Non-Chemical Am I wasting my time doing this?

[Axl_Bundy]

Hello folks. I am just asking your opinion if I am wasting my time (or any values) in scraping off the little "legs" and "balls" off these chips. I am just kind of harvesting them for now as I will probably just sell them some time in the future. Would a buyer prefer everything as is or would they appreciate my effort?

Thank you kindly for any responses.


Here are some pictures of before and after.

 

[g_axelsson]

I don't think you are wasting values at least. There could be some silver and trace amounts of gold in the solder but nothing I would consider going after manually.
When I cut surface mount packages off circuit boards I try to cut close to the plastic, but when I desolder chips I never remove the legs. The BGA capsule I just rip the plastic part off the fiber part, most of the gold is in the plastics. The base is either going to ebay or just selling them with the low quality boards.

If you are wasting your time I can't tell. What were you going to do instead of scraping off the legs? 8)

Göran

 

[Axl_Bundy]

Thanks for the response.

I planned on selling them sometime. (I have to downsize alot of stuff since I just found out I'm going to be a daddy. I have a spare room full of stuff to get rid of).

I just thought maybe a buyer would prefer them "clean". I have seen lots on ebay and it seems no one ever scrapped off what I considered to be junk.

 

[butcher]

Axl_Bundy,
Congratulations, you do have your work ahead of you.

 

[Smack]

If your just going to sell them, you are wasting time.

 

[alexxx]

you are truly wasting your time...
make phone calls or post add to get more scrap instead... go knock on doors...

3 hours on removing legs = roughly 14 cents of profit...
3 hours of advertising & prospecting = maybe a lot of hundreds, maybe thousands of $$$

my2c

 

[Claudie]

If you're going to sell them, leave them a lone. Removing the legs takes away from the weight, which is how many of these are sold. :|