# Seriously Ebay



## masonwebb (Mar 22, 2013)

I can't believe how expensive Ebay is sometime's. Some people wan't am arm and a leg for scrap! It's like " Oh this has gold in it so it must be worth something". 
I've seen a scrap Pentium pro go for $50 once. Does anyone else think anything about Ebay's prices?


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## denim (Mar 22, 2013)

Buying scrap on ebay and trying to make money with it is in my opinion a lesson in futility. You have to find your scrap in other ways. I recently contacted a jewelry store owner and he agreed to sell me gold fill scrap at 50% of spot and then buy the refined gold back from me at 100% of spot. I am currently on my second small bath from him. It's experiences like this that solidify my belief that buying scrap on ebay is a waste of time. If you are new to this refining thing I would suggest hitting up some businesses and thrift stores etc with business cards/flyers. I do this and almost always end up with a truck load of e-scrap. Don't forget the jewelry stores and optometrists too. Garages sales are a good source to for all kinds of e-scrap as well as refining vessels (corning ware dishes etc). I went to a garage sale last summer and introduced myself as an e-srapper and the guy's face lit up like a roman candle and he led me to his garage and showed me his late fathers collection of old test equipment (frequency generators, scopes, and stuff I couldn't even identify). Probably thirty pieces. Got them home and found plenty of gold legged piggy back IC's among plenty of other plated gold goodies. This guy was on leave from the navy ( his father's funeral and cleaning out of the house ) and was absolutely delighted to meet me. He didn't have any e-scrap displayed in his garage sale stuff because he never thought anyone would be interested. Bottom line is- ebay scrap is usually waaaaayyyyyy over priced.

Dennis


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## element47.5 (Mar 22, 2013)

I think in many cases shill bidding occurs. That is where cohorts of the seller get in on the bidding to simulate the appearance of interest and to guarantee a higher-price sale. Better for the seller to pay fees (more likely, the fake buyer and the seller split frictional costs) than to sell at a low price. In many cases I believe the goods are never shipped. The buyer just leaves glorious feedback for the seller, ("Great deal!, Fast shipment!") the seller pays the fees. Other potential buyers see auctions they didn't win but add the seller to their favorites list. Then the seller lists another....and another....and another, and over time the bogus seller builds up a strong feedback book and the next newb who comes along makes the calculation that they just have to up their bid if they want to get all that gold. Gotta have it. More important to win than to make an intelligent decision. 

And there is no denying that every single day, some number of newbies suddenly struck with gold fever and an overactive imagination get the idea that any and every old computer has hundreds of dollars worth of gold in it, and all they have to do is to mix up a few chemicals and the gold will gleefully leap out of the computer and into a nice, rectangular 1 oz ingot, all stamped and certified and everything. You have to understand the philosophy which is related to advanced selling theory. And that is, people NEVER buy the thing they are actually buying. The classic way to state this is: People do not buy drills and drill bits: They buy holes. When they to Home Depot and walk out with an electric drill, they are NOT buying the drill! They are actually buying the freedom to place holes of various sizes when and where they like. This is even more prevalent with a "dream" thing like owning gold (and why do they want to own gold? Because they are not buying gold: They are buying....what? Freedom from fiat money or whatever) where all manner of mental gymnastics are possible. They see store after store "We Buy Gold" and they imagine there must be this incredible reason why people smart enough and rich enough to own and operate retail stores buy gold, but without knowing that even low quality karat junk gold jewelry contains FAR more gold than micro-plating on a few pins and connectors. They simply do not "do the math" and are very likely to be completely incapable of same. They mentally construct this mystical path from electro-junk to owning gold much cheaper than what they'd like to pay for it and the next thing you know......All it takes is a mouse click or two and they can bid the price up to anything they imagine. There's no prerequisite to do the research to determine what the actual yield from a junk computer might be; there's likewise no requirement to ponder how a $300 (new) low end computer or even a sidewalk throwaway can possibly have $100 worth of gold in it. It doesn't take brains or figuring...it just takes mouse clicks. 

People risk their lives ripping copper wire out of installations where they're not even sure if power has been turned off. They want, they take. Sadly, in a rough economy, IMO, we ain't seen the depths of where this is likely to go, IMHO.


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## jonn (Mar 22, 2013)

Very well said element!!


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## Woodworker1997 (Mar 23, 2013)

My hats off to you element. 

Derek.


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## element47.5 (Mar 23, 2013)

I wanted to add some more color to my interpretation of ebay shill bidding, and how the "auto-bid" mechanism also encourages "step-up", "gotta have it" bidding by newbs. The "auto-bid" deal is, ebay's software will automatically increase any bid a bidder places by nominal increments...say 25 cents on items under $10, 50 cents up to $25, $1 over $50. I don't know if those are accurate numbers, but the point is, suppose an item with a fair value of $25 is offered with a minimum bid of $5. First bidder shows up and bids $16. His bid enters as $5. Next bidder shows up and thinks the item is a steal at the apparent bid, $5, indeed is a good deal at maybe up to $12. So he enters his $6 bid, but the system "rejects" it and notifies him he has to step up higher. OK, $7, no problem. Oops, not enough. Now $8. Nope. $9. Nope, $11. Nope, $13. Nope, $15. Ahhh, the heck with this, I want it, so I'm bidding $20! Finally the system takes his bid. In his haste, perhaps he overlooks the $7 shipping charge. Now he is paying (if he wins) $27 for the $25 item. A long explanation for good old "auction frenzy". Later, maybe someone else will stick it to bidder #2. It also is a factor if the seller has multiple things for sale and will combine shipping. If a buyer REALLY wants something, perhaps they will overpay if the freight can be amortized over several won auctions. Such a buyer will feel better overpaying for any one auction since he is saving on freight, but of course he MAY NOT WIN the other aucs! Well, then he just overpays. ALL OF THIS works against you if you are looking to steal the item. 

This used to happen to me all the time when I was buying sterling silver. I had a carefully constructed spreadsheet of what the average 7" and 7-1/4" and 7-12" fork weighed and what silver was worth and what 80% of it was worth. With shipping, I knew what my max bid could be and bid just under that much. I lost many auctions by 25 cents a net troy ounce of silver. I kept encountering the same crew of sharpened-pencil sterling hounds..5 or 6 guys....sometimes I would win, sometimes they would. Most of the time, I was working and working and working to get silver $1 under spot. When silver was $11-$17, it was marginally worth it. With silver at $27+++, that dollar was NOT worth it, it was too small a discount off fair value. At the same time, the other side of the coin (no pun intended) is that overpaying by $1 or $2 became much less of a big deal when the price got into the 20's. So many people didn't mind doing it. When silver frenzy really got going, well over $20, it simply stopped being possible to buy under spot. Some people just don't consider the shipping costs...and of course with sterling silver forks etc; if anyone is looking for an actual replacement for one they lost or dropped into the disposal and wrecked, they will massively outbid a scrapper. Let us not forget that if you do this 50 times, one time, you're going to get skunked. And you can get skunked by finding out that the 7-1/4" forks you just bought weigh 41 grams instead of the 45 grams you expect, they are a light style. So the nickels and dimes you saved working like mad to buy teeny bits under spot can easily get wiped out on one bad deal. By the time real silver frenzy set in, I stopped being interested in acquiring sterling forks as a means of hoarding silver. It was a PITA. It was cheaper just to buy .999 rounds and bars on sale and get what the heck I wanted to get in the first place! 

At the risk of sounding like a philosopher, that statement in my prior post "people do not buy drills---they buy holes" is very much worth spending some time thinking about. Outside of necessities; food and shelter, for discretionary items, *it is almost impossible to buy the actual thing you walk out of the store with*.


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## ilikesilver (Mar 23, 2013)

you know whats even dumber, the people that are paying those crazy prices. I wont, not when you can get plenty of it for free.


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## silversaddle1 (Mar 23, 2013)

I use to sell a ton of e-scrap on E-bay, with great results I might add. I never once had to have someone shrill" bid my items. They always seemed to bring stupid money all on their own. Every once in a while I still throw something up there, and the stupid money just rolls in! 

Now some will say that I'm ripping people off. No, I'm not. I describe everything truthfully, give exact weights, counts, and sizes, and never estimate yields. It's your money, spend it how you see fit. People overpay for tons of other things at auction every day of the week. As a buyer it's up to you to know fair market value of things you wish to purchase.


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## masonwebb (Mar 23, 2013)

silversaddle1 said:


> I use to sell a ton of e-scrap on E-bay, with great results I might add. I never once had to have someone shrill" bid my items. They always seemed to bring stupid money all on their own. Every once in a while I still throw something up there, and the stupid money just rolls in!
> Now some will say that I'm ripping people off. No, I'm not. I describe everything truthfully, give exact weights, counts, and sizes, and never estimate yields. It's your money, spend it how you see fit. People overpay for tons of other things at auction every day of the week. As a buyer it's up to you to know fair market value of things you wish to purchase.



That's exactly what I hope to do in the future if this whole E-scrap hobby works out! I am guilty of buying 23 grams of computer pins for 8.79cad....just recently. I have never processed pins before so I don't really know the "exact yields". I just wanted to try it out. But! I did buy something that i'm hoping has a good yeild, I only have 20$ left in my pay pal so I bought 2 of these -http://www.ebay.ca/itm/121060136285?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 If anyone has processed them before please let me know lol


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## resabed01 (Mar 23, 2013)

For your mainstream scrap like CPUs, memory and motherboards, yeah.... ebay is a waste. There are too many people that don't know the scraps true value bidding against each other. Best just to stand back and watch them fight over it rather than to get caught up in it. For the common scrap like computers I don't see the need to pay for it. I have a free internet ad locally that brings in computers from people that want me to come and take it away for nothing. Well, that statement isn't entirely true... It's my time and gas that costs.
You can still make a profit buying PM scrap on ebay. Scour the posts of this forum would be a good start. Find a niche that flies under the radar of the scrap hounds and enjoy the ride. It can be done.

Last week I went to a local government public auction just to feel it out. There was some good e-scrap there but so were the hounds. I watched as they tried not to drool over some servers up for bidding. The stuff sold for good money too. Were they scrappers or re-sellers, I don't know. But the PM content wasn't all that great I thought.


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## resabed01 (Mar 23, 2013)

masonwebb said:


> silversaddle1 said:
> 
> 
> > That's exactly what I hope to do in the future if this whole E-scrap hobby works out! I am guilty of buying 23 grams of computer pins for 8.79cad....just recently. I have never processed pins before so I don't really know the "exact yields". I just wanted to try it out. But! I did buy something that i'm hoping has a good yeild, I only have 20$ left in my pay pal so I bought 2 of these -http://www.ebay.ca/itm/121060136285?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649 If anyone has processed them before please let me know lol



Here, I'll help you.

Tip #1 - Don't buy anything on ebay with the word "GOLD" in the items description title.


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## masonwebb (Mar 23, 2013)

> Here, I'll help you.
> Tip #1 - Don't buy anything on ebay with the word "GOLD" in the items description title.



Haha it seems like all people have to do is put GOLD and SCRAP in the description and people will buy it. But these weren't being sold as scrap so what they contain is a mystery. I hope to at least make the 22.56 i spent back


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## butcher (Mar 23, 2013)

Them Ebay buyers kind of sound like some miners I have seen, going to get rich, off that glittering yellow stuff.


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## pgms4me (Mar 23, 2013)

most of these comments are on track. I sell e-scrap on ebay and have been for years. when the super high prices started on pentium pro's i decided to refine one myself. i must have had a better quality good one because i ended up with about .8 grams. .2g for the cover,.3g for the pins,.2 g for theinsides and .1g after crushing the rest to powder and i am sure i didnt get it all.. i quizzed all my buyers to find out why they paid the price they did and asked them what they did with it. most of the replies of the ones that would answer were collectors, restorers and people who used various parts in artwork or electronic jewelry..very few are refiners


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## srlaulis (Mar 23, 2013)

> i ended up with about .8 grams



:shock:


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## ilikesilver (Mar 24, 2013)

I think now the people that are buying are refiners paying the large prices. to many people on there having bidding wars, also people that are reselling because of the amount of scrap on ebay


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## silversaddle1 (Mar 24, 2013)

A few of my high dollar buyers were speculators. Some were buying from me back when gold was around $1000.00 per. Guess they knew what they were doing even back then.


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## Nijiman (Mar 28, 2013)

Myself, I am partial to second hand shops, yard sales, junk sales and flea markets. People almost give away priceless items. Got 12 old hard drives for $5.00 and a 14K class ring for $10.00. not bad for an afternoon of browsing. I have come to believe ebay is a rip off. 8)


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## Pikachu2000 (Mar 29, 2013)

IMHO, saying that eBay is a ripoff is like saying a car dealer is a ripoff. It's the seller's job to get as much as possible for their product. Conversely, it's the buyer's job to pay as little as possible for that product and only buy it if they perceive the value/cost ratio to be adequate. In the vast majority of cases, if one perceives one got a "bad" deal on a car or an item on eBay, then it's your probably their own fault for either agreeing to pay too much, not doing their due diligence and knowing what they agreed to buy, or both. Having said that, it's been years since I've bought anything on eBay due to the sheer volume of people who are willing to pay more for items than *I* believe they're worth.


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## masonwebb (Mar 29, 2013)

1 difference between ebay and a car dealership is that you don't have people bidding on the vehicle you wan't at a dealership. An item becomes a rip off when you know the actual value and the price is way wayyyy above that. i.e. someone paying 50$ for a pound of scrap lol


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## Pikachu2000 (Mar 29, 2013)

It's mainly just the process that differs. In an auction, the price goes from low to high until it gets to a point where only one person is left willing to pay that amount. In conventional sales, the price starts high, and comes down until the customer is finally willing pay that amount. It really isn't all that much different when you get to thinking about it.

An item becomes a ripoff *to you* when it reaches a certain price. Cases of blatant misrepresentation/fraud aside, If someone willingly offers to pay a certain amount for something and it's value doesn't meet the cost, then the buyer has nobody to blame but themselves. I wouldn't pay a dime for the best bottle of Scotch in the world, but I used to gladly pay $15.00 for a shot of ultra-premium tequila. Value is a matter of perception, and different people perceive the values of things differently.


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## ritehere (Mar 30, 2013)

Now i agree fully that buying scrap on ebay is just carzy for the hobbiest that wants to make a profit. But yes withe the prices that are asked there, the profit is gone and it then becomes a long term investment in the stuff. I own and operate a towing service and find a wide variety of items (scrap and other) in the vehicles that I purchase from customers.
One of course is the catalytic converter. I used to sell them to the local scrap yard, but have changed and sell them all on ebay now. The reason for this is simple, the money. The local yard here was paying between $7 and $65 per cat (depending on the kind). And the buyers on ebay are paying between $50 to $400 for the same models (doesn't take a rocket scientist here).
Last year alone I cleared $51,000 plus (just on cat sells alone) on ebay.
Now I wouldn'y buy scarp on ebay myself, but selling it there is the way to go.


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## chaseonbase (Aug 19, 2013)

I couldnt agree more on this topic. The prices people pay on this stuff makes me want to puke! I really wish I could remember the ad, but seeing some people pay close to 2000 dollars for 10lbs of cpu's is just ridiculous. I remember a few years ago. When I worked auto body before I even knew about e scrap. I worked for an extremly large dealership that had close to 12 storage bins loaded with nothing but pc towers and really old printers . Work was slow so we were told to clean them out. Take them to the land fill. We were even told if we wanted any we could have them. I took one and built a computer for my co worker. My intial thought was these things are old dinosaurs with a 200mhz processor this stuff is junk! Here I was collecting the Al from old radiators and wheels off wrecked cars getting 75$ for 2 truck loads. Ever since I started reading into this trade I almost lose sleep at night. I think I need a tissue...


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## Toochi84 (Aug 19, 2013)

Been doing a fair amount of research and have been able to come up with what I think is a fair assessment of scrap price just based off gold fingers on ram. Not including IC or MLCC scrap PM. Ive been using my assessment price as my max to pay for an item.... that being said ivebeen shocked at almost all of the auctions I have lost. Most recently I assessed a value of an item to be no more than $10 after refining the fingers.... my max bid was $7 shipping included in hopes to make approx 50% profit. I lost to someone that bid $157!! Ouchies for that person.... lol


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## NobleMetalWorks (Aug 19, 2013)

I think a lot of people purchase items off ebay, that contain precious metals for a few reasons, and often not for refining.

It's easy to fake a gold bar for example, and many people sell gold drops that have a very low percentage of gold in them, and I imagine many people have fallen for these scams. But it's very difficult to fake a CPU that has gold in and on it, or MLCCs for example.

Because they purchase them as an investment, they hold their own values not relative to the amount of precious metals that they contain, but rather because of their perceived values. In other words, people do not purchase them to refine, they purchase them because of their perceived value, and the fact that they can put them up at any time that gold is going up, and make money off them. They are their own commodity, outside the value of gold.

However we that refine view those materials, the people who buy, sell and trade them see them as a way of either securing monetary value, or taking profit by buying, then selling them. It's a totally different mentality, but for some on ebay seems to be doing very well for them. I see the same lots being bought and sold on a fairly regular basis, specially large lots of Pentium Pros.

Scott


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## AndyWilliams (Aug 19, 2013)

NobleMetalWorks said:


> I think a lot of people purchase items off ebay, that contain precious metals for a few reasons, and often not for refining.
> 
> It's easy to fake a gold bar for example, and many people sell gold drops that have a very low percentage of gold in them, and I imagine many people have fallen for these scams. But it's very difficult to fake a CPU that has gold in and on it, or MLCCs for example.
> 
> ...




I think Scott hit the point precisely. We view the items from a recovery basis, others don't. Escrap does provide easy liquidity for the owner, but it also acts as coins do, being somewhat of a guarantee for the PM's contained. If I had a pound of Pentium Pros, and a pound of Morgans, in both cases I would have a relatively known quantity of precious metals. Granted, the coins are something more standard. But to the layman, those Pentium Pros are also representative of some number of PM's. And though there are those on this board with the expertise and experience to differ on the actual content, the people who buy them do so as an investment that is easy to hold. I do know folks, incidentally, who prefer to have escrap around, rather than the refined PM. They buy for the investment value, not the current value.


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## Tipton444 (Oct 11, 2013)

First, I gotta say, I completely agree with many of ebay's prices being outrageous. When I was learning scrap value, I overpaid many times. But, at the time it was worth it (to me) to learn. 

On the other hand... Everyone has been saying it's impossible to buy something under scrap and make a profit, but I completely disagree. Yes, people are overpaying like crazy, but I still find ridiculous deals all the time. I set my limits, like other people, but I also have ebay send me multiple emails of my search preferences, and I quickly browse through new items, as well as the items that are just about to end. I place a TON of bids, and try not to go over my set amount where I wouldn't be able to make a profit. One of my major successes with ebay, is other's stupidity. Many people don't know what they have, or list an item improperly, so over time you know what to look for. For example, many gold filled service award pins have a solid gold front that is not marked, and people don't put it in the description. I'm sure you know all this, but you still do find them. I can't tell you how many times I've clicked a listing with multiple items to go through all the pictures, and find something of value unmentioned. Another way I make huge profits, is by paying close attention to what is in scrap lots. I buy a lot of gold filled, and this last batch, there was a watch chain with a 10k slide - over 100 grams total that I paid $40 for. The chain alone can reach over $100 at resale, on ebay. Sometimes you can't see everything, but you can tell it's decent quality. The completed listings have become a great friend of mine, I look up everything. I'm still new to e-scrap, but the high prices definitely trump GF, silver, and gold. Ebay's selling prices can get out of control, but if you are smart about it, you can make a ton of money.


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## mls26cwru (Oct 11, 2013)

gotta know what to look for sometimes... i picked this up the other day... first time i ever spent $50 on a single electronics board 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/scrap-circuit-board-for-gold-recovery-plated-ic-chips-eproms-finger-board-/290964465013?_trksid=p2047675.l2557&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&nma=true&si=hA8v0RgUiMNLMdaeE0lumevjaCg%253D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc


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## goldsilverpro (Oct 11, 2013)

Good luck, mls! I can't see it being there.


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## mls26cwru (Oct 12, 2013)

goldsilverpro said:


> Good luck, mls! I can't see it being there.



maybe i screwed up the link or something... but one of the chips on the board i bought was an Intel C8080a.... worth about $75-$100 to chip collectors. It was intel's first microprocessor.


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## niteliteone (Oct 12, 2013)

mls26cwru said:


> goldsilverpro said:
> 
> 
> > Good luck, mls! I can't see it being there.
> ...


But not in the well used condition of the one pictured. Other sellers have that same chip listed (buy it now) for $39 up to $949 and theirs look more in mint condition and never used than the one you have. 2 things collectors desire, but you can claim neither.
You have 4 gold top chips that you "might" be able to sell (with plenty of time) in order to recoup your total cost, but if you decide to recover and refine ALL values contained in that board you will find you lost a few dollars.

But you gained knowledge and that's what this is all about, isn't it :?:


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## pinwheel (Oct 12, 2013)

This is a great thread. There is a premium that many seem not to be considering here. There is a large and growing segment of the public that fully believe TSIGTHTF. The **** is going to hit the fan... economically speaking. I understand this mentality from many points of view. You have to understand the history of money to see it clearly.

You will find that there is a premium on known gold content e-waste simply because governments do not regulate it, they don't understand it and as far as I can tell this stuff is entirely operating in the grey or black markets. Except for some basic bullarwallkee like R2 and Rios etc where large companies are trying to move more materials over to the IN club.

Did you know you were only legally able to own gold since 1974? IF YOU TAKE A MOMENT TO CONSIDER YOUR LIFE IN RELATION TO THIS LINK: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executive_Order_6102 You may start to understand what I am talking about.

If smart people are trading pentium one chips as a commodity then that is great news.

Right now gold is as about as cheap as you can get it. The prices are very low considering the ridiculous nature of the fiat dollar and the fiat government.

People with millions and more to protect will always pay a premium for holding something of value and they will also pay an extra premium for an unregulated commodity. If the dollar collapses and you absolutely have to protect your wealth would you rather have a regulated gold coin or an unregulated pentium 1 chip?


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## pinwheel (Oct 12, 2013)

gotta know what to look for sometimes... i picked this up the other day... first time i ever spent $50 on a single electronics board 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/scrap-circuit-b ... true&rt=nc

==========

I have better boards than that and would be happy to sell them to you. ;-)


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## ritehere (Nov 18, 2013)

Well I cannot say bad things about Ebay in this instance. I sell a great deal of catalytic converters on ebay, and I must say that the prices that they go for is well lets say (great). Last year alone I sold 1200 catalytic converters on ebay and the average price per unit sold was a very nice $50.00 (for a total of 60K). That makes me smile.
Now with a new program on Natgeo channel called (Meltdown) I see that there are even more materials (for pgm's recovery) that I never thought of. Like sparkplugs, maf sensors, and O2 senser's (which I am collecting to sell on ebay as well). Now I do have several tantalum capacitors, flatpacks, and mlcc capacitors that I am looking into as well.
The business that I am in allows me a wide variety of things to scrap so my feelers are always out there looking for new opportunities to discover.


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## macfixer01 (Nov 18, 2013)

ritehere said:


> Well I cannot say bad things about Ebay in this instance. I sell a great deal of catalytic converters on ebay, and I must say that the prices that they go for is well lets say (great). Last year alone I sold 1200 catalytic converters on ebay and the average price per unit sold was a very nice $50.00 (for a total of 60K). That makes me smile.
> Now with a new program on Natgeo channel called (Meltdown) I see that there are even more materials (for pgm's recovery) that I never thought of. Like sparkplugs, maf sensors, and O2 senser's (which I am collecting to sell on ebay as well). Now I do have several tantalum capacitors, flatpacks, and mlcc capacitors that I am looking into as well.
> The business that I am in allows me a wide variety of things to scrap so my feelers are always out there looking for new opportunities to discover.




You know it's funny you mentioned the spark plugs. I saw one of those short teaser videos on the Meltdown show website where Diego is using a carbide saw to cut open spark plugs. I don't think that segment is actually in any of the six shows that have aired so far though is it? The Fume Hoods, Plane Frustration, and Cell Phone Payday clips don't look familiar either. Maybe those four are all from future episodes? I read someplace there only 6 shows in this first season, but I don't know if that's true or not?


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## Plasmajunkie (Dec 21, 2013)

I have been buying some old laptops with 24K mousepad's.I just lucked up finding one and they sell for $10 on ebay.Working Models for $10, they originally went for $4,000.00.No base metal's in the Pad.All of the pin's and other outdated hardware are also high Karat Gold.


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## goldsilverpro (Dec 21, 2013)

Plasmajunkie said:


> I have been buying some old laptops with 24K mousepad's.I just lucked up finding one and they sell for $10 on ebay.Working Models for $10, they originally went for $4,000.00.No base metal's in the Pad.All of the pin's and other outdated hardware are also high Karat Gold.


Whatever you have, none of it is solid gold unless, maybe, it was one-of-a-kind made for some Sheik. It is all plated, including the pins. Were the laptops Mac's? Can you provide a photo or an eBay link?


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## butcher (Dec 21, 2013)

What comes to mind is a young miner carrying a 50 pound rock for three days to get this heavy golden rock out of the mountains, with the rock he found, He is so excited about recently becoming rich, with his new found gold mine, he barely notices the weight of this rock, but had to throw away his camping gear, because he could not carry his gear or his food, and the rock too, after getting to town excited by his thoughts of his new found riches, is very saddened to find out he has become sick with gold fever, and to know that he had been carrying fools gold struggling those three days with that pretty golden rock.


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## phxdale (Jan 5, 2014)

There are some good deals but getting harder and harder to find.
I figure I lose 95% or more of the auctions I bid on. And thats ok. Some I get sniped at the very end, that is a great fun for some people even if they bid too high its the WIN. On the other side no one wants to LOSE.
Everyone wants to be a WINNER and no one wants to be a LOSER.

My last buy on scrap, I even had $10 to spare on that one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131051083385?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_78wt_954

Seems like most of the best deals now involve buying at least $200-300 worth of silver scrap or several hundred for karat gold.


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## heliman4141 (Mar 9, 2014)

The days of easy fat Ebay deals are long gone.
Its a sellers market for escrap not a buyers market usually there. I have occasionally gotten a decent deal but am usually outbid by.................. you guessed it, a newbee with Gold fever.
Lots of sellers have a low min. bid that is VERY enticing but, then you look at the shipping charges & you have to look to see if its in your State also, as a State sales tax is added on in State sales. 
One can really get screwed if they impulse buy anything there without researching the add carefully from all angles.
Adds placed in the wrong area are the things that get overlooked by the majority. That is where a deal is to be had.
The garage sales idea is a good one, im self employed so while im tooling down the Citys rds. I keep my eye peeled for yardsales. The clock stops while im searching one, then I start the clock again if im heading to a job etc...Works out pretty good since its only my time wasted there & I don't have to drive to any particular sale wasting my fuel either.
I also now have a deal going with a gent I work for who owns & oversees over 50 apartments now also, when I showed him my refined Gold he told me he used to just throw out anything in an apt. left when a tennant moved out but I could look it over first now as he has no interest at all in refining, he buys Gold & Silver in coins & bars only.. YAY! Time will tell but he told me he threw out a LOT of electronics including PCs. If you can't get the escrap for free or almost free its simply not worth it as this is a dangerious hobby to mess with & is extremely time consuming. As is, Ill probably spend all my Summer evenings after work fiddling with either setting up a batch to refine in Nitric or be filtering something. Either way it chains me down at that moment & I enjoy shooting at the range in my spare time so have to time things on good weather days carefully. lll be lucky to end up with no more then a few ounces after consuming my exisiting scrap probably so if I can't get my hands easily on free scrap Ill probably fade out when my 4 gallons of Nitric is used up. Low K 14-18 Gold is easy enough but high K over 18 & beyond is the number that tests your patience due to multiple refining.
Avoid Ebay unless your selling & even then be sure to add shipping & a min. starting bid or you could end up selling too cheaply also. Been dealing with Ebay from day one so believe me when I say ive seen it all. Once last yr. a fellow with perfect feedback in the 150 feedback range said he had inherited hundreds of Gold ounces, we are talking hundreds now so we all know what that would be worth. That was back when Gold was around $1,500 an ounce take or give. He was offering it at around $500 an ounce. I had just received an inheritance myself & was SERIOUSLY considering buying a hoard for investment, so after looking his site over very carefully I almost placed a bid of $40,000.00 on a serious hoard. Just one clk away........ One thing struck me odd tho in the add & that was pics of Gold from other sources NOT his hoard, so I attempted multiple times to contact for live pics since we are talking serious money here. He never returned my PMs so I relunctly obstained from any bidding. 
In the end he had placed 3 major adds & all 3 received major bids that were way, way under spot, I was almost in tears but decided id wait & see what the feedback was after the buyers received their Gold correct? Well............long story short immediatly the next day the seller was banned & the adds were terminated, you couldn't even bring them up. I contacted Ebay about it & the quick short was sorry we cannot discuss it other then to say it was a scam & if you won a bid to stop pmt. immediatly via Paypal as that was the pmt.option. Maybe he just turned bad & desperate from a divorce or something Ill never know, but whatever turned him it was sinister.
I know Ebay now has the buyer protection plan & it has saved me on 2 occasions from scammer sellers tho still I felt better knowing it was too good to be true. It would have really stung if the bidding was honest & I lost out on the deal of a lifetime. So im feeling better now having dumped $40,000.00 on my mortgage instead. Funny how the mortgage Co. immediatly sold my contract debt in under 30 days once they could no longer make serious interest on me, its almost all principal now with just 2 yrs. to go verses 26.
Did anyone else see that Ebay scam last yr?
Dave


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