Computer boards ETC . - Page 2

Hey old dude, how much weight in fingers have you gone through so far to get the gold weight you have now? Oh and your sources for fingers.

I'll PM you later for some more in depth but I wanted to touch on my formula for operational pricing. And this is exactly why I say e scrap is a depreciating market. If you wait for prices to come up more than a month...even if it goes up 5% you lost money. Let me explain.

Manufacturing processes use less and less PMs as time goes by, we know that. We also know that there are certain exclusions. Finger cards are a relatively steady market but it's not for the reasons you believe. The fingers used to use a standard plating process but are now electrovapor coated much like processors and pinouts. In other words you have less valuable fingers now than before, this goes for memory too as the voltage goes further and further down. Size of the fingers and plating thickness are the factors, nothing else. Motherboards are using less SMDs and less, but denser north/south, audio and video chips, most low end computers use integrated cpu gpu dies now, which eliminates even more value from low grade motherboards.

So what do you know for sure. You could assay graded material today and return...let's call it one troy ounce of gold for 1000 lbs of motherboards. You could send material graded the same way a year from now and receive .85 troy ounces for 1000 lbs because in that time the manufacturing process has gone further along the efficiency scale in your scrap stream. Scrap stream is always going to average 6 to 9 year old machines, at least it does for me. So 2009-2006 today 2010-2007 next year and so on, all the while increasing the efficient use of materials in those boards. Value goes down proportionately along that scale every year. There are "differentials" for instance finger card prices hold better overall because lower value cards like network and fax cards are being replaced by discrete video cards, gigabit ethernet, hd audio cards and so on, all with more complicated layouts, stricter pm requirements (particularly in ethernet cards and hd audio cards)....so the price based on content assays should hold for many years to come.

In the end, as we approach technological peaks, where prices go down, engineering gets better...scrap stream will suffer some from that. Having said that, buy at a price you know you can invest in labor and still make something later on.

My advice, never sit on e waste, if you sat on it for more than 90 days you lost 5% of your overall value every month. I know it's becoming the new gold rush, and has been for a few years. I'd simply close my statements by asking you to do your research, it will save you headaches and make you money.