On behalf of the new(ish)comer I’d like to say thank you Arturs. I think if the OP has enough sense to ask the question on this forum, that he is probably cautious enough not to just rely solely on the first guessed figure he sees. As a hobbyist i have seen the prices on eBay for things like ceramic ic chips and cpus skyrocket in just over the last 1-2 years since I started (probably thanks to the popularity of ewaste refining YouTube videos, etc.)…so fully I understand Jon’s point about not divulging exact figures on a forum. As a hobbyist, who is more interested in the “look what I made from miscellaneous sh*t I found” aspect of refining ewaste it’s frustrating to me when I see listings for 50 ICs for $250 when I used to get a lot like that for less than $50…I don’t know who is spending that kind of money for this stuff but all it’s doing for me is slowing down my hobby bc I have to wait for the few and far between decent deal. But I’m not even upset about spending more on material and equipment than the precious metals I extract are worth. I’m sure for a guy who makes his living doing this stuff, the saturation of the market of buyers is probably somewhat deviating. But with that said, it probably wouldn’t have hurt for Jon (who is a pro and a top caliber member IMO from the limited info I’ve gathered from this post) to just give a ballpark statement like, “I wouldn’t pay over $X for that type of material”. But instead it turns into a whole, “know-it-all” (but won’t tell you), arguing with the helpful Arturs (while contradicting his own previous posts), “stop everything immediately because u clearly haven’t read Hoke yet”, belittle the new guy bc he has questions, type of conversation that I see on this forum all to often from some of the veterans to some of the (clearly) new and admittedly ignorant (at least as far as I feel about myself). I just think that there is a better way to help someone who has questions than to be condescending and patronizing…no matter how dumb you think the question might be. I understand that these chemicals are dangerous and sometimes the OP has an issue or question that clearly shows that they don’t know what the hell they are doing…but I just see a lot of ppl who apparently know the ins and outs, who have years of experience, who know “Hoke” inside and out being everything besides helpful…and I just think as much as it is a responsibility of the educated to say ur doing something dangerous (or stupid)…it’s also our (the whole forum) responsibility to be helpful to the new guy and do what we can to damper down the belittling and non helpful patronizing behavior that happens quite often on here. Like, instead of just saying, “stop everything and go read Hoke” and then writing multiple paragraphs about the dangers or mistakes in process that the OP is (maybe) doing (clearly showing u know what what ur talking about)…but never taking the time to answer the OPs question. I’m not saying this was Jon’s intent or that it was at this level…but it definitely touched on that in some ways…and it’s way to common. So basically…to make a short story long 😬… thank you Arthur’s for trying to be helpful to the community. And to Jon, I’m not super familiar with ur reputation on this forum, but from what I can deduce from this post, it seems ur a guy with experience and a lot of positive thoughts to contribute…and I’m sure it’s easy to fall into a “god these ppl are stupid” type of attitude when reading some of the ridiculousness that the uneducated sometimes post…but come on man, tighten up…we look up to guys like u…and even after reading Hoke, watching plenty of (the good) YouTube contributors, and 2 years of my own trial and error…this stuff is still sometimes very confusing. So with respect and appreciation I just want to as whoever reads this to keep in mind that if it’s not helpful…keep it to urself.
