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devildog12

Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2017
Messages
5
Looking for a refiner who is willing to refine around 500lbs of electronic scrap. I have motherboards, CPU's, plated pins, RAM, hard drive boards, and a large amount of cell phone boards. Just starting out with scrapping. Anyone who could point me in the right direction of a refiner who would be willing to refine around 500 pounds would be appreciated!
 
You are probably better off finding a local buyer.
In any case a general location would help you get a better answer.
 
I am located in Eastern PA. I have searched online for refiners, and many seem really good, but they only take amounts usually over 1000 or 5000 pounds. Which I get, but was just wondering if there were any small scale refiners out there.
 
Im small scale, and toll refine. But, the only bits of escrap I refine now are fingers, ceramic cpu's, and some pins.

Why dont I do the other stuff?
-because its uneconomical small scale, and I hate being the guy that breaks peoples hearts, by crushing their dreams of ounces of gold from a few pounds of boards.
 
I also looked around even with 2000lb lots, and the only refiners that could pass the smell test wanted 1000lb of RAM sticks only - in their definition that is 'high grade escrap' (which caused problems in the conversation because high grade boards in the scrap industry is old Pentium and before boards).

The costs and fees for any motherboard refining would eat up the total revenue from the melt, so unless you have large amounts of ram, pre-P4 processors, or a half ton of gold fingers I have not found a way to profitably send material to a refiner.

If you find someone trustworthy that is backed with insurance, paperwork, and won't shut down and walk away with your metals, please let us know because they could probably get a lot of business from the forum members.

Otherwise, follow the knowledge and experience of the forum and know that small scale refining of the best quality material is probably the only way to make a profit vs just selling to the escrap industry.
 
Just to let you know, I deal in 1000's of pounds of boards of all grades every month. I sell to buyers and almost never send anything out to be refined. Takes too long to get my return and there is always the risk of underpayment. I have been told that I could increase my profits by 20% by letting them refine my stuff instead of just selling it to them. Really? Then just pay me the extra 20% and refine it yourself. :G

Yeah, they won't do that.
 
I've never understood why you don't have your material refined Silversaddle. With the quantities you're getting in, you could be taking loads of 40k lbs. in, in short order. Paying 80 cents per pound for processing, further justifying the cost of representation. Checks in the mail in 45 days. Or for cash flow reasons, you could start at a lower weight like 10k lbs. and work your way up.
 
I'm new to all of this, so was just looking for options. I think what I will do is just wait until I have around 1000 pounds, and then send for refining. I'm doing it for the gold, so don't really want to sell to a local buyer.
 
Most large refiners do not send you gold back but a Cheque so it may be better to sell locally and buy gold as you go, try and sell on a high price and buy at a lower one...not always easy to get right :shock:
 
I have decided to just try to sell my stuff on ebay, or to a electronic scrap buyer. Seems I can get more money doing it this way.
 
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