# price per junk computer?



## snbear (Oct 17, 2012)

Hi - Does anyone have a basic cut off price that they would pay for junk computers? Or do you offer a per pound price for the scrap?

Just starting to collect stuff as I dig into Hoke's book.

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.


----------



## joem (Oct 17, 2012)

Free is best but at most $5 but it must have every part inside and none removed. I buy my computers from only a few stores and people. As a guide I can pay $5 complete never opened, $4 missing hd only, $3 missing hd and any one of memory, cpu, or slot card. All machines must have a motherboard. Anything below this I remove as a free service. I can get 30 - 35 cents a pound for computers but most times I remove any fingers from the slot cards to keep for A/P.

edit for clarity


----------



## glorycloud (Oct 17, 2012)

It can depend on the type of computer as well. Some weigh more than others like
big towers and of course servers and some weigh less like the SFF and USFF PC's. 

Some can have old ceramic processors like the early computers that were
80286 / 386 / 486 / 586 (Pentium1) and of course the Pentium Pros. If you
see that the computers are PIII / P4 and above, then JoeM is right on the mark.

Have fun collecting. 8)


----------



## kurt (Oct 18, 2012)

joem said:


> Free is best but at most $5 but it must have every part inside and none removed. I buy my computers from only a few stores and people. As a guide I can pay $5 complete never opened, $4 missing hd only, $3 missing hd and any one of memory, cpu, or slot card. All machines must have a motherboard. Anything below this I remove as a free service. I can get 30 - 35 cents a pound for computers but most times I remove any fingers from the slot cards to keep for A/P.
> 
> edit for clarity



Those are the same numbers I work with - the only other thing I would add is you also need to look for missing cards &/or no cards (a lot of company net work computers have no cards) so look at the back of the computer & if you see no cards knock off another 50 - 75 cents --- if the cards are "missing" look inside because there is a good chance other things have been taken out even though you are told its a complete computer

Kurt


----------



## Geo (Oct 18, 2012)

i expect a "complete" computer to be missing the ram. i believe when most people buy a computer they upgrade the ram right away (i do) and when they buy a new one, they take the ram out. but what ever the reason, you can expect the majority of scrap computers will be missing the ram sticks.


----------



## glorycloud (Oct 18, 2012)

Hmmm. 90+ percent of all the computers I get have memory in them.
Maybe I'm just lucky. 8)


----------



## xALmoN (Oct 18, 2012)

All the 15 (yes, i know, its a small number, but still a decent sample size imo) has had between 1 to 4 ram sticks in them. 

Some even still have the hard disk drives. Not much I can do with a hard disk though, I pull off the chipboard, and chuck it in a corner.


----------



## Geo (Oct 19, 2012)

may just be regional. its very hard for me to find ram sticks in scrap. i can buy them by the pound from the scrap yard for $5 a pound though. good guy but kind of backwards on the way things are valued in my opinion. he wants $0.50 a pound for hard drives. thats crazy to me. i dont want the aluminum, i want the logic board. :lol:


----------



## xALmoN (Oct 19, 2012)

Geo said:


> may just be regional. its very hard for me to find ram sticks in scrap. i can buy them by the pound from the scrap yard for $5 a pound though. good guy but kind of backwards on the way things are valued in my opinion. he wants $0.50 a pound for hard drives. thats crazy to me. i dont want the aluminum, i want the logic board. :lol:



Sell the hard drives you pick up to him for 30cents/lb.

Yeah I don't think old obsolete ram sticks are worth transferring to new computers anyway. i've found 128mb and 256mb ram sticks, those bring back memories.


----------



## oldgoldman (Oct 23, 2012)

i never pay for computers as the P4 and associated junk mother board has taken a lot of fun out of computer recycling IMHO. i was although happy to find some burly all copper heatsinks in some HP small horizontal style P4 computers recently ..


----------

