# Where do you get your scrap gold ?



## Noxx (Feb 28, 2007)

Where do you guys takes their gold ?
I currently have 70g. but I want to invest more.
I know some people are taking scrap electronics for free but me I buy scrap jewelry on ebay. I got very nice deals few years ago but not it seem gold lot sells at the gold spot... and I can't get any more «cheap» gold. 
If you have some tips where to get cheap gold... please share your experience lol.
Thanks


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## lazersteve (Feb 28, 2007)

Try local schools, offices, and government offices for surplus equipment auctions. Online you can try your luck at govliquidation.com. Local garage sales can turn up cheap jewelry and electronics equipment. I get the largest quantities by doing side deals with ebay sellers that I contact after a purchase. Always inquire with a seller after you complete a transaction to see if they have more to sell. The more you buy at once the cheaper you get it.


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## Noxx (Feb 28, 2007)

Ok thanks! But here in Canada there isn't much yard sales... especially the winter.


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## jmelson (Feb 28, 2007)

Noxx said:


> I know some people are taking scrap electronics for free
> Thanks


I've pulled a lot of electronic junk out of the dumpster. Now they are requiring all this stuff to pass through our environmental services at work, so all the computers, etc. are no longer in there. But, I collected several hundred pounds of card edge fingers and wire-wrap backplanes from electronic scrap over the years. My wife finally moved it all into the BEDROOM to remind me to **DO** something with all that junk. So, at least for a while, I need to reduce the scrap and extract the gold, rather than collect more.

You need to know what has the most gold in it to be effective. Old, non-IBM "mainframe" computers and large office PBXs (office phone systems) had a LOT of gold in them. 1980's HP computers also had boards COVERED in gold (not just connector fingers, the whole board was plated in gold). IBM mainframe gear also had gold, but they were the first to make big efforts to reduce the amount of gold.


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## Noxx (Feb 28, 2007)

Ok I will try... But like I said, there a lot less yardsales and thing like that here in Canada. Only twice a year, in the summer.
I ask someone who recycle computer to keep only cpus for me many months ago. I don't know if he forgot me... I will call him.
Thanks


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## Harold_V (Mar 1, 2007)

Years ago, old eyeglass frames were an excellent source of gold. Even the ones covered with plastic. They heed not be the wire frame type. On the average, they would yield a grain of gold, and I paid 25¢ per pair for them. I also refined for a few opticians along the way, on a percentage basis. It's clear that I was buying gold for less than 25% of value. It would be a real bargain today. 

If you're not familiar with gold eyeglass frames, they were marked on the bridge---typically 1/10 12KGF. That means that 5% of the weight of the frame was gold, but remember that if they're well worn, it's the gold that goes away, not the base metal. On very rare occasion, you can even encounter karat gold frames, but they were exceedingly rare. 

There are other markings, generally newer frames, and of much lower content. If the frame doesn't indicate it has gold. pretty good chance it does not. Newer frames are devoid of it as far as I know. It's been years since I last bought any---having sold my refining business in '94. 

If you get involved with eyeglasses (it's a nitric process), it would do you good to talk with me about processing them. They're a bit of a pain to run, but I managed to acquire a huge amount of gold by running them through the years, and consider them the foundation of the bulk of gold I had acquired before I started refining for jewelers. 

Harold


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## socorban (Mar 2, 2007)

many places, ebay is probably the worst place to get scraps, most of the stuff ive noticed goes for higher or equal to the gold youll be getting out of it, so your wasting you time, money on chemicals and what have you for 10 or 20$ profit. Dont get me wrong once in a blue moon theres a good deal.

I lucked out and my step father has a scrap dealers liscence and gets alot of scrap, most is useless to me but enough is electronics and some other real strange gold bearing items i get totally free. 

Some city dumps (landfills) still get electroninc scrap even though people are not supposed to ditch it in the regualr garbage. One near me gets a lot, and keeps it seperate, again another freebee, i have a dumping liscense there and they let me take what i want.

Another great source, look in your phone books for local computer REPAIR shops, surprisingly alot of these guys dont do anything productive with there scrap, you can often get it free or dirt cheap. SOme places near me i get it free, some i buy it cheap in bulk.

You will rarely get it real cheap off the net, most places that sell it auction it and you always have the clowns who bids things up to non profitable amounts. At least i havnt found a consistant cheap source off the net, if anyone knows of a place hook me up.


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## Noxx (Mar 2, 2007)

Ok like I did a time ago, I will call computer repair shops and told them to keep their scrap.
Thanks for the tips.


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## PRECIOUS METALS (Mar 9, 2007)

i got some high yield pins at 50 bucks a pound if any body whats it


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## ThePierCer (Mar 13, 2007)

this may seem a bit unscrupulus, but i buy from crackheads. I'm serious. I called every pawn shop around and found out what they are paying for gold (hey, i'm a business man). On the average they pay $3.50 per gram for 14k. So I just put up flyers in neighborhoods where i knew there were a lot of "crackheads" ...... I don't recomend this to everyone. I'm a pretty good sized man who is heavily tattooed and pierced, so i know i can handle whatever comes my way. these people are willing to sell their gold for penny's a gram. I can buy 2 oz of 14-18k for $100.....


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## Noxx (Mar 13, 2007)

Thats a good idea. Where do you put flyers ?


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## lazersteve (Mar 13, 2007)

Piercer,

Do you think the gold is most likely stolen that you get from these crackheads? How else could they afford to sell it so cheaply? I'm not willing to lose my freedom for dealing in stolen property or worse over a few ounces of gold. I think I'll stay out of crack town myself.

Steve


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## Noxx (Mar 13, 2007)

Well, LazerSteve is right... This is mostly stolen gold. Or people needs money fast to pay depts and sells their gold.


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## ThePierCer (Mar 13, 2007)

from what i've gotten so far, I know it's not stolen. Mostly broken chains, old rings, ect. 
It is no different from these same people going to a pawn shop and getting penny's on the dollar. I just happen to be open all hours. And I personally try not to go into the neighborhoods, and have people to do it.


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## ThePierCer (Mar 13, 2007)

i do completly understand your concerns. I for one wouldn't want any of my gold stolen, and wouldn't want to be the owner of someone's stolen jewelry. On the same token, there was a time in my life when i sold 2oz of 14k to a pawn shop for $150 to make a mortage payment. The owner of that place had no problem taking my family heirloms and give my penny's for it. I tried buying it back when i got back on my feet and he told me he already melted it down. I shopped around, and on an average pawn shops in my area are paying $3.50 per gram. I'm offering $6-7 per gram, so I at least feel better knowing their getting more for their gold from me then a pawn shop.


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## Noxx (Mar 13, 2007)

Ok I understand. But where do you advertise ?


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## Noxx (Mar 13, 2007)

3.5$ per gram ! :shock: 
I should look over here how much they offer. I don't know if it is about the same. Canada vs Usa


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## ThePierCer (Mar 13, 2007)

well i do own a recycling company, so right on my business card I have "We Buy Gold, CASH Paid". I also put up flyers on telephone poles and in liquer stores. Have you ever notice you almost never find a pawn shop in middle class neighborhoods? The same for "Cash Advance" places. You find your target demagraphic.


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## lazersteve (Mar 13, 2007)

Pawn shops definitely don't pay squat for the gold, but it seems to be a good marketing idea to put the flyers near pawn shops. If someone who is desparate for cash see's your sign while they are going in maybe they will call you if you offer more per gram than the pawn shop does. 

Good idea. You could even add 'I buy old computers' to the flyer.

Steve


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## Noxx (Mar 13, 2007)

Yes good idea. But I buy old computers, I don't wanna have screens and stuff like that. Maybe I could say: Computer case only.


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## Anonymous (Jun 23, 2007)

Is there any gold in TVs?


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## weiser (Aug 16, 2007)

I too would be carefull with the crack gold. I have seen too many people go down for crack and never recover. I would find it hard to support the crack heads for profit. Just me.


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## Anonymous (Aug 21, 2007)

I'm in kingston ontario canada and get my best electronics finds from both computer repair shops mentioned above and, my personal favorite, guys who fix computers out of their house. the ewaste industry in ontario is focused mainly in toronto and when I started out three years ago it was completely unheard of. the recent us media attention over the last year or so did most of my work for me. instead of flyers I just opened my phone book and wrote down the name and phone # of everyone in the computer repair section then reverse searched their addresses on the net. My biggest hurdle was convincing people that I was on the up and up when I offered to remove it for free.
40 dollars in stamps a pack of envelopes from the dollar store and 30 mins in front of my computer and I had directly targeted all the people in the area who were likely to have lots of electronic scrap in their house. 
after that initial mailing I have done no further marketing or advertising at all, it has been strictly word of mouth and I get an average of 2 or three calls per week. in the last years I've had one competitor set up a location with billboard etc but with what they charge($15-$35 per machine) all my old customers still call.
I've also been contacted by a few corporates in the area. In this area they didn't really have a way to get rid of it and would fill storerooms, in one case a rig trailer in the corner of their parking lot and were more then happy to let me haul it away.
Until now I've been outsourcing pretty much everything but the processing but reading posts here for the last week have encouraged me to try my first solo gold recovery. I'll be sure and post back if I have any problems


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## aflacglobal (Aug 21, 2007)

Welcome to the forum Reaper.
Keep us up to date on your progress. :wink:


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## crazyboy (Jun 11, 2008)

OK there are a lot of post on this thread but not much info. Where do you get your scrap processors/fingers ( know they come from computers but where do you get the computers) from what I've herd there isn't much gold in one computer so you have to get a lot where are all you getting enough computers/electronics for 5LBs of fingers?


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## Rag and Bone (Jun 12, 2008)

Had some good luck lately at scrap yards. Places that normally don't handle e-waste. Now they know where to go with it. Hi-grade boards and rare processors  Beat the bushes and you find it.


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## mountaineer (Jun 12, 2008)

The noble man makes noble plans;and by NOBLE DEEDS, he stands....

Gold is considered to be a noble metal and should be treated as such!!


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## pcecycle (Jun 12, 2008)

Try thrift stores. I have a deal with one local thrift store to pickup all the donated computers that are too old or not worth repairing. It saves them from having to pay for disposal!

Also try an ad on freecycle.org if there is a one near you.

Mike


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## steveonmars (Aug 23, 2008)

Harold_V said:
 

> If you get involved with eyeglasses (it's a nitric process), it would do you good to talk with me about processing them. They're a bit of a pain to run, but I managed to acquire a huge amount of gold by running them through the years, and consider them the foundation of the bulk of gold I had acquired before I started refining for jewelers.
> 
> Harold



Harold,

A good friend of my wife's owns an eyeglass store so I'll go talk to her tommorow and I'm sure she'll save frames for me. Can you post a little more info on what she'll need to look for, (I'll give her the markings you already posted), and what the extra processing info is you mentioned.

You can also PM me if you think that'd be easier, but others might want the info too.

Thanks,

Steve


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## Harold_V (Aug 23, 2008)

Chances of finding gold filled frames today are not good. The price of gold in '80 had a serious effect on how much was being used, so even then the source had taken a change for the worse. 

The typical gold filled glass frame was marked 1/10-12L GF on the bridge. Later frames were marked differently, and contained less gold. I don't recall the marking now---but there was no reference to gold content, just the numbers. You may find the numbers stamped on the ear pieces instead of the bridge. Early 1/10-12K frames were not marked there, just on the bridge. 

Recent advancements in non-corrosive alloys have pretty much eliminated gold filled frames. The best thing I can offer at this point is for you to check discarded frames and determine which may contain values. I was doing that years ago, with limited success. I can't help but think that frames made today will be valueless. 

Sorry I'm not more help------I've been away from refining for about 15 years now.

I used dilute nitric to digest the base metals after incinerating the glass frames. Both steps are important. I heated them to redness, breaking the frames down to component parts. They tend to be very dirty with body oils, so don't overlook the incineration. You'll also need to do some testing, so you'll know what portions can be clipped, to avoid processing portions that have no value. Much of the portion that is covered with plastic has no value, but that is not always the case. Only by experimenting will you learn. 

As the frames reduce in volume, the solution has a tendency to boil over. Heating is a requirement, so use large volume vessels that allow for a huge amount of frothing. Your first experience will be a good teacher. 

Harold


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## lazersteve (Aug 23, 2008)

Hello,

I'm still sitting on three plus pounds of GF frames, no lenses or ears, just bridges. I've processed close to 5 pounds of them and they all vary a little in their base metal makeup. 

The ones I have now are stainless steel based and nitric has a very limited affect on them. I start off incinerating (something Harold taught me last year back :wink: ), then I move on to two extended boils in HCl. When the HCl no longer has any effect, I put the shells in AR and dissolve the gold as usual.

Be sure you test a small sample before you jump in head first on a batch.

Steve


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## Harold_V (Aug 24, 2008)

lazersteve said:


> Be sure you test a small sample before you jump in head first on a batch.
> 
> Steve


Interesting. 

I never encountered any that wouldn't respond to nitric-----a sure sign that things have changed substantially, as I suspected. 

How'd you and yours weather the storm, Steve? 

Harold


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## lazersteve (Aug 24, 2008)

Harold,

The storm leap frogged my neck of the woods. We experienced only a light sprinkle here and everywhere within 50 miles.

These frames are very interesting indeed. They are magnetic and clearly hallmarked 1/10 12Kt GF. I stripped some in the cell and the steel dissolved along with the gold. When I tried 50/50 technical grade nitric, it did change color, but would not work to reduce the batch to shells. I'm assuming the SS base metal passivated and stopped the reaction. 

I poured off the nitric and rinsed the frames well. A close inspection of the frames at this point revealed that the gold filled shells could be removed from the underlying metal by sliding the entire shell length wise off of the wire frame, so I guess the nitric dissolved the layer between the gold shell and the steel. I then moved to boiling HCl. The HCl worked slowly on the frames, but eventually dissolved the steel.

In the past batches I've done the base metal was easily dissolved with nitric. Nearly all of the above mentioned frames were identical and brand new with the tag on them.

Steve


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## steveonmars (Aug 25, 2008)

Harold and Steve,

Thanks for the info on the frames, it's something more to look into.

Steve, I live in Ft Myers and we got more rain after the storm went by than we did that day. Today's the first day it hasn't rained all day. Hopefully that's the worst we'll see this year but it's not looking good if you belive the forcasts.

Steve


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## Anonymous (Sep 5, 2008)

I have learned so much coming to this website. Thank you to everyone. This is my first post. 

Personally, I advertise "Free computer recycling" or "curbside pickup to old outdated and broken computers" on Craigslist.org. I get more computer components than I can handle. I get alot of monitors and printers though. I sort them out and test them. If they work, I trade them to local computer shops for broken components,chips, and boards. If they don't work, I drop them off at the local e-waste center here in town. 

I hope this info has helped. thanks - kent


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## rollerdisco (Sep 1, 2017)

Question: I have two identical RAM boards from i believe a IBM system/38 mainframe. One has plastic ram chips with date codes 1986. The other has ceramic chip with gold lids and legs and date codes of1983. These are 16 pin DIP packages. The only difference i can see between these boards is the gold. The gold board weighs 1 lb, 3.4 oz. The non-gold one weighs 1 lb, 0.2 oz. Does this mean the gold board has 3.2 oz more of precious metals? I can't think of any other explanation. There are 160 chips total double-stacked.


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## g_axelsson (Sep 1, 2017)

Nice boards, check the collectors value before trying to get the gold.


rollerdisco said:


> Question: I have two identical RAM boards from i believe a IBM system/38 mainframe. One has plastic ram chips with date codes 1986. The other has ceramic chip with gold lids and legs and date codes of1983. These are 16 pin DIP packages. The only difference i can see between these boards is the gold. The gold board weighs 1 lb, 3.4 oz. The non-gold one weighs 1 lb, 0.2 oz. Does this mean the gold board has 3.2 oz more of precious metals? I can't think of any other explanation. There are 160 chips total double-stacked.


Identical? Last time I checked ceramics is a lot heavier than plastic.

Göran


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## rollerdisco (Sep 1, 2017)

Thanks Göran, hadn't considered the weight difference between ceramic and plastic. I meant identical in that the only differences are the RAM chips themselves. New to this. Cannot find any collector value or even a reference to them anywhere. Planning a trip to the Rhode Island Computer Museum hoping to learn more as they have 
a System/38 in their collection. How can I find their value?


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## jimdoc (Sep 1, 2017)

You can post them on Ebay. Or check Ebay for past sales.


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## anachronism (Sep 1, 2017)

On the left of the picture there are stickers on both boards. Do those stickers have the same numbers? I ask because I am not 100 percent sure those are both the same board even though they look similar in arrangement.


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## rollerdisco (Sep 1, 2017)

Thats what i thought but i realized they are serial numbers.1983 boards 01286780, 01432016, 01262216, 01286765, the 1986 boards, 019859380 and no label on 6th. Your question did make me look closely. All 6 are the same except for the RAM. The RAM chips on the gold ones are Hitachi 4481832 or Motorola 4481897, and the non-gold ones are Hitachi 4481987 or OKI 4481832. I found a sticker on one newer board "To replace card order p/n 69X5507" that I had not seen before so now but a web search turns up nothing.


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