A little help on valuation please

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Billyshobby

Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2014
Messages
9
I would like to start with thank you all for a forum with honest opinions, this is my first post but have read many.
My question: I'm looking at purchasing a basically blind lot of PC towers from my local general scrap yard, about 2500 lbs worth. I would like to come in around 0.17-0.20 per lb but he is thinking 0.45. I left negotiations open at 0.25 per lb as I want a little insurance not knowing what may be missing. I have looked around the forum and could only find 2012 posts where $5.00 each complete seemed fair. Could someone Please help me with a little insight at today's market as to what is a fair per pound price on 2500 lbs of mystery towers so I can proceed without losing my shirt. Thank You to All
I almost forgot to mention I'm reclaiming gold only for myself and plan to sell off the rest
 
I'm currently paying $.05/pound to a local school board and have paid as much as $.14/pound. It all comes down to figuring out how much you value your own time. I do best when I get material for free. :p

How long does it take you to take apart one computer? How many can you do in an hour? How much is your time worth per hour? What do you estimate, worst case, you'll get in value from one tower?

I get through roughly 10 per hour. The motherboard is worth $2.00 - $3.00, maybe less if Chinese manufacture. Hard drive $1.00, RAM $.20/each or more. Finger cards $.35/each or more. Steel from case, roughly $.25 to $2.00, depending upon weight. Heat sink $.50/pound, more if it contains copper.

Once you have it all taken apart you have to prepare it for sale or processing, ship or deliver, pay for fuel, maybe labor.

Lots to consider!!
 
Take this into consideration.
In 2012 gold was peaking at US$1800/Toz and today it's under US$1200/Toz.
Thats a decrease of about 33% from two years ago.
 
How many tonnes are you guys pulling out commercially at rates like that?
 
Thank you for responding, I had been considering factors such as fluctuating gold price, how much I can recover in the form of light iron,aluminum and boards once I've trimmed ram and cards of fingers, removed pins only from everything else as well as keep the occasional ceramic cpu. I will run all of these myself with no immediate intention to sell the recovered gold. I had a steady free supply and did pretty well as a casual hobbyist. 20 grams over 18 months all free, chemicals and other supplies paid by iron and aluminum.
This is just a hobby for me so my time really isn't an issue, my work space is un heated and won't risk a thermal glass shock, I would stock up in winter and run my material starting the spring, but that all dried up and now have to buy most of my material to continue.
My goal is to recover as much as I can for myself with the least amount of cost. When all is said and done I'm fine with having paid 30% or so of current spot.
I enjoy doing it for many reasons, with the biggest reason being, if I'm at home picking apart computers, I'm not out drinking. ( I once had a problem with that and was wasting my god given talents so to speak)
 
Well, I just completely broke down a tower and weighed everything at completion. This was not a typical tower because it had 2 HDD and 2 CD/ units for some reason.

Basing everything on $0.25 per lb, 2500lbs and this one particular unit being 21lbs at the start that's 119 units @ $5.25 ea. Alot of arithmetic later, I'm coming up $2.30 short per unit after all non PM material is re sold. That leaves me with 2 lb 3.9 oz of the various boards and one brown fiber AMD Athlon.
 
i pay $3.00 canadian dollars for computers with no missing parts,
$2.00 with no CPU no RAM & $1.50 for scrap computers with mother board / cards (or one power supply / CD Rom / hard drive)

i get a good amount of old computers with ceramic cpu + i buy those too

selling the re-usable ram / hard drives is most profitable (unless customer wants it destroyed)
if you are getting honest prices on your dismantled or picked clean scrap components all the better.

there are many ways to get free or very cheap computers
 
Hi !
I have never paid for a computor. I'va had many times when someone wanting cash and then later when the time came where the equipment had to be gone, would call me to come get it for free. I'm never affraid that I might not get the stuff! I might reconsider if it where a large load of valuable stuff. I have paid a little for some loads,( many big boxes of old memory,slotted cpu's and cards ,and old cpu's) from guys who worked out of their houses most of their lives and were now moving and just wanted it all cleared out.
I don't believe there is enough value in run-of -the-mill computors to be paying for them.
artart47
 
selling tested ram at $8.00 per 1GB DDR1 & $20.00 to $45.00 for a sata hard drive, i think paying $3.00 tops is fair. most of the ram i get is DDR1 or ECC
when you have a few guys that are tech's in a big corporate environment, paying them 20% brings me a lot of business.
this summer one of those tech guys plugged me as the main WEEE collector for the buildings he was working in, the property was being sold & turned into condos as of 2017 in down town toronto. when the building has been cleared of everything i will tell you which building it was (anyone in canada knows the company)

you can't argue when the building owners employees are clearing offices, loading trucks, driving it to your your shop & then helping you unload free of charge. :D

all you need to do if you want to get more electronics is put in some time & energy, i agree that you don't have to spend money.
but spending a dollar to make 20 never hurts, it's much better then the interest you will get from the bank on that dollar.

and once you start paying customers for their scrap you bump yourself to the front of the line for getting that scrap.
5 years ago in toronto no one wanted electronics, now everyone & there brother will take it away for free. but to find someone that will pay your business for that scrap is hard to do.
 
Most e-waste recyclers in Australia charge a fee to pick it up, meaning offering a free service gets a lot of work, paying for towers/servers is common at the rate of 45c kg, which equates to 22c lb? 25c lb should be your maximum unless you have no other means of getting stuff, maybe 30c lb but hardly worth it unless there are a couple slot cards in each to boost it up a bit.

a regular tower weighs on average 9 kg's or 20 lb's at 20c lb your paying $4.00 each, can expect to double up on that in scrap value maybe a touch more, considering scrap steel has dropped 60-80% in the past few months and not looking to rise again until March 2015.

but if you got nothing better to do then you won't lose paying 30c lb, just not going to be profitable if you consider time.
 
This has been most excellent, exactly the feedback I was hoping for. I had been considering the possibility of going through the whole lot, if I get it, cherry pick out the best units, test and clear them then re sell a few as working units in order to recoupe as much of the initial investment as possible bringing the rest of the lot ever closer to Everyone's best price of free.
Competition here in Connecticut is fierce for free stuff, unless you have the money for a legit business start up, wich I do not, as a "Green Recycler" you are not going to find much. The laws and fees for permits, company name registration, tax ID, haz mat disposal,on and on is over the top. This is not a small business friendly state. Most people around here want insurance that their stuff will be handled in an environmentally safe and secure manor and seem to believe this is only done by people who have a company name over a door. ( my little sign for fun I have on my shed"BRG Enterprises" won't cut it) There is a fairly local guy advertising he will take anything with a cord free, slight fee for pick up. I brought him 30 or so tube TVs and got to see his facility. My heart sank, I want that business by am seriously lacking the start up $.

I have means to store large quantity of ferrous and other lower value materials until market on them looks better.I look at it as the money isn't gone, it's just tied up at the moment. Unfortunately the fellow I'm trying to buy from paid from $0.06-0.11 per lb for it all and has unlimited storage to play the same market game.

In short, I should be able to do ok on a large lot if I don't go over $0.30 per lb?, I know I'm not going to get fast cash, no such thing, nor do I plan on getting rich quick off of my hobby, just looking to have fun and be able to hide some close to free gold around the house for my family to find once I leave this world behind.

I love the treasure hunt aspect of it all!!!!
 
In the past I had many clients whose material I got for free. When other scrappers approached them and offered to pay I had to do the same. Most of them have told me what they were offered and, if I was willing to match it, I kept their business. Some are happy enough with the fact that I come get their material quickly that they still give it to me free.

My competition has a 2 hour drive and must get enough material to make it worth the cost of fuel, labor and their truck. I use my pickup truck or my Jeep Liberty and will pick up every day if I need to in order to get the stuff out of their way quickly. Most don't have enough space to store gaylords full of material while they wait for a big truck to arrive.

I recently cleaned out a former internet call center and got roughly 300 IBM desktops and all the supporting hardware for free. They were happy to find me since I did the cleanout for no charge.
 
gold4mike, very interesting reply. A plus for me would be my 9-5 job provides me with a take home van but would only be able to pick up nights and weekends.
How would you recommend getting the word out without having a formal business that clients can verify and I don't end up in trouble with the tax man or other state regulators. How do you deal with HDD,? Punch them on site or issue EOL certificates?
I've read, cold call,cold walk ins, run ads, hang signs around the neighborhood but these are dime a dozen.
 
I use websites, road side signs, cold calls & pass out business cards to anyone who will take one. I post them on the bulletin boards at the Post Office and local places of business anytime I see one inside their front door.

I have one school board who gives me a table to work from every couple of months for their hard drives. I take them apart fully on site and leave them with only the platter. I take everything else with me.

Most will accept a Certificate of Destruction and many simply trust me.

I have a huge accumulation of platters and, if Platinum ever goes to $5,000 per ounce, I might try to recover from them. Of course, if Platinum goes that high the cost of acids will probably also increase proportionately.

We'll see!
 
90% of my business is word of mouth, i find being personable helps.
remembering customers wife's & children's names, asking how their family is, sending photos of my children, remembering their religious preference & send appropriate cards or email for that occasion. and always remembering to say thank you along with a good firm handshake always helps.

old rules for new times will always apply. saying "Hello" or "Good Morning" will always be better then saying "what's up".

there is a old post around here somewhere "my new advertising" is the subject i think, great thread about small business & it's ideas
i will try to look it up & post the link
 
Wow!! Thank you butcher for leading me to that thread, man are my gears turning now! I've got a lot more homework to do in regards to what level I can do this legally in my state without being a registered tax paying business.
Although,,,, I did watch my local scrap guy whom I'm trying to buy towers from (just not as aggressively after reading Everything I have here) grow from a little rented dumpy shop where you got paid out of his side pocket at a podium, to a brand new custom building and an all time record Month where a total of 12 million dollars changed hands at his facility. He built up to this size over roughly 8 years. So I guess anything is possible, just depends how bad do you want it.

I do have reasonable people skills and my Dad taught me to say Please, Thank You,shake hands and look a man in the eyes when speaking to him. Bump up to A+ game for the ladies.
I haven't been this enthusiastic about trying something new in some time. I thought losing my old free connections was going to be a bad thing, I couldn't have been farther from the truth.
 

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