Originally Posted by
Sirscrapalot
Not a problem. We all had to learn. Barren has a great site with pictures for the CPUs an a couple other things. I will save you a bit of time..most the brown ones, you can just take to your local yard, or to a local buyer near you, who buys them. From my understanding it doesn't pay to ship the low grades. Mid and High is a different story. If dropping the brown/low grades at your yard, strip them of the copper, alum heat sinks, an occasionally there are other goodies. An when I say copper, I mean anything with copper on it, the tiny little thingamabobs wrapped in tape, the little ones you can see copper on, etc. High grade can come from a surprising number of things. Modems, sat/cable boxes, commercial printers( I think this is what I recall from the post), an many other things. Lots of alum heat sinks on the brown boards. More processors an such on mid an high or as most of love to see gold. More gold the better. Lest in my eyes.
I know your likely tired of hearing it but, read the old threads, start from the farthest back an read a few each night an it'll get easier as you go, or focus in on the threads where you know the boards came from. If you search vcr a bunch of threads will pop up, same with stereo's, cd'roms, etc. Don't be in a rush to sell'm, as you'll just short change yourself an make life difficult for your buyer. Since you mentioned Ewasted, I know he'll sort on delivery but it's more helpful to everyone if you got things somewhat sorted. So if ya send in a pile of mid an high, an you know 4 of those are from computers, separate them, then put the others together, he's not going to pay you mid prices on high grade. He's an honest fellow as I'm sure you can tell if you read his buyer thread.
You mentioned reading some stickies..I'm sure Mech or another will chime in with a link to it, but there is one out there with the pictures, an whats valuable. Another good one is Hoss's threads on TV's a lot of the stuff mentioned is also on stuff from VCR's, CD Players, etc. Keep your wire for the yard, or a local buyer, or even to ship if you can make it work price wise. An if you come across terms you don't know..like let's say..Mylar..Google it, an then check the images. This also applies to buyer price lists, like ewasted, PTS, Barren an every other buyer..if you see a term on the list you don't recognize Google it. You'll usually find an image to go along with it. Some terms are interchangeable like daughter/finger boards. Some aren't like CPU's. I believe Barren has the best set of images out there for CPU's an the various types.
Gah, yet another book I write. I feel this advice isn't hand holding so I share it, an gladly. I'll leave it up to you to do the rest of the work. :)
Here's my protip of the day..You can find Hard Drives in a lot of things besides Computers. DVR boxes spring to mind. Whether cable or sat, if it's got DVR it's got a hard drive. ;)
Again your best bet may be to make a intro post, an see who replies, an if folks are near you, maybe a in person tutor session would be in order, most the folks on here would welcome such, an if not, they won't bite. Lest I hope not, an if they do make sure you've had a rabies vac. :P
I'd offer, but unless you plan to visit NC, it won't be me. LOL.
Either way, I once again wish you much luck an take your time, an study. Yea the stuff will stock pile but it just means a bigger pay day for you, not only in terms of quantity but also quality and knowledge. Even if you just end up going to the yard..knowing what to strip off an sell different is better then just going in an handing over all your boards, heat sinks an all!
One last thing..Sorting boards is a difficult thing to learn, even for those of us who've doing it awhile. Every buyer is different on what he wants/accepts. So keep this in mind an don't beat yourself up to bad.
To everyone else, I apologize for the lengthy post, but I'm hoping it'll help out our new member, an any others who stumble this way. :p
Sirscrapalot - Knowledge isn't only power, it's also higher profit. - Me far as I know!
Bonus quote - The best advice I ever got was that knowledge is power and to keep reading. - David Bailey
