# Gold fingers $20 per lb



## Micwopp (Dec 18, 2018)

Is $20 per lb a good price for gold fingers?


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## g_axelsson (Dec 18, 2018)

For clean cut gold fingers, a decent price. You could always sell it on to boardsort for $25 per lb.

:?: ... now, why doesn't the seller send it straight on to boardsort and don't mess with this selling stuff? Beware of scams even if it seems decent.

Is the seller in USA? Is it plated or just gold flash?

Ref : http://boardsort.com/payout.php

Göran


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## Micwopp (Dec 18, 2018)

I don’t know if it’s gold plated or gold flash how do I know the difference


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## jimdoc (Dec 18, 2018)

Micwopp said:


> I don’t know if it’s gold plated or gold flash how do I know the difference



Study the forum.


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## denim (Dec 18, 2018)

If I am not mistaken close cut fingers usually go for about $75.00-$100.00lb on ebay. Why would anyone sell them for $20.00lb?


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## silversaddle1 (Dec 18, 2018)

Yeah, buyer beware.


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## rickbb (Dec 19, 2018)

denim said:


> If I am not mistaken close cut fingers usually go for about $75.00-$100.00lb on ebay. Why would anyone sell them for $20.00lb?



People who pay that for them on ebay don't know what they are buying. Even the best plated fingers don't have that much gold value on them. All the professional e-scrap buyers current pricing is in the $20 to $25 per lb. range.


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## denim (Dec 19, 2018)

rickbb said:


> denim said:
> 
> 
> > If I am not mistaken close cut fingers usually go for about $75.00-$100.00lb on ebay. Why would anyone sell them for $20.00lb?
> ...



Very true rickbb, as far as people on ebay not knowing what they are buying. If these fingers are ram fingers then the yield should be about 2.25g/lb equaling just about $90.00 value of gold. Not a good deal in my book for the seller at $20.00lb, so I think I'll opt for selling my fingers on ebay rather than some scrap yard, or Boardsort etc. The OP was inquiring as to whether $20.00lb is a good price and the simple answer to that is yes if you are buying them, and no if you are selling them.


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## silversaddle1 (Dec 19, 2018)

What's that pound of fingers worth when gold hits $1600-1800 and ounce? That's how some make their money. Buy and wait.


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## g_axelsson (Dec 19, 2018)

silversaddle1 said:


> What's that pound of fingers worth when gold hits $1600-1800 and ounce? That's how some make their money. Buy and wait.


Why buy scrap at over the spot if you can buy already refined at spot?

Göran


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## rickbb (Dec 21, 2018)

denim said:


> Very true rickbb, as far as people on ebay not knowing what they are buying. If these fingers are ram fingers then the yield should be about 2.25g/lb equaling just about $90.00 value of gold. Not a good deal in my book for the seller at $20.00lb, so I think I'll opt for selling my fingers on ebay rather than some scrap yard, or Boardsort etc. The OP was inquiring as to whether $20.00lb is a good price and the simple answer to that is yes if you are buying them, and no if you are selling them.



Well that’s the rub isn't it, IF they are fingers from RAM. 

The OP didn't say what they were, only trimmed fingers, usually they are mixed lots of fingers from everything under the sun. Which is why e-scrap pros only pay $20 a lb. And the reason such a broad generalized question can only have a broad generalized answer.

If the OP had asked “Is $20 lb. a good price for high end, thickly plated ram fingers?” Then i doubt anyone would have said yes.


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## anachronism (Dec 21, 2018)

rickbb said:


> denim said:
> 
> 
> > Very true rickbb, as far as people on ebay not knowing what they are buying. If these fingers are ram fingers then the yield should be about 2.25g/lb equaling just about $90.00 value of gold. Not a good deal in my book for the seller at $20.00lb, so I think I'll opt for selling my fingers on ebay rather than some scrap yard, or Boardsort etc. The OP was inquiring as to whether $20.00lb is a good price and the simple answer to that is yes if you are buying them, and no if you are selling them.
> ...



To be very honest there's at least as much gold on other fully populated clean finger edges as there is on RAM mate. Things like power supplies can even be thicker. That given I do agree that $20 is good if you're buying clean cut fully populated gold edges.


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## niks neims (Dec 22, 2018)

Sometimes ENIG plated pieces from other PCBs (from LCD screen control boards, for example) are cut up in such a way that could resemble card fingers and fool inexperienced buyer... It is a scam and will yield much much less than expected!


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## kurtak (Dec 24, 2018)

niks neims said:


> Sometimes ENIG plated pieces from other PCBs



There is most definitely fingers out there that are ENIG plated - which will produce the "fine" particles of ENIG plating rather then the nice heavy/thick foils of normal plating --- I have had whole batches (several pounds) of such fingers with yields as low as (plus/minus) 1/2 gram per pound


Then again I have had fingers run as high as 3.5 grams per pound


The point being - if you are "buying" material - "know" what you are buying


Kurt


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## glorycloud (Dec 24, 2018)

> The point being - if you are "buying" material - "know" what you are buying



Words of wisdom there!! 8)


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## denim (Dec 24, 2018)

kurtak said:


> niks neims said:
> 
> 
> > Sometimes ENIG plated pieces from other PCBs
> ...



Sage advice. It's unfortunate the OP did not describe the 'Gold fingers' he was talking about. Maybe a picture, or a link.


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## niks neims (Dec 24, 2018)

kurtak said:


> There is most definitely fingers out there that are ENIG plated



Hold on.

So far In my book "fingers" are only the pieces on the edge of RAM and other slot-cards that goes in to the respective sockets (bus) on their mother boards. One of the reasons for a thicker plating being the potential abrasive stress from disconnecting and re-inserting said card edge in to their socket... Of course there are a lot of ENIG plated PCB pieces out there that might strongly resemble "fingers" visually (if cut right) - one being the long "striped" line on a LCD control board, but I was under impression they are not true "fingers"....

Could you please confirm if you mean that there are fingers from card edges (meant for insertion) that are ENIG plated, as this is a completely new information for me....


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## jimdoc (Dec 24, 2018)

I would agree that there are ENIG plated fingers.
Like on Soundblaster cards and other cheap items.
I don't even cut them off here.


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## g_axelsson (Dec 25, 2018)

niks neims said:


> Could you please confirm if you mean that there are fingers from card edges (meant for insertion) that are ENIG plated, as this is a completely new information for me....


Yes there are, there were a lot of cheap PCI-cards made in the 90-ies that barely showed any color. When you put it in acid the plating looked like cobweb when the base metal dissolved. I would say that the cheapest ones were even less gold than ENIG. If you pull the cards before the gold layer have had time to fully form you end up with less gold.

... and I've been doing it myself to keep down costs on a board I produced. Proper plating would have made the boards cost more than twice compared to using ENIG.

Göran


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## niks neims (Dec 25, 2018)

Good to know!

I recently processed about 3.2 KG of gold fingers, and was a tad disappointed when the yield was only around 12 g of gold - I was expecting closer to around 16-18 g...
Since I collected (broke off) all of the fingers myself, I was left to wonder where did the rest of it went... I wrote it off as losses due to my inexperience - like dissolved in AP, spillage, left in filters, etc... But now I see that there probably weren`t expected 5.5 g/kg there to begin with - come to think I processed quite a few of cheap LAN cards for example, with fingers being very pale in color....

Say, if we are talking strictly RAM card edge fingers - anyone have seen ENIG there? those usually are nice deeper yellow color... 


Thanks, guys! That is some Christmas knowledge right there


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## anachronism (Dec 25, 2018)

12g is pretty fair on that weight. To expect 5g per Kg is pushing it.


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## niks neims (Dec 25, 2018)

anachronism said:


> 12g is pretty fair on that weight. To expect 5g per Kg is pushing it.



Glad to hear it!

For some reason I had gotten it in my mind (read it somewhere  ) that yield should be ~5.5 g/kg.... If I was mistaken there, that means I am not as crappy as a refiner as i thought - I mean, I expected to lose some of it due to my inexperience, but not whole 30 %


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## Ron John (Nov 4, 2020)

how do you convert ram in pounds to finger weigjt. I can calculated from ram not fingers LOL ie old ram


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## Ron John (Nov 4, 2020)

how do you convert ram in pounds to finger weigjt. I can calculated my gold yield from the stick not fingers in any case I see if removed they ask far to much for it


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