Is this worth it ?

[Rodthrower18]

Barring fleabay purchases, do you guys think $6/lb for mixed pci boards is a good deal? Considering boardsort is paying $3.65/lb( sans shipping) for trimmed cards is this worth my time for the hunt and swap ? I have about a lb of memory and another lb or so of pci cards that I've collected from family, friends and craigslist but that is VERY hit or miss. I am by no means trying to be rich but I don't want to lose money on say 20lbs or so (about my entire hobby budget right now). I do have some silver that I am about to take to an exchange but a big loss would take a nice chunk of the fun out for me.

Thanks for the advice you guys!!

 

[MMFJ]

paying that for the boards is 'crazy' in my opinion.....

Why would you pay $6 for something you can sell for $3.65????

Stick with finding all the computers and other stuff you can - loads of stuff out there!

(and, if you are looking to sell some silver, loads of folks [me included] on this board will be interested)

 

[Rodthrower18]

What price point other than $free 99 should I be trying to aim for. I am having next to no luck with craigslist and neighborhood flyers ( so far i've collected a whopping 5 towers). Someone please educate me on what I am doing wrong on this aspect of things. I have found a couple of OLD towers at the thrift stores where I do my silve rumaging for ~$14-~$18 but I keep asking myself the question in my title. I am just trying to not make quite so many rookie mistakes early on so I am trying to be as cautious and informed as I can be. E scrap is a cruel mistress. I cant begin to think of what those of you that buy karat scrap are going through (my long term goal once I have a little more money to invest).

 

[Claudie]

I'm sure there are people here who would sell you boards for less than $6.00 a pound.... :|

 

[MMFJ]

What price point other than $free 99 should I be trying to aim for.

We've found that computers are 'worth' buying at about $.10 per pound.

(before I go too far in repeating things, we've had a good discussion on pricing and buying computers, etc. at http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=11897, so check out that thread as well...)

A great man once said "Start with the end in mind..." and I've found that to answer a multitude of questions about "How? What? When?" and even "Who?"

Keeping that in mind, one of the SIMPLEST ways I know of getting to "how much should I spend on something I intend to sell?" is to start at the 'end' and ask "How much can I sell this for?". It seems you are asking that, yet you must also (and ALWAYS) pay attention to the answer!

As others (including myself) are having 'luck' with various methods of gathering, perhaps that is the issue for you?

I am having next to no luck with craigslist and neighborhood flyers ( so far i've collected a whopping 5 towers). Someone please educate me on what I am doing wrong on this aspect of things.

Put your ad up and let's have a look.

You should also have a look at one of the more 'successful' folks that I've heard of - he's really focused on getting computers. See http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=7735 - another very active discussion on advertising and getting computers (yes, I know, there is a LOT of good info on this board, you just have to know where to look!)

I have found a couple of OLD towers at the thrift stores where I do my silve rumaging for ~$14-~$18 but I keep asking myself the question in my title. I am just trying to not make quite so many rookie mistakes early on so I am trying to be as cautious and informed as I can be. E scrap is a cruel mistress. I cant begin to think of what those of you that buy karat scrap are going through (my long term goal once I have a little more money to invest).

To my best count, there's AROUND $10 per computer in e-scrap (varies widely, depends on the processor, ram, hd and motherboard, so take that number very, very, VERY loosely!) It is the number we use around here, so the MOST we will pay for a computer is ~$3. As they weigh ~20 lbs, that puts you right in that $.10 - $.12 per pound range (the other day I bought 5 computers and two laptops for a whopping total of $8.90 - pulled out ~$30 worth of stuff - a decent return, considering we have to pay the shipping when we sell, etc. (see those links above for loads more details).

Of course, if you are paying $6 per pound for boards, I'm very happy to load you up with all you want (heck, I'll even trade you boards for silver at those kind of rates..... :roll: [NOTE: In case you missed it, I'm not extremely serious here - though doing such a deal is fine, the pricing would have to be adjusted to something more reasonable all around!]

As for buying other stuff - I buy gold and silver coins and other 'collectible' pieces (in my state it is illegal to purchase jewelry for resale - go figure...) at reasonable rates, typically 50% of spot (they could send it to those 'webuygoldandsuch.com' places and get 10%-15%, they are happy to bring it to me), again as I take the risk that some of it is not 'as advertised' on the marks, or won't test out, etc. and I need to make a profit when I sell (at about 90% spot), so we really can't pay more than 50% and stay in business.

Note that none of the above is our "primary" business - in my opinion, it shouldn't be (until/unless you will get super serious like joem - see that link about advertising above...) In doing this for about 4 months, I've personally added about $4K to my 'savings' (gold/silver stash) and cashed out around $3K (motherboards, cards, scrap metal and such), all WHILE doing my primary business of "Making Money From Junk" (which is why I have the name 'MMFJ') - buying and selling various other items, and finding the computers and what-not as we go along.

Biggest thing is - don't give up, but following right along with it is Don't OVERPAY!

 

[Rodthrower18]

Mmfj thank you so much!! This post is worth it's weight in gold ! It put a couple of things in perspective while giving me the answers to a couple of the major questions I have.

 

[MMFJ]

Mmfj thank you so much!! This post is worth it's weight in gold ! It put a couple of things in perspective while giving me the answers to a couple of the major questions I have.

You're welcome!

And, I'll PM you my address so you can send that 'weight' of gold right on over! :wink:

 

[artart47]

Hi Rod!
Computer equipment is everyware and people don't know what to do with it! You have to go out and find it.
I make sure that everyone I come in contact with knows that I scrap out unwanted computers, There is no charge, I try to keep everything out of the landfill and they get one of my cards.
I've been doing this for two years, have a stockpile of around three-thousand pounds of PM containing boards,memory,cards,cpu's, wire end connectors ect...tons of hard drives,disc drives, power supplies ect...
this week alone, I picked up seventy some towers plus old laptops and some cell phones. I have never paid one dollar for anything! I only take free and I charge if there are too many monitors and printers. eight dollars apiece for each extra that doesn't come with a tower.
It takes time to get known!

 

[Rodthrower18]

Thanks again for all of the encouragement everyone!! I had a day off from my full time today so like mmfj told me I put in some work with a little focus. I spent a couple of hours calling just about every mom and pop computer repair shop in my area today! After countless "Not interested , we have someone, I do it myself etc" I got 5 places to trade information with me with the promise of their e scrap!!! Alot of places never even thought of having someone pick this stuff up for free they just "put it out back in the garbage"!! I will be visiting each of the locations over the next 2 mornings before I go to work to touch base and press flesh and make my face known. On to the best part of the day, one of the guys I called that didn't initially have anything called me back and told me he had 4 ancient towers that I could pick up TODAY!! So away we went and 40 mins later we are back home and i've got myself 5 pci cards , an old celeron processor, a first gen p4, 1 P3, 4floppy drives, 3 cd drives, 3motherboards and 4 cases with PSUs!!! I cant believe the day i've had, all thanks to some encouraging words of advice from the folks on this forum, and a little effort thinking outside the box. Thanks again everyone!!!

 

[joem]

Thanks again for all of the encouragement everyone!! I had a day off from my full time today so like mmfj told me I put in some work with a little focus. I spent a couple of hours calling just about every mom and pop computer repair shop in my area today! After countless "Not interested , we have someone, I do it myself etc" I got 5 places to trade information with me with the promise of their e scrap!!! Alot of places never even thought of having someone pick this stuff up for free they just "put it out back in the garbage"!! I will be visiting each of the locations over the next 2 mornings before I go to work to touch base and press flesh and make my face known. On to the best part of the day, one of the guys I called that didn't initially have anything called me back and told me he had 4 ancient towers that I could pick up TODAY!! So away we went and 40 mins later we are back home and i've got myself 5 pci cards , an old celeron processor, a first gen p4, 1 P3, 4floppy drives, 3 cd drives, 3motherboards and 4 cases with PSUs!!! I cant believe the day i've had, all thanks to some encouraging words of advice from the folks on this forum, and a little effort thinking outside the box. Thanks again everyone!!!

Awesome job. A word of note, stores have little time to talk on the phone, I always stop in and "offer my free service" if they say they have someone I ask them if they get charged for pick up and them remind them I am absolutely free of any charge. Also look at any electronic shop not just computer related and if you have a recycler in your area work out a price per pound for low end ewaste and make regular drop offs it will all add up in the end. Finally keep at it, good luck, and keep us updated on your thread. I look forward to hearing about your success.

 

[Palladium]

Theirs a lot of leg work involved. Get you some cards and start passing them around also. I ordered some cheap one’s offline and pass them out every where I go. It takes some time but you would be surprised at what's out there. I find surprises all the time.

 

[gold4mike]

I found that nearly all of my local shops were already with the person/persons who were picking up their scrap. I had to resort to offering to pay for it. I took Boardsort's prices, subtracted 30%, passed out lists and have got most of them now as regulars. They couldn't believe how much money in material they were simply giving away.

I talked with the owner of one of the shops a few weeks ago and he expressed his feelings about the state of the economy and mentioned that he has been buying gold, silver and bullets. I paid him for the next load of scrap in silver and he reacted like he'd hit the lottery.

It's not nearly as profitable as the scrap I manage to get for free, but it helps me turn my money quicker and make that 30% multiply, and gets me more of the "good stuff" I might not have seen otherwise.

 

[MMFJ]

I paid him for the next load of scrap in silver

(just to be clear for the newbies and anyone else that might get the wrong idea...)
I'm sure the ACTUAL transaction was that you gave him US Dollars, then sold him equivalent value in silver....... (silver is not legal tender....), or, perhaps created a BARTER and made sure you both documented it in your books.... - gotta be careful how you transact the stuff - some places it is even taxable (though bullion is not currently taxable in Nevada!

 

[gold4mike]

It was indeed a US Silver Eagle - legal tender.