JoeMattie
Member
Hello everybody. I'd like to apologize in advance for ranting.**
I've found myself in a bit of a unique situation, and was hoping someone could direct me to a reputable refiner of high-grade e-scrap.
The situation: I own the only for-profit electronics recycling business in Fairbanks, Alaska. We have been operating for several years, processing around 100-200 computers a month. I have a pretty extensive history in electronics and computers (I can fix just about anything that you can plug in) so up until recently our business model has basically been: refurbish / repair the higher end stuff, and/or identify components and such that have value as spare parts or to collectors, then sell all of this on eBay. Anything left over, I cherry-pick the best stuff (gold cap ceramic chips, really old telecom stuff, wire-wrap backplane, military cannon plugs, Pins, Gold-covered boards from SGI machines, trimmed fingers, etc) and have been filling a large crate it. In my spare time I refine some of this (we have a nice fume hood acquired from a surplus auction.) The bulk of the remaining scrap at this point we will sell to Boardsort and other similar outfits. Because of the exorbitant cost of shipping out of interior Alaska, and the relatively low volume of material we deal with, the leftovers (ie: scrap) that we are able to turn a profit with is pretty much restricted to grades of material that can be sold for more than ~$1.07 per lbs (the price of USPS Parcel Post) or be sold locally (just copper and aluminum really).
Well over the last year, as I'm sure many of you are aware, eBay has been tightening the noose around small time seller's necks, particularly with regard to their new Detailed Seller Ratings requirements and the performance standards they require their sellers to meet. We've always run an honest business. We have had only three or four dissatisfied customers ever. However, being that we are in Alaska, domestic shipping times are a few days longer than average. Due to this, our average rating in the "Shipping Time" category is a "low" 4.6 (out of 5).
Well, apparently that is unacceptable to eBay and they have shut us down. Suspended account, not allowed to sell under another, completely out of the blue. Take a look at our profile if you want, our username is arcticrimsuperconductors
Anyhow, it is the middle of winter (our slowest time of year), almost -40 outside and everything is moving slow as molasses. Normally, I would take advantage of times like this to list several dozen broken laptops on eBay or go through my crate of vacuum tubes and rebuild a heathkit amp to sell.
This has led me to a stark and immensely depressing realization of exactly how much we relied on eBay to make ends meet.
Well, the idea of letting this stupid company break me is simply unacceptable. I'm determined to evolve and diversify. First, however, I'm going to have to make rent on the shop...
This brings me to my request. The aforementioned crate probably contains 400-700 lbs of high to really high grade scrap. As much as I'd like to keep it around and learn to refine everything a little bit at a time, and despite how much it's gonna cost to ship, I need to convert it into money post haste.
My intuition is that a refiner is probably the best way to go with this, as most of the material doesn't really fit into the standard scrap brokers' grades. I was hoping some of you might be kind enough to recommend one to me, considering the quantity and nature of the material in question. Shipping is pretty much the same to everywhere in the lower-48, so location is not so important.
My apologies if I posted this on the wrong subforum.
I wouldn't mind some advice either
** I actually wrote this last
I've found myself in a bit of a unique situation, and was hoping someone could direct me to a reputable refiner of high-grade e-scrap.
The situation: I own the only for-profit electronics recycling business in Fairbanks, Alaska. We have been operating for several years, processing around 100-200 computers a month. I have a pretty extensive history in electronics and computers (I can fix just about anything that you can plug in) so up until recently our business model has basically been: refurbish / repair the higher end stuff, and/or identify components and such that have value as spare parts or to collectors, then sell all of this on eBay. Anything left over, I cherry-pick the best stuff (gold cap ceramic chips, really old telecom stuff, wire-wrap backplane, military cannon plugs, Pins, Gold-covered boards from SGI machines, trimmed fingers, etc) and have been filling a large crate it. In my spare time I refine some of this (we have a nice fume hood acquired from a surplus auction.) The bulk of the remaining scrap at this point we will sell to Boardsort and other similar outfits. Because of the exorbitant cost of shipping out of interior Alaska, and the relatively low volume of material we deal with, the leftovers (ie: scrap) that we are able to turn a profit with is pretty much restricted to grades of material that can be sold for more than ~$1.07 per lbs (the price of USPS Parcel Post) or be sold locally (just copper and aluminum really).
Well over the last year, as I'm sure many of you are aware, eBay has been tightening the noose around small time seller's necks, particularly with regard to their new Detailed Seller Ratings requirements and the performance standards they require their sellers to meet. We've always run an honest business. We have had only three or four dissatisfied customers ever. However, being that we are in Alaska, domestic shipping times are a few days longer than average. Due to this, our average rating in the "Shipping Time" category is a "low" 4.6 (out of 5).
Well, apparently that is unacceptable to eBay and they have shut us down. Suspended account, not allowed to sell under another, completely out of the blue. Take a look at our profile if you want, our username is arcticrimsuperconductors
Anyhow, it is the middle of winter (our slowest time of year), almost -40 outside and everything is moving slow as molasses. Normally, I would take advantage of times like this to list several dozen broken laptops on eBay or go through my crate of vacuum tubes and rebuild a heathkit amp to sell.
This has led me to a stark and immensely depressing realization of exactly how much we relied on eBay to make ends meet.
Well, the idea of letting this stupid company break me is simply unacceptable. I'm determined to evolve and diversify. First, however, I'm going to have to make rent on the shop...
This brings me to my request. The aforementioned crate probably contains 400-700 lbs of high to really high grade scrap. As much as I'd like to keep it around and learn to refine everything a little bit at a time, and despite how much it's gonna cost to ship, I need to convert it into money post haste.
My intuition is that a refiner is probably the best way to go with this, as most of the material doesn't really fit into the standard scrap brokers' grades. I was hoping some of you might be kind enough to recommend one to me, considering the quantity and nature of the material in question. Shipping is pretty much the same to everywhere in the lower-48, so location is not so important.
My apologies if I posted this on the wrong subforum.
I wouldn't mind some advice either
** I actually wrote this last
