Anyone know the best places to find scrap gold at prices worthy of refining? Interested mostly in RAM fingers and Karat Jewelry. I've bought from eBay, local suppliers, and online. However I'm having a hard time finding the right place with the right deals with a steady supply of material. I've thought about approaching pawn shops and paying more for their gold than they get now, anyone ever do that? Is there any other options out there to consider? Thanks everyone.
Looking for Scrap Supplies
- Thread starter AlphaBaby
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jimdoc
Well-known member
You find it where you find it, you have to look for it.
Getting answers to those questions here from people interested in the same thing probably isn't going to happen.
Getting answers to those questions here from people interested in the same thing probably isn't going to happen.
Read through all the threads in this section of the forum. People have talked about just about every possible source. Trying to buy RAM fingers and karat gold puts you in competition with every other refiner, so it's really hard to make money that way.
Dave
Dave
niks neims
Well-known member
You can't overpay if you get your scrap for free :wink:
jimdoc
Well-known member
niks neims said:
But you may have to take a bunch of crap with the good stuff.
niks neims
Well-known member
jimdoc said:
Yeah, and in the end you pay with your time, floorspace, gas etc. of course there are no freebies in business/life... You can make a lot of your money back by refurbishing, non-PM scrap metal and selling RAM on eBay for inflated prices
then again it is not really refining, is it? It's a waste management operation at its core, but I like it I must admit on pulling OPs leg (since he annoyed me with his line on e-waste disposal centers in his other thread), I have no idea how would you make money with only pure refining with no reputation and less effective methods than established refiners all the while competing for the same, easily accessible material that they are... You can find your niche if you are persistent enough, I'm sure of it, but it is going to take time and only if you like the process of refining at it's core. But I myself realized (after one too many spilled beakers) that there is easier money made in e-waste management side of things...
@Rickzeien: luckily at my neck of the woods big guys accept most of the unwanted stuff for free undisassembled. For better stuff like printers or unbroken LCD monitors you can eaven get little price/t... Only stuff that's straight up costs real money to dispose of is toners, plastics and Mercury vapor lamps, crt tubes...
anachronism
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rickzeien said:
I can only speak for the UK where we are tightly regulated. The fraction that "can't be sold" depends upon the tear down system you have and the downstream partners you have, and most importantly which streams they will pay for.
Being strictly reasoned:
The home refinable portion of IT waste is a very small fraction of the initial product. Let's take a PC as an example.
Steel case
Power supply
Motherboard
Heatsink
Fans
Cables (including plastic ends)
RAM
Processor
Optical drive
HDD
Additional cards
Plastic shrouds and covers and case "prettiness."
Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
Taking aside that the motherboard is in reality lower grade in the first place- you have a whole host of streams that need to be sold in bulk in order to reach decent "yard" prices along with streams that actually cost money to have disposed of with the relevant paperwork because they are deemed to be hazardous waste.
The costs associated with dealing with this properly are large, and the overall margins low. Take a look over that list above and if anyone's interested in putting some hard return numbers per line it (along with costs) would be interesting to see where peoples' expectations lie.
There is no cornucopia of gold in ewaste. It's about two things- sheer quantity and hard data.
Jon
niks neims
Well-known member
anachronism said:
While a little bit off-topic this discussion has taken a very interesting turn for me
I remember when I first started out I was very interested in rough breakdown of values for incoming e-waste stream... It's unique to each circumstances, of course, and a little bit of a trade secret, so I'd much prefer to discuss particulars via PM with a professional like Jon; but I got to give something back to community, so for any one interested I can share some vague lessons I've already learned, that would honestly be much more applicable to the e-waste management than gold refining, but I know I would've given a lot to have these questions answered 1-2 years ago . Remember, for the most part these are common truths, also any numbers are rough, very rough...1)to make most (well, any) money at this you have to be able to refurbish and resell as working anything you can, so you need to be familiar with your local market - will you be able to sell a core 2 duo motherboard locally? Or PSUs, for example, <350 W is scrap, but powerfuller go for good money...What can be sold as a complete units and what goes as parts? Is it worth your time to diagnose and fix it, if it doesn't turn on at first try? I myself recently had to manually re-sort a few hundred kilos of gold edge RAM looking for 1 GB ones to assemble complete PCs since it turns out I can sell them for much better than scrap locally if I put it in to a complete unit; Also you can't probably do all of it yourself - For example, I have a guy that I cooperate with on Printer & Copier refurb & resale, another guy for TV's, another one for mobile phones and tablets, and a few more on computers, laptops, etc.
...also collectors markets are important... and I am not just talking straight e-bay (while it is important, as well); I have a couple of guys I wholesale sell more complicated vintage stuff like mechanical keyboards or complete older computers (pentium I, 486), usually I am happy if I get about 1/2 of average e-bay price, they got to make money too
2)It mostly comes down to how much time and space you can invest in sorting the e-waste in various categories, heck, I know I'd make more money snipping the ends of VGA connector cables and separating them, but I won't do it.... But at the same time I will definitely separate out CPU heat-sinks to take out copper slugs in the middle, there are hundreds of choices like that you will have to make... But the more time (and space) you spend sorting in to various categories and the more you accumulate - the more money you stand to make
... Another limiting factor is that you will have to be government licensed for a venture like that (you cant really do this in your garage) and in most cases the licence will have a limit on total tonnage of trash you can store in your facility....3)I find that scrap metal (together with cable & brown boards) Is relevant enough revenue stream not to be neglected, in my case it is almost on par with refurbishing $....
4) While selling material like scrap iron (currently 0.17 eur/kg locally) Is best determined by logistics to the scrap yard (you can't take it very far , even for a little better price), I've found that for copper, cable & brown boards it pays to shop around and preferably work with a manufacturer who uses your scrap in his products. Some producers of copper and bronze materials will often pay better for cables & brown boards than scrap-yards, since they are the end-user of the metal anyway and they shred and recycle material themselves.
5)If you absolutely do have to pay for scrap (or if you are trying to calculate what does it cost you in other expenses) go for the worst case scenario... If it is PC towers you buy from unknown seller and pay up front, it is only the steel case you can be absolutely sure of, of course you can open each unit - but that takes up your time=money...
6)there are a lot of niche markets that makes a lot of sense in hindsight once you learn of them, for example, I am very pleasantly surprised on value of laptop batteries (6 cell)... And even more I've yet to learn - I have no buyer currently for scrap Indium-Tin-Oxide touchscreens, I'm sure there must be some out there - It is only a question what will happen first - will I find a buyer or will I run out of space
?silversaddle1
Well-known member
Steel case .10 cents per pound
Power supply .13 cents per pound, wires cut off, mixed with server PS
Motherboard P-4 steel clip $1.30 P-4 $1.80 Low grade MB $1.95 High Grade $2.25
Heatsink Clean .68 Cop/alu mix .51
Fans .10
Cables (including plastic ends) .50 with ends cut off .75 for cut ends
RAM $17.00 gold edge $7.20 tin edge
Processor 3.00 to 130.00 per pound depending on what it is
Optical drive .10 with board removed. $2.80 for drive boards
HDD .38 a pound with board removed. $10.00 a pound for clean HDD boards
Additional cards Finger cards, no heatsinks $3.80
Plastic shrouds and covers and case "prettiness." No value. Leave on case if possiable
Monitor CRT -20.00 each LCD 1.00 up to 5.00 working scrap
Keyboard .01 a pound
Mouse cut wire off, landfill
Power supply .13 cents per pound, wires cut off, mixed with server PS
Motherboard P-4 steel clip $1.30 P-4 $1.80 Low grade MB $1.95 High Grade $2.25
Heatsink Clean .68 Cop/alu mix .51
Fans .10
Cables (including plastic ends) .50 with ends cut off .75 for cut ends
RAM $17.00 gold edge $7.20 tin edge
Processor 3.00 to 130.00 per pound depending on what it is
Optical drive .10 with board removed. $2.80 for drive boards
HDD .38 a pound with board removed. $10.00 a pound for clean HDD boards
Additional cards Finger cards, no heatsinks $3.80
Plastic shrouds and covers and case "prettiness." No value. Leave on case if possiable
Monitor CRT -20.00 each LCD 1.00 up to 5.00 working scrap
Keyboard .01 a pound
Mouse cut wire off, landfill
anachronism
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Thanks Scott= 'preciate it Sir.
