018)

I'd like to ask the T.S. do you have smartphone boards only that you can ship to my location, can you give shipping rate and your selling price, maybe we can share or I can pay the shipping if it reasonable for my business to survive. Please any interest contact me. Thank you


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