Yard sale buy

How'd I do? Box weighs 22 pounds. All just like you see for $8.

Chris, thanks for your consideration.

Good job, a few cards there would go good on Ebay.

Originally Posted by RoadWarrior

Nice job Mick. Don't forget to follow up with how much you made scrapping/selling those.

I estimate one ounce of gold trimming per pound of card. I usually average $20 per four-ounce "package". So estimating 20 ounces or four packages - $80. Cutting off the metal should leave approx 15 pounds of boards. If they'll go for motherboard rate, then there should be another $30. Total - approx $110.

cant go wrong with yard sales regardless if you but items for scrap or just useful items, nice finds there!

Ok, the breakdown is done and the results are in. Didn't get near what I expected from gold trimming but still ok and will be good for reference. I used two scales. For larger weights (ie box full and final pounds) I used an old-style "stand on" doctor's scale. For lighter weights, I used an Accutech that measures ounces and grams to the tenth. To measure the beginning weight of 22 pounds, this included the box which, when empty, weighed approx 1.5 lb.

So here is the breakdown:

Trimmed cards - 10 1/2 pounds
Heat sinks - 4 lbs
Brackets/screws - 5 1/2 lbs
Fans - 6.4 oz
IC (large) - 1.3 oz
Gold trimming- 5.8 oz

NOTE: The trimmed cards, heat sinks and stainless steel brackets and screws were weighed on the larger scale, so 1/2 lb may be somewhere between .25 and .75 lb. As I said, the box was included in the beginning but no containers are included in the final weights (tare weight). As far as price, I won't know as it'll all go with other similar stuff I'm accumulating. You can figure it out based on prices you get, if you want.

Originally Posted by hobo finds

How did you come to the $8.00 price? Is that what they were asking or was that your offer? I buy insulated wireat yard sales and the prices people want for a box of power cords can be crazy high or dirt cheep, thats why I always ask "how much for the whole box?" LOL

The way it happened: Decided to stop at a yard sale I was going by as I'd had some good luck at one the day before (not many up here yet). He had three laptops out with price tags of $3-500. Since I'd gone straight to them and looked, he said to make an offer if I was interested at all. Told him I wasn't interested in them but WAS interested in the box of parts under the bench (they weren't priced at all and turned out to be all graphics cards). He said to make him an offer. I said "$5" for the box. He said "$10 and they're yours". That's when I said to myself "Game on". I countered with $7. I thought he agreed and gave him a $20. He gave me change for $10 and I said I thought he'd agreed to $7. So he gave me the $20 back. I started to walk away. Told him that I sure wanted that box but I had to make some on it, too, but I'd go $8. He asked me what I wanted them for and I said "Scrap". He asked about what I did to them and I explained, kind of, about trimming the gold. He agreed to the $8 and said he had two more boxes at work just like it if I was interested. So I left a card and told him to call me whenever he was ready.

Then talked for half hour or so about the shows - Down East D ickering, Pawn Stars, Southern Pawn (?), Storage Wars etc.

Some of those video cards with the heat sinks I get between 9.95 and 19.95 each for them on Ebay. There's where the money was.

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

Some of those video cards with the heat sinks I get between 9.95 and 19.95 each for them on Ebay. There's where the money was.

May be. But they'd been thrown around, thrown together in the box and some were pretty dusty. I don't know how to test them and don't want to. Neither do I want to take a chance on selling defective stuff. I buy electronics/computers for scrap.

very nice.