# Auction Haul - Box of Cell Phones



## Capteo (Mar 8, 2014)

Went to the auction today and took back a $30 box.

http://tinypic.com/r/23wpoae/8

Figured it would feed my urges to take something apart...

Already sorted the keepers from the scrap. (3 for keeps)

Just thought I'd share my haul and throw this out there. 
Police auctions can sometimes have a lot of stuff for cheap. (Although not guaranteed)

Some other guy paid $520 for a similar box to mine. 
I'm guessing he thought it would have some iPhones in it or something... Boy was he wrong.


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## resabed01 (Mar 8, 2014)

Good score!


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## Capteo (Mar 8, 2014)

Thank you.
I've begun tear downs and will share what I'm finding in video format as always.

First up will be 4 different Nokia models.
[Model:3589i | Type:RH-44]
[Model:2115i | Type:RH-66]
[Model:8270 | Type:NSD-5FX]
[Model:5170i | Type:NSD-1FW]

Just from eyeing it...
I'd say the plating content from highest to lowest is...

(HIGH) 5170i -> 3589i -> 8270 -> 2115i (LOW)

YouTube Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQN-oq-BB-M


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## niteliteone (Mar 9, 2014)

I bet by the time you clean the last one You will hate cell phones :lol: 
Good find, looking forward to seeing what you come up with. 8)


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## necromancer (Mar 9, 2014)

may be more profitable to sell the phones & the li-ion batteries then taking them apart, i no longer take cell phones apart

where are you located, there is lots of buyers for cell phones & li-ion batteries.


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## Capteo (Mar 9, 2014)

Phoenix Arizona

I was planning on selling the batteries. Don't want to chance a short circuit going for the gold contacts.

If I can find a buyer for the cell phones at a price that is worth while, then I would sell.


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## necromancer (Mar 9, 2014)

http://www.relectrocycle.com/

he is a member here called ocean, contact him


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## Capteo (Mar 9, 2014)

Thank you necromancer.

I've gone ahead and contacted Ocean via email. Looking forward to his reply.

By the way, for any who are curious...
I just finished counting and my total haul was 145 REAL cell phones, 15 floor models(weighted to feel real), 1 fire victim cell phone, 2 "truck ran me over" phones, and 1 ghost in the shell(Someone gutted this phone and put it back together afterwards...).

2 MicroSD cards with a few photos of grocery shopping.
1x 32 MB
1x 4 GB

14 SIM Cards

~80 Lithium batteries.

5~6 phones that look worth keeping / reselling.

I have an idea for the floor model phones, but it seems kind of cruel...
As I'm a university student, I thought it might be funny to just lay the phone down in public and record people reactions to finding a "free" phone but later realizing it is fake.
Can't think of many good ideas for fake phones...


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## Capteo (Mar 27, 2014)

I just started my first ever acid peroxide reaction using a few of the phone boards I salvaged (prior to selling all the rest of the phones to Ocean).

I first and foremost decided to focus on safety, because obviously that is the #1 rule of the forum, and my life... so at any moment when I was handling a chemical, I did not film.
I filmed before and after the chemicals were touched.

I went with the 3 to 1 ratio that I've seen in other videos and read here and there.

I won't have the video on YouTube until later, but I'm looking forward to sharing my first experience with everyone.

So far the reaction is moving at turtle speed which is A-OKAY with me.

I will mention in my video a disclaimer that I should share here as well.

In a previous video of mine, I mentioned how I used drano crystals to remove my solder mask.
While this was a fun and very effective method(although not as safe as LazerSteve's method), I did notice a problem.
It would seem that in areas where bits of aluminum were reacting in the NaOH, where the reaction was especially close to gold plating, the gold actually WENT into solution.

So on a phone board where you normally see gold plated bull's eyes all over the place, I actually have some where they are pure silver in color and all traces of gold are gone. (Insert huge frowny face here...)

SOOOOOO, lesson learned, and I wanted to share that with y'all.

As this A/P experience is based on the phones I got from auction, I'll update this post later on with more relevant information!


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## necromancer (Mar 27, 2014)

Capteo said:


> Thank you necromancer.
> 
> I've gone ahead and contacted Ocean via email. Looking forward to his reply.
> 
> ...



cell phone shops may buy them, i sell mine for $5.00 if they look good.

they go good as front window dressing


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## Capteo (Mar 31, 2014)

Okay, so my four day weekend is coming to a close and I wanted to at least share an update with my current progress.
This won't be a finished or complete update mind you since I'm still in the process of cleaning up my acid peroxide solutions AND have 3 filter papers that I need to remove gold foils from...

This first photo I'm sharing is a picture of ALL that I decided to process.
http://i61.tinypic.com/2ue0g2f.jpg

This second photo is 1/4 of the gold foils I've gathered from the process.
I have 3 more filter papers loaded with foils that I need to remove.
These papers are proving to be difficult to work with because of how brittle they have become(Falling apart into many pieces when I touch them)
So hopefully next weekend I can find a good solution to removing tiny gold flakes from flaky filter paper...
http://i62.tinypic.com/34gtz0j.jpg

This last photo is just one of the phone boards I was working with after having been stripped.
http://i59.tinypic.com/nx6pl5.jpg

What did I learn from this experience?
A: Surface area is a KEY thing to consider in the A/P method. I will NEVER do this process inside a small bottle again.
A: Tiny components with gold plating, while being worth salvaging, can be a real pain in the neck when filtering/separating.
A: A bottle with a lip is the WORST idea when pouring solution into filter paper because foils LOVE that lip and nomatter how much water you use, they don't wanna leave...


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## g_axelsson (Mar 31, 2014)

Capteo said:


> A: A bottle with a lip is the WORST idea when pouring solution into filter paper because foils LOVE that lip and no matter how much water you use, they don't wanna leave...


That is something I realized a year ago and replaced most of my glass jars with proper beakers. Nowadays I only use jars when all my beakers are occupied.

Göran


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## Pantherlikher (Apr 1, 2014)

Another tip?..
Don't filter flakes if you can help it.
They settle fast enough. 
I let settle, drain the liquid though a filter as much as I can. And rinse a couple few times.

I've even practiced untill I can seperate flakes from powder..
Well, enough that I have my bottle of flakes and a flask of powders.

But only 2 filters with some stuff in which I run Hcl + bleach bath and then through a filter to catch the mess. This all goes into the burn it someday bin.

B.S.


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