How much should I be paying for old comps...if anything?

Hey guys,

Another noob here. I have been scrapping sterling for about 8 months now and decided to start to learn to refine. In my research of refining I have begun to learn a lot about gold recovery as well. In the last few weeks I have spent no less than 60 hours staring at computer screens sifting through the REDICULOUS MOUNTAIN of bad or just plain false information until I recently and quite by accident stumbled upon this wonderful and well informed group of people.

Now I am a cheap and refuse to waste my hard earned money, I still work for "the man" for a paycheck after all. I have yet, after all these weeks, to buy a single scrap of gold until I know for sure what I am doing...after all after 2 back surgeries my paychecks and hard earned cash seems to mean alot more to me these days and the words "risk" and "investment" are worlds apart in my mind and dont belong in the same sentence...haha. I have read "ebay Gold Drops" and thank my lucky stars I wasn't lured into that scam before I learned about it through research here on this site. I have also read the post about surface area and the amount of pins needed to gain just a few simple grams of gold. So here is the million dollar question...I know a few computer repair people that I want to approach for scraps and I need to know how much I should be paying for a scrap computer or should I pay anything at all? From what I can gather there is about $12 worth of scrap metal in a computer and that includes all the aluminum and steel and everything, seem like very little is actually gold. Add to that all the work involved in processing and I feel like they should be paying me...lol 8)

Thanks

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Butcher

You are correct in downplaying the amount of gold recoverable from a single PC. It ain't much, and I believe you will find most on this forum who actively seek to gather gold from escrap pay for their lunch with the steel and copper and aluminum, and the PMs are just kind of a bonus.

I have not done the math (but others have) as far as what the total scrap value of a given PC is, but IMO you are wildly high at $12. I think it's mid single digit dollars, at best, and maybe even $2-3 if you factor in your gas picking up onesies and twosies, and especially getting rid of CRT monitors that inevitably come along for the ride.

I heartily applaud your expenditure of reading time, in any event. You've found the most informed place to be as far as refining & recovery.

about $12 worth of scrap metal in a computer and that includes all the aluminum and steel and everything

Click to expand...

That is a figure I have seen and feel is pretty close to 'right' for the TOTAL VALUE of the computer(certainly NOT in scrap metal!), including every last bit and bob being sold for a good scrap price - and there are many, many factors that weight that significantly;

To get that figure, you have to look at everything in an 'average' of large numbers (like in the thousands of computers). I would also say that, as the number of older computers dwindles, the values are heading down, but, for now, that $12 figure is still ok, but if you want to take it down to just one computer you have to consider;

- the age of the computer (older ones contain more values)
- the number of extra boards in the computer (older ones, again, typically have more - newer ones have LAN, Video, etc. built in)
- where it was made (the China ones have less gold, though one report I read on the forum tells that there is more platinum now, which offsets it?)
- the model of processor (again, older processors used a lot more gold)

Now, that $12 TOTAL value (when discussed as an 'average' number from thousands of computers of various shapes/sizes/configurations) also has to factor in;
- ALL transportation (yours as well as shipping to any other buyers, their transport, etc. etc. - a lot of values goes away here)
- ALL handling (again, you get two or three different folks messing with it, this gets eaten up fast!)
- ALL values (including every drop of gold, platinum, silver and/or other PM, plus all the scrap metals)
- ALL storage - well, you get the picture.....

yes, there are factors involved that eat away at the % of any profits you will get from any one single computer. The only way to make any sort of money from computers is to do a LOT of them.

As for what to pay - you have to figure all that for yourself as your expenses are different than anyone else.

For me, I generally have folks bring them to me, so I pay them a bit for the stuff - seems fair, to me (I also use an online spreadsheet I built that keeps the payments exact for everyone so they feel they are getting a fair shake - and I give them a receipt when they are done - much like working with a 'scrap yard'). Others on the forum offer a 'drop off' service for free (in my opinion, you won't get as many units that way - 'catch a lot more flies with honey' sort of thing....) while still others drive over to pick them up for free (which is, to me, about the same as paying people to bring them to you, but in the time saved in driving here/there, I can have several people lined up to drop stuff off).

Again, it all depends on what you want to do, how you see it and what you figure your better 'path' is - all of them are "right" and all have been shown on this forum to work.

Hello and welcome aboard...
Nice to not have to fight you to do some research...
A couple months here reading myself I've found I've fallen into the "newby" trend of almost forcing them to look with thier eyes open...

Any way. Goto the tech shops and say hello. Ask what they do with all the "trash". Most around me take it to a "buyer"... 1 place told me they take it to an auction I hit every friday...huh I might pay $3 max for 1 unit... but usually they get tossed in with alot of boxes of crap filled with all kinds of scrap metal. Everything that uses electricity gets torn apart here in the garage and I'm shocked at what has silver keypads and what has gold baring boards. An otherwise very expensive name brand hair dryer of all things had 2 nice little buttons of silver for the on/off switch!

So go ask and find out what they do and offer to take it and see what they say. Usually shops will have more broken boards then full PCs so it might be difficult to say I'll give you $X for each... Goto boardsort.com? I think, and see what prices they pay for each type of component for an idea.

Just always remember, Free or close to is no out of pocket investment. Labor investment...well that's another story...

Good luck and have fun.

BS.
Always looking for bits n pieces for the mountain.

Actually, there is more than $50 cash for you in every computer you can get a hold of.

It's called "Testing". Test the computer and whatever works, part it out and sell it. I bet you'll get more than $10 - $20 that way. The rest of the stuff that don't work, scrap that, and that there is your bonus.

Kevin