Refiners who deal with the public?

[MMFJ]

I would really like to start buying from the public and possibly start a website for buying e scrap. As of right now i have no definite number that I get in any given time. if If work aggressively I can get 100 computers in a 1 week period.

Then, you are in a different class than many and should have no problem getting someone on this forum to work with you (the biggest challenge is folks that have very little to work with - when you have 50 or more pounds of "GBSM" (gold bearing scrap material), you really start to get into the minimums that make shipping, recovery and refining work. Now, that number is smaller if the material is all processors and fingers (like you get from just computers), but once you really start gathering "bulk" from the public, you will find there are loads of other things that contain precious metals. I always liked test equipment for selling, but as I've been scrapping some of it out, it has some of the best GBSM around.

Start with your 100 computers per week;
- remove all the cards - put the ones with gold fingers in one (large) box - all other cards go in another bucket (which won't be very big)
- remove the motherboards and sort them according to your buyer's requirements (boardsort is the 'standard', but other buyers may pay more, so look around!)
- get a big gaylord for your cases, another for the plastic (be sure to check with your scrap buyers on how you can make the most from this
- power supplys in another bin
- all wires in another bin
- keyboards in another bin (for later processing - get a rather large place, you want to store maybe 100 or more to 'make a day of it' later)
- CD/DVD rom drives in another stack (all this is just clearing the bulk out and setting you up for later processing of similar items)
- hard drives, yep, in another stack
- 3.5" floppy drives - another stack
- anything else that looks 'interesting' or you don't yet understand, put it all in a box (that box won't get very big and you should go back through it from time to time as you will learn what much of it is as you go along)

Once you clear all the cases, you can then start on the making money part!

Take each stack of the above and process them further - removing the gold fingers, processors, ram, aluminum heat sinks, etc. (you may do that as you pull the motherboard - I always find it about the same work either way and then the motherboard is 'clean' to go right in the shipping box).

I think you get the idea - I just realized this is a thread about REFINERS, but seems we took it to a RECOVERY or even TEARDOWN level!

The point of it all is that you need to get to the processors and fingers, but there are many other steps and parts that will be salable so don't overlook them!

Good luck!

 

[willyam]

I would like to send my escrap to someone for refining - in hopes that I'll make a good bit more than simply selling to a vendor like boardsort etc.
I've collected about 50+ green desktop motherboards, scrapped out a couple mid 90's servers (with the big square boards covered in chips), pulled the processors, memory, hard drive control boards, heat sinks etc. If the cpu had an easy to remove copper heat sink it was popped off, if it was a slot type - popped off the plastic case and heat sink down to the green board/chip/fingers. Some cpu's are the old 386 ceramic, some gold top, several green card with pin types, a few bga's.
Total I have about 10 lbs of memory, cpu's and chips from the old desktops.

Got a couple questions about processing the green motherboards.
Should I go ahead and pull off the usb connectors, RJ45, sound/mic/earphone jack block, video and port connectors - since they have metal shrouds and threaded hex screws? And capacitors - shear them off, basically down to the green board and chips to minimize the weight of the motherboards before shipping...
- or simply sell the motherboards to a scrap buyer for $2 something a pound...
I would hope that refining the motherboard would yield more.

On the server boards, a thick green board with usually square plastic chips - I'm wondering if it would be better to pop off all the chips with a wood chisel and cut off the connectors and only refine those - rather than sending out the entire board. I don't think those boards have any gold plated traces, when gently scraping them with a razor blade they look silver under the green - only gold plated connectors along the edge.

Gold plated connector pins (backplane) I'm pulling out where possible, and the little gold plated square bus bar power connectors are all pulled out.

I've talked a bit with a refiner out west but they have a minimum setup charge around $350 with additional processing fees per pound and final percentage fees. It's my understanding the minimum fee applies to everything I ship them in a box - but I don't know if they will use different processes i.e. ceramic cpu's vs plastic and plated fingers - or if everything goes in the shredder then is burned before refining. Another question is do they only process one metal for me - say the gold, and anything else recovered is not included (without another $300something fee, like per precious metal type)...

I can do as much preprocessing as necessary with some guidelines. I can crush and burn the motherboards in a retort then ship the pieces to someone to refine.
I simply don't want to end up spending all this time and money acquiring the scrap, dissembling/sorting/shipping, then be told sorry your lot is worth less than $2k so we don't owe you anything, or worse yet ship out everything and get a BILL for the service ;-)

Appreciate any advice,
William in Georgia

 

[etack]

I would wait to send to a refiner you don't really have that much. you need several gay-lords to be worth your time.

I can crush and burn the motherboards in a retort then ship the pieces to someone to refine.

If you cab do all that to them then just refine them yourself. It is not as easy as it sounds and it smell real bad everywhere.

Eric

 

[ericrm]

post an add and see what you will get
you have to think like a business man.

let say it like that (not real number) - your stuff will take me a day to process because i have to process only YOUR material at once, i need to make 150$ clear each day or i will be out of busines in tree month. your sending me 5 lbs of ceramic cpu worth in overall 50$lbs once refined 5 x 50 = 250$ 250$ minus 150$( my minimum salary to dont go bankrupt) you have been paid 100$ or 20$lbs for your cpu ... in that case it is more adavntageous for you to sell them to me at 40$lbs and i can process them with the rest of my stuff without extracare = extracost
your best guess is to sell them.....

edit: i dont know if you use it as an exemple ... but if you realy beleive that 50 mobo and your picture is worth 2k i can honestly tell you that you going to be very desapointed even if you refine it yourself without any fee...

I simply don't want to end up spending all this time and money acquiring the scrap, dissembling/sorting/shipping, then be told sorry your lot is worth less than $2k so we don't owe you anything, or worse yet ship out everything and get a BILL for the service ;-)

Appreciate any advice,
William in Georgia

 

[willyam]

Concerning the $2k, I was talking about big refiners that say if you have less than $2k recovered from what you send to them - they will not pay you anything (so you have to start with more than $2k recoverable gold for them to process your material).
I have more material from servers that I will take pictures of when I get back to the shop.
To better describe I need to sort everything into piles and weights.
Finding someone small scale to do the refining may be the best choice.

I will take more pictures and post,
Thanks for the replies,
William in Georgia

 

[goldnboy]

Folks, I have read the posts in response to this question and would like to set the record straight for the actual reason most refiners will not, or can not deal with the public. It has nothing to do with our Patriot Act requirements BTW. Most individuals would not be selling enough value that would raise a concern about money laundering, based on the risk assessments that are part of our Anti-Money Laundering Programs.

First and foremost... We depend on dealing in volume, and to do that we need to process for the local Jewelers, Pawnbrokers, and Second Hand Dealers. It would be counterproductive for us to be out there competing against the people who bring us most of the metal we need by dealing with the public.
Second reason.... To deal with the public we would likely need to maintain either a Second Hand Dealers License, or even a Pawn License depending on the Local Ordinances where you are located. Most of those Ordinances require the dealer to take, maintain and report Personal Information from the persons selling the scrap. It is nothing that we as refiners are interested in doing .

Hope that explains the logic of our decision to avoid dealing with the public.