Confused about a possible scrap source

[rewalston]

Hey guys and gals. I found a scrap source for computers that I'm a little confused about. Currently he ships everything palleted to Asia (nothing like keeping things at home huh?). Anyway I sell all my wire, motors and transformers to him. Today when I was in there he had a PC sitting there and I asked about it. He said that it weighed 20lbs and that he wanted $10 for it. He said everything is sold/bought by weight....understood, but what he wanted for that one PC works out to $0.50 a pound. That seems a bit high to me but he has pallets of these things and I'm not having much luck finding and getting PC's anywhere else, especially in bulk. He stated that he needed $10 for it because he had $6 into it. I'm used to getting my stuff for free so I'm a little befuddled by this one. Any suggestions or ideas?

Rusty

 

[jimdoc]

There are guys near me paying $8 and $10 for towers. I don't pay anything. I don't see how you can make any money buying them at those prices. You may make out on some, but I would think the larger percentage you will break even or lose.
I think $10 is too much.

Jim

 

[Geo]

i pay up to $5, but it cant be stripped down.i found that the average pay out on PC's is about $20 +/- a couple of dollars. theoretically you could double your money but its alot of work involved when your talking about a hundred or more PC towers.

 

[MMFJ]

We pay $.10 per pound on 'complete' computers (if anything is pulled, we knock it to $.05/lb....) and we get our 'share' of them (we pick up about 100 per week, with only craigslist advertising - we are considering other means to bring that up to 200-250 a week, which is about all we can handle at our current location).

I'd say that the 'confusion' is about you considering a scrapper that ships pallets overseas as a "source" for buying - that's a bit like asking to buy Pentium Pros or clean gold fingers from folks on this forum! :shock: Just how could you expect to get a good deal?

What you need to SOURCE is just where he is getting all his stuff! If he's getting it and processing it to that point and has $6 in it, you could likely do better than that (considering you have lower overhead, etc.)

$10 is wasting your time, IMHO - you shouldn't pay more than a couple bucks, however, you need to take the time to "backtrack" your costs so you can know exactly what the MOST you could pay is (i.e., mentally take apart a computer and then 'sell' all the parts to see what your local payout is, plus your time, plus a little profit, etc.) Everyone can tell you what they pay for them, but only you can know what you will MAKE from them! Our local steel price just dropped to $150/ton ($.075/lb) which makes the carcass just about worthless and also really dips into our $.10/lb pricing - we are seriously looking at having to lower that as well.

Anyway, do the math on your end and if you need some help, post your numbers/ideas and someone will be glad to help.

 

[rewalston]

Thanks guys for the comments. I was kind of thinking along the lines that it would be a waste of time and money but hey, if you don't ask you'll never know, right? I think he gets them from people that drive into the scrap yard, I have no idea really. Thanks again.

Rusty

 

[nickvc]

Rusty just a thought, your scrap dealer ships the computers as is I guess... Try and do a deal with him so he can ship the carcasses and you and he share the recovered values. Be honest and tell him what the values are in a tower that you can recover and refine and tell him the costs involved and see if a deal is possible. He might like having a stash of values for a rainy day or perhaps prefers the money now but if you don't ask you won't find out.
This is definitely worth a try in my opinion and if you can form a good trusting relationship with him you might be very busy and not need to look any further for scrap to refine, he may even start looking for more items to feed to you.....honesty is the key here!

 

[rewalston]

Thanks Nick like you said it's worth a try.

Rusty

 

[nickvc]

Rusty try and get him to let you have some fingers and refine them and show him the button....
The sight of a little real fine gold has an odd effect on many people...
As I stressed, honesty really will be the key here if you can get him to bite..happy fishing :lol:

 

[CBentre]

Hey guys and gals. I found a scrap source for computers that I'm a little confused about. Currently he ships everything palleted to Asia (nothing like keeping things at home huh?). Anyway I sell all my wire, motors and transformers to him. Today when I was in there he had a PC sitting there and I asked about it. He said that it weighed 20lbs and that he wanted $10 for it. He said everything is sold/bought by weight....understood, but what he wanted for that one PC works out to $0.50 a pound. That seems a bit high to me but he has pallets of these things and I'm not having much luck finding and getting PC's anywhere else, especially in bulk. He stated that he needed $10 for it because he had $6 into it. I'm used to getting my stuff for free so I'm a little befuddled by this one. Any suggestions or ideas?

Rusty

Hey bud, hate to say it but if he is shipping to Asia there may be more at risk then you know. Canada is not allowed by law to ship electronics to third world country's so just be weary of who your dealing with.