Best types of gold scrap to refine

[jonn]

Good, I was hoping you wouldn't just toss those away. :roll: :lol:

 

[NobleMetalWorks]

Good thread!

It's not easy making a successful business under any circumstance, and in one that relates to buying/selling precious metals it is difficult to make a decent margin as the seller always wants the most, and the buyer wants it for the least. But you can navigate these issues as many here have and make a living doing this. People who believe they are going to get rich recovering and refining metals seem to me to just be suffering from gold fever, and not grounded in reality. You can make a living, if you work very hard at it.

But for me, this isn't all of what it's about. Like others have said, having money can be many things. But I truly feel it's what we do on a daily basis that affects our lives in a more meaningful way. For me personally, my life equation is more like this. Find what it is you love to do, do that for a living, you will never work a day in your life.

So far as the best material to process is concerned, it's the material that meets your criteria. Mine would be a material that I enjoy processing in which I can realize a steady supply stream and process in such a way that I meet my profit percentages. I have been very fortunate to have been exposed to this forum, to have met people here who have helped me or pointed me in the right direction, and to even have made friends here, that is almost assuredly as important if not more so, than almost anything that comes after. I have also been very fortunate in that I am able to do this work I love so much, support myself, a daughter in college which thankfully has a scholarship, help other family members and enjoy my life.

Happiness in this model, is my compass of success.

Scott

 

[Anonymous]

Good thread!

Mine would be a material that I enjoy processing in which I can realize a steady supply stream and process in such a way that I meet my profit percentages.

Scott

Scott I concur completely with this statement, thanks for putting it so succinctly. If I had to be picky and change one part subjectively, it would be to replace "enjoy processing" with "productively process" however the well put message is what I agree with and remains the same in both iterations.

Jon

 

[jason_recliner]

This is golden advice, right here.

Still not paying for anything and still no shortage for me. I must be the exception. Way too much work taking it all apart I tell them and they are just happy to have someone that will take it all and recycle it responsibly. The ISP's around me keep me well supplied. Door to door is your best tool, always has been for me, phone book ads work a little but nothing like flyers and business cards delivered by a good looking nicely dressed human being but not too nicely dressed. I get calls from the phone book listing all the time asking me how much I pay. I say "I don't pay, I come pick it up from you for free and keep it out of the landfill". Then let them make the decision. All my best customers have come from me going door to door and then word of mouth from that. It's funny to me, some of the places I have been to look at what they have in computer scrap, have asked me what I pay and I tell them (businesses), nothing and they act like I should have offered money, so I leave and six months later they call, "Can you just come get this stuff out of here? We need the floor space". Space in a business is way more valuable than any scrap from a computer, so use that to your advantage.

 

[Rmwatson78]

I have spent roughly 3,000 dollars in the last few months on chemicals, equipment, and of course various forms of scrap to learn this hobby. Based on what I have done so far I seriously doubt I'll see even half that money back when I'm finished, but all be damned if I give up before I understand everything there is to know about gold refining. I only get into trouble when I become impatient during a process or do something different than what I have read because in my head I think it could work just as well. There are definitely a lot of other worse ways I could spend the money and I look forward to learning as much as I can.

 

[butcher]

Rmwatson78,
My opinion only.
Spending money, or trying anything, before learning is a mistake, you can set up a small lab with things found in the kitchen section or the hardware section of a second hand store, some chemicals can be found locally at hardware or pool supply, other chemicals, or supplies can be made...

Before spending your money on anything, or trying anything, learning is important, with that education you know what you will actual need. Know where to find it, know or be able to test its value. Know what to do with it...

The education is the key, that is where the true value is.
Like that old saying it takes money to make money.

It takes education to get the gold.

My suggestion, start off building your education work on that primarily, gaining the understanding you will need, and work on your impatient nature (it will only slow you down).

There are many ways to begin learning, I suggest:
Study every thing, beginning with safety, and how to deal with waste safely.
Then using Hokes book study it until what she teaches clicks in your mind, and study of the forum, reading these you begin to get the education and understanding you will need to be able to gain the experience, to work on your skills...

Limit your lab work to learning the basics first, using Hokes book as a guide, the getting acquainted experiments in the book, and expanding these experiments with things we do with some of the "work around" procedures you learn on the forum.

Use note books of what you study, and of your lab-work experiments...

After gaining more of an understanding gained through your study and small experiments, begin working with a more simple material (again small experiments at first), materials like sterling silver, memory fingers, or karat gold, that have less base metals or materials that cause problems, working with them you have a better understanding, of what to expect when you start working with harder materials, you do not have as many problematic materials for getting things wrong in the different procedures, you will learn more faster...

Study each procedure, of the material or scrap your planning to work with, there may be many procedures, or many steps for each type of scrap, there may be different ways to get the same goal accomplished, in finding, preparing, recovery and refining of a particular type of scrap, also study the problems you will have with that scrap. study the safety precautions, or steps needed with that type of scrap, or with the procedures or materials you will be working with or using to prepare, recover or refine that scrap.

The forum is a great resource, some places to begin:
General reaction list.
Guide to the forum.
Welcome new members.
Safety and dealing with wastes.
This list can go on and on, but as you study you will find more.

Welcome to the forum, education is your treasure map, and the forum is the best treasure map I know of.

 

[goldsilverpro]

If you really want to make money, stop messing with circuit boards.

 

[Anonymous]

If you really want to make money, stop messing with circuit boards.

Absolutely 100% SPOT ON.

 

[troymoore4]

I think that this can be quite profitable, but only over a good bit of time and by scrapping for more than just PMs. Scrap for aluminum and copper to and use the proceeds from those metals to supliment your refining of PMs you might even be able to find things that can be easily enough converted into equipment for the collection/refining of the PMs at little or no cost to you. You will likely find the ocasional source items for PMs as well.

 

[Daswolter]

I have found that most company I.T. people are computer hoarders and don't throw any thing away. I have had 3 companies give me literally truckloads (pickup truck) of computers, printers, monitors, plotters, servers, and something's I don't even know what they were. Usually after the I.T. person quits or died and the company finds they need to clean up the hoarders mess. I am expecting one shortly from one of these companies. All for free other than a guarantee that the hard drive platters be destroyed. These companies are more than happy and very appreciative for my (service).

One guy asked me what I do with the scrap so I told him, He asked with wide eyes about the silver and gold. Him not knowing about the silver and gold in the computers. I thought well here goes my supplier. So I told him about stripping the components and getting more for the aluminum and copper then the gold out of the computers. I also explained that getting the gold and silver takes processing and knowledge. He thought that was pretty cool and looked at me like I was a genius or something :roll:. The components keep coming and as does the appreciation. If you say you are going to do something i.e. (Destroying the platters) then make sure you do it. Also be honest with them. Being that I only do this as a hobby This keeps me in more components that I sometimes know where to put them. Thank god I have a wife that is very understanding and also like to help strip components with me. :mrgreen:

 

[blackwolf365]

i think ebay is a good place to get scrap from, provided one is very careful about what you buy, how much there is in the lot, and what you are willing to pay for it. you can find good deals anywhere, so long as you are willing to take the time and patience to do it. another thing to keep in mind is that what might not be profit to some, IS profit to others. one such example i found skimming through the posts here. one guy said he does this with his son as a hobby, a way to spend time with his son. maybe if more of us went for that kind of proffit, the world wouldnt be so full of hate and violence like it is now...

 

[scrapper ben]

In my opinion if your after e-waste commodities then take into account there are many local scrappers in your area who have nowhere to sell their boards to because they have small volumes.

I started buying a couple years ago and over time have a large group of scrappers in my area bring me their stuff.

The trick is to have a commercial buyer lined up where you can send your unwanted commodities or stuff you can't get much gold from but the umicor's of this world can recover all PM's, not just gold.
Like pc motherboards, there's really little gold for the value you get selling to a large buyer.

So it's a balance, sell the difficult stuff to your buyer in large qty's, and keep all the cream stuff like ram, slot cards, vintage boards & telecom stuff as well as depopulated items like IC's, BGA's, Gold Fingers, Pins etc.

Well for me it's turned out good, sure there's still plenty of e-waste to get but that needs processing and if your out all day picking up, there's no time to scrap so I always end up overwhelmed with work to do.

Now I can slow down looking for scrap and put more time into buying stuff that has the labour taken out.
Since I already have a buyer for my stuff, it's just an add on when I buy boards for a bit less than my bulk buyer.

Anyways, from my experience there's a huge need for e-waste commodity buyers everywhere.

Here's a couple video's I recently did showing the stuff I buy & the price, unfortunately here in Australia our prices aren't as good as the US because it still needs to be shipped overseas to get processed, we have no facility here so prices are a lot less..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Sr7TF6eTw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCqTSsxmnYY

 

[anachronism]

So it's a balance, sell the difficult stuff to your buyer in large qty's, and keep all the cream stuff like ram, slot cards, vintage boards & telecom stuff as well as depopulated items like IC's, BGA's, Gold Fingers, Pins etc.

This is something I and a few others have been banging on about for years, yet it appears to be a difficult concept for most people to grasp. Maybe they like doing things the hard way. 8) 8)

 

[snoman701]

So it's a balance, sell the difficult stuff to your buyer in large qty's, and keep all the cream stuff like ram, slot cards, vintage boards & telecom stuff as well as depopulated items like IC's, BGA's, Gold Fingers, Pins etc.

This is something I and a few others have been banging on about for years, yet it appears to be a difficult concept for most people to grasp. Maybe they like doing things the hard way. 8) 8)

I know that in my case, watching you, it took a while to figure out that when you process you are doing it mostly as a hobby or as an exercise in grading.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Manjelle]

i am more into the scrapping part of this hobby just because im high strung and dont care to sit and watch tv. it keeps me active. i tried the refining part but just dont interest me as much as breaking material down.

 

[jfzg]

感谢分享。

 

[butcher]

jfzg,
Please translate your post to English, we cannot share with each other if we do not know what the other said.

 

[macfixer01]

According to Google Translate, it says: Thanks for sharing.

Macfixer01

 

[jimdoc]

He will probably be back to add the spam links in a few days.

 

[g_axelsson]

He will probably be back to add the spam links in a few days.

He can't do that. I locked the post and removed any signature. If he wants to add links he needs to do another post. I do it with every first poster that doesn't add substance to a discussion.

Göran