# Scrap and recover or sell?



## patnor1011 (Jan 20, 2016)

If you deal with quantity sometimes is better to put some items aside. Quite a lot of stuff can be reused not only as electronic but some things do have value for hobbyist or artist - like hdd platter.
Here is a question for you. Try to estimate or guesstimate potential gold yield from picture. I had them set aside for quite some time. I listed most of pictured items on local ad pages, ebay and sold quite a few for anything from 1 to 5 euro a piece. Every piece I sold was in good working order never got any problem.

Items on picture were sold as all-in-one.


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## rickbb (Jan 21, 2016)

I usually split the difference on items like that. 

I cut the fingers off and recover, then sell the rest to someone that recovers the rest.

I get the material for free so that may be different than your situation.


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## chuckgambale (Jan 21, 2016)

Just by looking at the picture I would make my estimate about 3-3.5 grams of refined gold. Now that is just the gold and it includes the fingers and removing incinerating and processing the chips for there goodies as well. This is a great question and for the people in this for pure profit sell sell sell. With what people pay on eBay for the ram alone usually far out ways the gold value. Personally I love what I have learned from people like patnor and this is truly a hobby so I don't care if I profit too much. These days with the price of gold it is very difficult to profit from refining e scrap unless done on large lots with multiple metal recovery. That is an opinion not a fact some of the people on this forem I'm sure do great, there are so many variables involved and I'm sure just as many opinions.


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## patnor1011 (Jan 21, 2016)

Well I had more than that, much more so after processing some and doing some calculations I estimate yield about 2-2.5g. I am always guessing on low end and to get more is nice bonus but this way I avoid disappointment or loss when purchasing. 

I have sold many individual pieces like 2GB ram for 8-15euro a piece, 1GB ram for 2euro piece, WLAN cards 3-5 euro but stuff keep coming and I needed to get rid of it to make space - too many different boxes, containers, bags.



chuckgambale said:


> Just by looking at the picture I would make my estimate about 3-3.5 grams of refined gold. Now that is just the gold and it includes the fingers and removing incinerating and processing the chips for there goodies as well. This is a great question and for the people in this for pure profit sell sell sell. With what people pay on eBay for the ram alone usually far out ways the gold value. Personally I love what I have learned from people like patnor and this is truly a hobby so I don't care if I profit too much. These days with the price of gold it is very difficult to profit from refining e scrap unless done on large lots with multiple metal recovery. That is an opinion not a fact some of the people on this forem I'm sure do great, there are so many variables involved and I'm sure just as many opinions.



Nice guess, close to mine and perhaps close to real value. I have sold that lot for more than your estimate is. 8)


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## gold4mike (Jan 21, 2016)

I recently picked up four pickup truck loads from one of my regular stops, a local computer store that just went out of business. This one sale on eBay brought in enough cash to pay them for the whole pile of stuff.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/LOT-of-30-2GB-PC2-6400S-DDR2-Laptop-Memory-RAM-Samsung-Hynix-Micron-Elpida-/131691672825?rd=1

I agree with Pat that the secondary market often pays much better that the gold recovery.

That's one of three lots of RAM from the laptops in the pile that I was able to sell. I'm still taking apart the computer towers and recently sold one of those to one of my local customers for $100.


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## glorycloud (Jan 22, 2016)

Here is my mantra that has served me well for over 35 years:

Resell, resell, resell, resell, resell, resell and then recycle (recovery of PM's or resale as e-scrap).

Even if you can't test (or won't learn how to), there is always someone who will buy
what you are unwilling to test at a price that makes sense for the buyer. That price will
always be greater than the PM values in e-scrap.

Especially when "old" becomes "vintage". (Like me) 8) 

Remember, try the first six steps on my mantra before resorting to step seven. :lol:


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