# What to pay for bulk computers



## dukebry (Sep 1, 2008)

1: What would you pros pay for bulk whole cpu's by the pound? I'm looking at a lot available and if I had the intent to purchase these to process and refine, what would be a fair price to me (on average).

2: What would you guys pay for monitors with the same intent?

3: Any guesses at yield ranges?

Thanks!!


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## Rag and Bone (Sep 1, 2008)

The monitors are a problem unless you have an outlet to unload them for free. Some of the computers pictured have use value that greatly excedes scrap value. I pay $80-120 per ton for scrap computers based on completness and scrap value. All bets are off unless you have a market or refiner to sell scrap components. You won't be able to refine everything on your own.


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## dukebry (Sep 1, 2008)

Thanks for your reply - $80-$120/ton is a lot less then what these are priced at. Do you have good supplies available to you at those prices?

I wonder what some other people on this forum pay per ton?

Thanks


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## Rag and Bone (Sep 1, 2008)

I rarely pay anything. Oftentimes I take the monitors as a convenience and get the computers and trimminings for the effort. It's labor intensive to dismantle PCs not to mention refine.


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## dukebry (Sep 1, 2008)

So $500/ton for the cpu's would be a loser?


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## Rag and Bone (Sep 1, 2008)

Depends on the systems suitable for resale/parts. I would pass on that if it was for scrap only. A big part of that ton is going to be steel, plastic, drives, and powers suppplies. Very low value stuff. If you have a reliable market or can process for PMs yourself it might be worthwhile.


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## dukebry (Sep 1, 2008)

I wonder if $500/ton is ok for someone who is going to refine the pm's theirself and trash everything else?


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## Anonymous (Sep 1, 2008)

Beware of surplus sales, often the ram and cpu's have been removed.

If your planning a bid ask for a copy of previous sales, this knowledge will help you determine your bid. Also today's gold and silver spot price will determine what others are willing to pay.

Find out about your competition, are they dismantling in house, a lot of recycling shops use handicap labor giving them an edge. 

Next at what point is your competition shipping, boards removed or components sheared off. You can bet the farm they are not doing the refining in house.

Have you ever processed e-scrap before? If not you have an education yet to be learned.

We should have a forum heading who has lost or spent the most money, buying chemicals, acids, lab glass, building furnaces, ball mills or hammer mills.


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## dukebry (Sep 1, 2008)

I wonder how many lbs of these whole computers are needed to get 1000lbs of pcb's


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## Anonymous (Sep 1, 2008)

Lots, I just sheared off my supply of motherboards and cards from a bit over 1 ton of computers.

With the IC's pulverized not enough to fill a 20 liter pail, gold plated pins 1/3 of a pail - waste - truckloads.

My advice would be to purchase karat gold.


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## dukebry (Sep 5, 2008)

Hi Gustavus,

Not to be argumentative (sincerely) but if your advice is to buy karat gold - and although that is good advise i'm sure - but why then are you buying computer scrap if its not worth while and you're refining your self?

Thanks.


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## jimdoc (Sep 5, 2008)

You have to need to know how much to pay and for what.
Getting it for free leaves little to be lost besides your time 
and gas money. When you start paying for it you may wind
up doing it all for free or at a loss really fast.
Remember free is always the best price to pay.
Jim


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## dukebry (Sep 5, 2008)

But it does looks to me that if you can buy motherboards at $1/lbs or less then you can make money either refining or resell.?.


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## Anonymous (Sep 5, 2008)

dukebry said:


> Hi Gustavus,
> 
> Not to be argumentative (sincerely) but if your advice is to buy karat gold - and although that is good advise i'm sure - but why then are you buying computer scrap if its not worth while and you're refining your self?
> 
> Thanks.


I'm not buying computer scrap, never have and never will. We collected scrap computers from five neighboring landfill sites and the local scrap yard.

If it were not for the fact I drive a Mitsubishi diesel burning filtered waste vegetable oil this effort would have been unprofitable.

Since I'm retired, my fuel cost nothing and my time is free I fill in my days fooling with e-scrap, metal casting , cutting hardwood lumber on my home made band saw mill and wood working.

From experience the time involved in processing e-scrap it only makes sense to purchase karat scrap.

And it you have read Hoke's book you will find buying the white metals could be a pleasant surprise in disguise. Platinum was used very often from 1938 in jewelery, then the war years produced more hidden surprises.

Most of the home refiners do not have a suitable location for storing or dismantling e-scrap, storage of acids and waste disposal.

Another suggestion would be to try your hand refining karat scrap before tackling e-scrap. Karat scrap is much more limited to the unwanted base metals much easier to refine being more concentrated in values.

E-scrap has every imaginable unwanted base metal, epoxies and resins you can think of, I'm sure your neighbors will love ya for incinerating 50 or a 100 lbs of this irregardless the time of day or night.


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## dukebry (Sep 5, 2008)

Understood! I really was thinking more in the commercial sense. I was looking at buying a refinery business here in NYC that is for sale and weighing that vs. starting one from scratch (not from home)  

I'm researching the profitability of buying scrap in large bulk (container loads) and processing it at my (to be) refinery as apposed to just processing scrap for others and charging fees.


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## Harold_V (Sep 5, 2008)

The magnitude of volume required to process e scrap at a profit is likely well beyond anything you can assemble yourself. If you have deep pockets, that may not be true. 

I've never tried to discourage anyone from processing e scrap, but I refined on a commercial basis for years---and never accepted it for processing. I was unwilling to spend the amount of time that might yield traces of gold when an equal amount of time might yield 50 ounces or more, from karat wastes. It just wasn't worth it for me.

With e scrap, you can work yourself to death and not make a dime. It's just too labor intensive unless you can process it the way the big boys do. That requires a serious amount of equipment, which is where the deep pockets come in. 

If you're serious about refining, it's hard to beat the results of processing karat gold. If you get hooked up with the consumer (the jewelry bench man), you can become a vital part of his operation. Rarely do the people that make jewelry refine their own gold----it's too time consuming to run a single batch, and the acids are a distinct negative in that you must keep them out of the manufacturing environment, otherwise all your equipment gets rusty. 

Before you invest in a business that processes e scrap, aside from doing it on a hobby basis, get real serious about researching the ramifications. That could prove to be the best advice you've been given in your lifetime. 

Harold


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## goldsilverpro (Sep 5, 2008)

I agree with Harold.

The only used electronic items that I ever made money on, using chemical processing, was cyanide strippable items, such as fingers or pins, and certain items that I dissolved, such as all gold side braze and CPU packages.

It isn't that I haven't tried. 

The best hit I made was scrapping out an old TV station. There was a lot of items with exposed gold that I stripped.

On the other hand, I lost money on all of the electronics from a scrapped Naval submarine. The stuff looked good, but the labor was extensive. Also, the values were a lot less than expected.

Another failure was a big truckload of mainframe computers. Here again, the labor ate my lunch.

The very best electronic scrap is new scrap - scrap from electronic manufacturers. I was selective and rarely (maybe, never) lost money on it.


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## wildbill_hickup (Sep 6, 2008)

Rag and Bone said:


> I rarely pay anything. Oftentimes I take the monitors as a convenience and get the computers and trimminings for the effort. It's labor intensive to dismantle PCs not to mention refine.



R&B what on earth do you do with the monitors :?: :shock: I just had a school offer me 25-30 computers and they asked if I would take the monitors. I said no, but if there is something I could do with them that I didn't have to pay for (our local recycle center) I'd help them out. As it is I'm not sure if I'm going to take the printers they have offered. I told them I'd have to look and see what they have. Last thing I need is a barn full of junk I can't get rid of :!:


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## Exibar (Sep 18, 2008)

there are places that take old monitors for nothing around. You certainly have to do your homework on this part, even if it's striking a deal with the local scrap yard.

You will have tons of steel and copper (literal tons) that you'll want to sell. Strike a deal that if they take your monitors, that you'll sell your steel/copper to them. Works for me nicely 
Scrap yards generally will send the monitors off for salvage tot he refineries from what they tell me. They don't make a whole lot of cash doing this, perhaps only slightly better than breaking even if they're lucky.

Mike B


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## maltfoudy (Sep 24, 2008)

http://www.govliquidation.com i have seen truckloads of computer and electronic scrap on this site always to far away for me to consider them.


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## pinwheel (Oct 17, 2008)

In our scrap yard, a monitor will yield about $5 worth of non ferrous metal Al, Cu, Fe at $4 Cu spot. Right now its about $2.50 with the depressed scrap prices.

This is not counting any PM recovery if you chose to bother.

A good cleaner can recover that in about 5-10 minutes. Your mileage may vary. 

Keep in mind this means that you unwind all the motors manually.

So you can pay upwards of .03/lb and still be ok. I would pay .01/lb today at cu $2.50 for #1 pipe and then throw the waste into the steel loads.


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## clwp (Nov 1, 2008)

we occasionally pay for towers only at a rate of 100/ton (about 1.00 ea) but most of the time get for free.

we dismantle and sell each part - some for re use - some for recycle

each part has a seperate value and we process none of it ourself

we gladly take the monitors as well - in fact the last lot we just sold had just over 400 monitors in it

with the right research there is plenty of money to be made without refining its all about volume


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## viacin (Nov 1, 2008)

Harold_V said:


> The magnitude of volume required to process e scrap at a profit is likely well beyond anything you can assemble yourself. If you have deep pockets, that may not be true.
> 
> I've never tried to discourage anyone from processing e scrap, but I refined on a commercial basis for years---and never accepted it for processing. I was unwilling to spend the amount of time that might yield traces of gold when an equal amount of time might yield 50 ounces or more, from karat wastes. It just wasn't worth it for me.
> 
> ...



Harold,
Wow. I feel like my goals and interests in refining are somewhat in line with what I've read about what you have done, so I listen when you speak. I printed out his post and hung it on my office wall because, finally, here are some answers I've been looking for.

I'm not interested in storing huge amounts of computer cases, or soaking fingers in ap for weeks. Nor do I intent to buy tons of pc parts and monitors and disassemble them myself for the dollars they may bring. If this is going to be profitable, then turnaround and overhead are important. Volume may equal profit with PC scrap, but it also means more work and more help. I know there is money in these things, and I don't mean to put anyone elses techniques down by no means. For a time now I've been chasing the idea myself. But Harold, you may have opened the doors and shown me the light with this post. Not to mention it saved me from weeks of expiermenting untill I found this out for myself. Ty.


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## Harold_V (Nov 1, 2008)

Thanks, viacin. My comments are based on what I experienced. It's not that I didn't process e scrap-----it's that I did. That is what formed my attitude. 

If a person intends to operate at a profit, the idea of allowing batches of materials to sit in process for days, or weeks, is not reasonable. I prided my operation in being able to turn batches in short order, which served the customer exceedingly well. 

When I first accepted materials for refining, my typical turn-around time was only three days, with one particular customer getting his material back in 24 hours. It was my first experience with this individual, who had used gold that was contaminated and ruined a lot of his castings. It was all the gold he had on hand, and needed it cleaned up and returned quickly. What better way to impress a new customer than to do it immediately? He became one of my dedicated customers and stuck with me to the end, when I sold the business. He was also responsible for many of my new customers, having spread the word. 

Back to the point at hand----as my business grew, it became harder and harder to turn materials in three days. I finally told my people that it would be one week. That time frame was reasonable, and allowed me the needed time to perform without apologies. Occasionally I was earlier, which is never a problem. I also delivered to local customers, in person. They like talking with you, and receiving supportive information. You'll come to understand that many of them may know how to make jewelry, but don't have the slightest clue about good and proper handling of alloys. A good example is not melting any more alloy than is required. Each time a gold alloy is heated, quality is compromised via oxidation. 

One thing I came to understand immediately was that customers wanted honest feedback. They were tolerant of a week delivery, but were intolerant of my being late, assuming I was. Most folks will work with most any reasonable schedule, but they lose trust in you quickly when you provide lip service.

The one thing to remember is that you can not please everyone all the time. You will encounter folks that think they have been cheated, even when they have not. The best defense, when you've treated them fairly and honestly, is to inform them that you no longer will accept their business, secure in the knowledge that they do not understand what they have, and have unreasonable expectations. Such people will do more to harm your business than you can imagine. 

Harold


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