# Is this a good deal?



## GoldUser (May 11, 2022)

Hey,
I found this offer and I cant say if those are good or bad fingers.
Has someone got any experience on those kind? How much could I get out of those per kg/lb?
David


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## icejj (May 11, 2022)

Check out what @kurtak said in Gold will not drop about the average yield for gold fingers.

*I had to edit this post to attach the correct link, as my original post contained the wrong link.


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## GoldUser (May 12, 2022)

icejj said:


> Check out what @kurtak said in Gold will not drop about the average yield for gold fingers.
> 
> *I had to edit this post to attach the correct link, as my original post contained the wrong link.


Thanks for the share but I actually saw his post before. I was just wondering because those fingers have those interruptions in the plating and I wondered if someone knew from which time those are or already processed some?
David


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## icejj (May 12, 2022)

GoldUser said:


> Thanks for the share but I actually saw his post before. I was just wondering because those fingers have those interruptions in the plating and I wondered if someone knew from which time those are or already processed some?
> David


Oh okay I see now. You were more so looking for a response in regards to the exact/similar type of fingers that you posted? Sorry, I wouldn't know.


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## Shark (May 12, 2022)

I have never ran large volumes of those type fingers but what I recall is they run less gold per pound than memory fingers, especially the older style memory is much better. My guess is those are from peripheral cards of newer manufacture. A few of the older cards look like those but large volumes of the older ones would be kind of hard to come by.


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## GoldUser (May 12, 2022)

icejj said:


> Oh okay I see now. You were more so looking for a response in regards to the exact/similar type of fingers that you posted? Sorry, I wouldn't know.





icejj said:


> Oh okay I see now. You were more so looking for a response in regards to the exact/similar type of fingers that you posted? Sorry, I wouldn't know.


Thanks anyway


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## GoldUser (May 12, 2022)

Shark said:


> I have never ran large volumes of those type fingers but what I recall is they run less gold per pound than memory fingers, especially the older style memory is much better. My guess is those are from peripheral cards of newer manufacture. A few of the older cards look like those but large volumes of the older ones would be kind of hard to come by.


Thank you thats the info I was searching for. Do you think there could be 2g per pound?
The offer is exactly 120$. I dont calculate the chem, work, etc.. I just do it for fun but still want to find somewhat good deals.

I've just seen those patterns on older ones. Isnt this a good sign for the gold content?

David


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## Maget (May 12, 2022)

By the looks of the color there is not much gold.


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## Shark (May 12, 2022)

Maget said:


> By the looks of the color there is not much gold.


Agreed. The majority of those I dealt with were from old weather station equipment. The best I recall I got just under a gram per pound. As I said though, some are better than others. I did real well at that rate as I got mine for hauling off the electronic equipment. The color is the give away, as Maget said. The pale colors are less, deep golden is more, normally.


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## Maget (May 13, 2022)

Shark said:


> Agreed. The majority of those I dealt with were from old weather station equipment. The best I recall I got just under a gram per pound. As I said though, some are better than others. I did real well at that rate as I got mine for hauling off the electronic equipment. The color is the give away, as Maget said. The pale colors are less, deep golden is more, normally.


Yes that is true, here in Moldova we have USSR old tech, there the color is very deep yellow but on new tech it it yellowish, I see that even in Apple devices the newer the tech the less gold plating they add.
However if he is doing this for passion and pleasure and he enjoy what he does, there is nothing wrong, when I enjoy what I do I can overpay for something that is worth less.
So he could do it as a test and see how much there is gold and share with us his experience, which we also will enjoy as a result.


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## Shark (May 13, 2022)

Yes. I have paid more than the value just to gain some experience. Not often, but I have paid what I thought was a high price on a few items and made very good profits from them. I still enjoy refining but the learning is the real motivation.


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## kurtak (May 13, 2022)

it's hard to tell from the pic - it is possible they are not even gold plated but tin - or nickel plated

as I say - hard to tell from the pic - the color just isn't a nice golden yellow - looks more silver/gray

Could just be the lighting in the pic - another pic with different/better lighting might help

Kurt


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## Alondro (May 13, 2022)

I recognize those. They look a lot like fingers I cut off of some combo Intel RAM-CPU cards from Pentium II, as I recall, which had the CPU chip and the RAM together on one board. If the gold is on both sides, it could be those or something similar. Don't know exactly what the yield is for them, since I just dump all the fingers together in one batch.


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## GoldUser (May 13, 2022)

Its an ebay listing. There are 8 reviews. One said its just copper. The other ones said its just normal.
Looks a bit suspect? Can it be just copper or nickel? Wouldn't it just corrode away in months?


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## Alondro (May 13, 2022)

GoldUser said:


> Its an ebay listing. There are 8 reviews. One said its just copper. The other ones said its just normal.
> Looks a bit suspect? Can it be just copper or nickel? Wouldn't it just corrode away in months?


The lighting is poor, so it's hard to tell. The few little spots where the light is bright enough LOOK like they're gold plated. BUT, if this is being sold in BATCHES, what you're seeing in the pic may not be representative of ALL the material. I don't like buying stuff in batches, unless the pictures show EVERY SINGLE BATCH being sold. Otherwise, you can't be sure of what will actually be shipped to you.


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## GoldUser (May 13, 2022)

Alondro said:


> The lighting is poor, so it's hard to tell. The few little spots where the light is bright enough LOOK like they're gold plated. BUT, if this is being sold in BATCHES, what you're seeing in the pic may not be representative of ALL the material. I don't like buying stuff in batches, unless the pictures show EVERY SINGLE BATCH being sold. Otherwise, you can't be sure of what will actually be shipped to you.


Its titled 600g total. Should match the picture I assume?
Do you think it is gold due to the spots with the light?


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## Maget (May 14, 2022)

GoldUser said:


> Its titled 600g total. Should match the picture I assume?
> Do you think it is gold due to the spots with the light?


It is Gold plated but with poor carat by the looks, I see in new tech such Gold plating.


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## Shark (May 14, 2022)

We cannot know if it is a good deal or not until we know the price, and weight.


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## FrugalRefiner (May 14, 2022)

600 grams, $120.00.

Dave


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## Geo (May 14, 2022)

Plug in CPU fingers. About 3 grams of gold per pound. They are almost asking for spot price for the gold they contain. At 600 grams, they should yield about 3 grams, if you get all the gold that's there. Should be around $175 if you can get it all. After acid and time, a possible $50 profit is not worth the risk.


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## richoc (May 14, 2022)

For years at a lower Gold price I sold all my clean cut Gold fingers on EBay and got even after fees more than what Gold they contained.
So I only had to do the work of getting huge lots of fingered cards and trim them right and do some nice photos , show Karat reading and weight.
They would sell and cover the entire costs on the lots of scrap, that left the scrap cards FREE to me to harvest components for processing.
I did not need to do the work , time or expend the acids, so was a win, win for me.

Maybe I have spilled to many beans here, but just a guide as to what fingers are worth in reality.

Now if you want to get a batch to learn on, go for it, but not to make a profit with.


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## GoldUser (May 16, 2022)

Geo said:


> Plug in CPU fingers. About 3 grams of gold per pound. They are almost asking for spot price for the gold they contain. At 600 grams, they should yield about 3 grams, if you get all the gold that's there. Should be around $175 if you can get it all. After acid and time, a possible $50 profit is not worth the risk.


Are you sure there are CPU fingers? If there are 3g per lb I would give them a try.


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## Geo (May 16, 2022)

By appearance and design, I would bet what they yield on it.


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## Geo (May 16, 2022)

richoc said:


> For years at a lower Gold price I sold all my clean cut Gold fingers on EBay and got even after fees more than what Gold they contained.
> So I only had to do the work of getting huge lots of fingered cards and trim them right and do some nice photos , show Karat reading and weight.
> They would sell and cover the entire costs on the lots of scrap, that left the scrap cards FREE to me to harvest components for processing.
> I did not need to do the work , time or expend the acids, so was a win, win for me.
> ...


This debate came up for the forum before. The selling of gold bearing e-waste in general. A certain core of members understood what was happing on ebay (at first) and other places. The question "is it ethical to sell e-waste for much higher than scrap value?" Understand this was around that time when "gold drop" bars were hot on ebay. It took the whole forum dedicated to trying to get people to understand there was basically no gold in them, for months and months. After all of this was hammered out on the open forum it became a consensus selling scrap for more than than could reasonably refine out with a fair profit would be discouraged if possible. Do we still do that?


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## GoIdman (May 16, 2022)

That type of finger pattern i have seen on my P2/P3( but mostly black fiber) processor slot cards that i have...I don`t know where are these from but the fingers on my slot cards are deep yellow...these look very pale in color... although very nicely trimmed by the way.

I dont buy trimmed fingers since the price is overestimated for the yield they produce and frankly it is somwhat a lottery (if you want to make profit)...*but for hobby and fun you can spend whatever amount of money it is worth to you*.

IMHO make a calculation of the process time, chemical components input costs, comfort and electricity cost, equipment cost, amortization time of your equipment, your time, and all other not forseeable costs and material type and yields, and then calculate how much you have to produce to brake even and how much of that should you spend on the source material.

Don`t just buy stuff so you have something to play around with...you can find very good bargains if you are patient and search thoroughly.

Buy stuff that has high gold content and process it when you have a considerable amount...that way you can lower costs and make profit too....besides having fun.

Be safe

Pete


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## richoc (May 16, 2022)

Was it Ethical to sell a product I harvested and cleaned to the best of my ability to the highest bidder?
Yes.
I provided a good product.
I cut them close and removed all blank spots, any crappy sections I kept for my self to process and the bidding set the going prices.
Many I sold to contacted me to buy larger lots on the side, I would not side deal only list through EBay.
Many reported the recovery amount when asking for more, so they must of been very happy and kept buying my listings, many multiple repeat buys, 100's of purchases by some.
EBay, PayPal and I all made money this way.

Now at today's Gold prices I wish I had a ton of the ISA Card fingers to process that I sold off back in the day.


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## GoIdman (May 16, 2022)

richoc said:


> Was it Ethical to sell a product I harvested and cleaned to the best of my ability to the highest bidder?
> Yes.
> I provided a good product.
> I cut them close and removed all blank spots, any crappy sections I kept for my self to process and the bidding set the going prices.
> ...


Don`t get me wrong....a seller`s job is to make as much money as he can of his merchandise....no wrong in that, and yes it is ethical since we are talking about some goods ......on the other hand the buyer tries to lower the price as much as he can so he can make a profit....no wrong in that either...
If you buy trimmed fingers for spot price (as a refiner) you consider your time to be worthless and the process input material costs will rise the price of your recovered gold with 20-30% so you have to wait for gold to reach that price just for you to brake even.
Lots of hobbyst gold fever rush refiners drive the price high since they dont care...they are not making it for a profit.(supply and demand)

This is why i dont buy trimmed fingers, nowadays you just cannot make a profit on it...

As a hobbyst, you can disregard your time and costs since you are not making this for a profit....just for fun...and yes hobby can cost you a lot...No wrong in that either.

Be safe

Pete


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