desktop scrap worth only $5 once parted?

I run a computer company and get tons of desktops and servers. We tore apart 40 P4 desktops and our calculations ended up with only about $240 or so plus the cases. Below is the local pricing (columbus OH) we found with weights once we tore apart. I was expecting around $10 a desktop but i guess not. Does this sound pretty normal? I figured we'll do much better with servers and networking.

P4 motherboards 55lbs*$1.85 =$55
Memory 2.5lbs*$15.50=$38.75
Floppy 9oz*.12=$1
P4 no pins 1*$4.60=$4.60
P4 w/ pins 13oz*$6.30=$4.70
CD Boards 4.25lbs*$3.15=$12.60
copper/alum heatsinks 18.5lbs*$.80=$14.60
alum heatsinks 14lbs*$.40=$5.70
CD drives 53.5lbs*$.12=$6.40
power supplies w/o wires 133.5lbs*$.21=$28.09
PS wires 12.25lbs*$2=$24.50
misc wires 3.5lbs*$.55=$1.90


Also have IDE cables 8lbs
power supply tips and other tips. 5lbs

What were you basing your $10 a piece on...?

Educated guess based on people here buying desktops for $4-$5 each and other research. We buy a ton of computers to sell and everything but focus on servers and networking.

I think if you check the e-waste buyers here on the forum, the prices you quoted are generally in line. I wouldn't buy a desktop to scrap at $4-5 a piece but I know how people get all huffy if you only offer $2-3 for their "perfectly good" computer. Personally, I prefer not to pay anything for them, I'm actually doing them a service by saving their gas money from taking it down to the city drop-off location. Somehow that doesn't click in their heads either.

You cheated yourself on the motherboards, unless I missed something. 55lbs of motherboards at 1.85$ = 55$. Shouldn't it be 101.75$

Local scrap buys $.25 a pound for complete PC's, assuming average tower is 10lbs we'd get $2.50 each (100 total). It took about 4 hours or so to break down the 40 pc's which means we make $250 scrap - $100 complete) $37.50 per hour if pc's are free. We still have our time to pickup and dropoff to scrap. We're going to dropoff tomorrow and compare to see if we get what we measured.

We have about 50-100 more desktops, 100-200 servers, and racks of cisco gear. hopefully we'll be able to make more hourly on the enterprise gear.

Originally Posted by DakotaRog

I think if you check the e-waste buyers here on the forum, the prices you quoted are generally in line. I wouldn't buy a desktop to scrap at $4-5 a piece but I know how people get all huffy if you only offer $2-3 for their "perfectly good" computer. Personally, I prefer not to pay anything for them, I'm actually doing them a service by saving their gas money from taking it down to the city drop-off location. Somehow that doesn't click in their heads either.

exactly!
ive has some irritating ppl complain to me that they cant give me their old computers for free bcos they paid X for it 10 years ago & its still working fine.
its difficult to get the idiots to understand that what they paid $300 for 10 years ago is only worth around $5-7max to me now & if i factor in fuel & paying them for it, im wasting my time.

Originally Posted by justinm001

I run a computer company and get tons of desktops and servers. We tore apart 40 P4 desktops and our calculations ended up with only about $240 or so plus the cases. Below is the local pricing (columbus OH) we found with weights once we tore apart. I was expecting around $10 a desktop but i guess not. Does this sound pretty normal? I figured we'll do much better with servers and networking.

P4 motherboards 55lbs*$1.85 =$55
Memory 2.5lbs*$15.50=$38.75
Floppy 9oz*.12=$1
P4 no pins 1*$4.60=$4.60
P4 w/ pins 13oz*$6.30=$4.70
CD Boards 4.25lbs*$3.15=$12.60
copper/alum heatsinks 18.5lbs*$.80=$14.60
alum heatsinks 14lbs*$.40=$5.70
CD drives 53.5lbs*$.12=$6.40
power supplies w/o wires 133.5lbs*$.21=$28.09
PS wires 12.25lbs*$2=$24.50
misc wires 3.5lbs*$.55=$1.90


Also have IDE cables 8lbs
power supply tips and other tips. 5lbs

Looks closer to $6.50 to me. The real money is in more than scrap value. Probably not going to find much of that in P4 machines.
I would like to know where you are getting $2 per pound for power supply wire? Are you cutting the ends off?

Originally Posted by msmoorad

exactly!
ive has some irritating ppl complain to me that they cant give me their old computers for free bcos they paid X for it 10 years ago & its still working fine.
its difficult to get the idiots to understand that what they paid $300 for 10 years ago is only worth around $5-7max to me now & if i factor in fuel & paying them for it, im wasting my time.

It happens sometimes. You have to explain to some folks the useful life of their computers has ended. Don't be a dink about it, leave your phone number, they may come to their senses, they may not.

It's a tossup on the CD/DVD drives. I break mine down because there isn't a buyer for whole units in this area. It's usually a pretty quick thing. Four small screws and they pop right apart.

I take it that CD boards = finger cards ? You do see more with the p-4's and earlier. Usually at least one and sometimes three.

HDD's weren't listed. The HDD logic boards are easy to pop off and have scrap value.

Do you have regular employees that you have to pay ? Best to figure the cost of having them on the job as hourly rate + workman's comp + benefits +your social security contribution on their behalf.

Consider wear & tear on the vehicles. IRS allows something like .40 - .50 cents per mile as the real cost of running a car or truck ? It's probably not too far off the mark.

Additional labor & costs besides the breakdown:

Many of the towers are pretty dusty inside. Makes a mess of the shop so there's daily cleanup time to figure in.

Cost of trash bags and trips to the dump. Towers are pretty recyclable but there's a certain amount of plastic waste on the sides and face of the machine. Do you have to pay any disposal or dumpster fees ?

As you said earlier : Labor and travel expense of running to the scrapyard.

There's a fair amount of time & labor involved with shipping the boards out to a buyer if you're sending things out in 69 lb packages. You have to get solid cardboard boxes and packing materials. Shipping costs are a BIG spoiler.

Shipping things out by pallet is a lot more cost effective if you've got the volume. Still ... there's the cost of a pallet and cardboard gaylord to consider.

Every situation is different. I'm in a rural area and my average net profit after expense is about 1.10 /lb on every box that is shipped. ( That doesn't include labor.) If i paid a couple of bucks per tower i would probably be losing money.

The thing that makes it worthwhile is the occasional better than scrap option.

Hey Hill
What if you stacked the boxes on a pallet and shrink wrapping or metal strapping them. You can get free pallets and free boxes. When the pallet is about 500lbs 7 or 8 boxes, call Gorven to come pick it up. That's only if you have room for the pallet.

It's a good thought but we just don't have the population density in this rural area.Not getting enough volume to do pallets. Truth be told .... i'm only seeing about a third of the volume that i did a few years ago. When copper & steel prices dropped everybody went for e-waste and now nobody is making anything with it because it's so watered down.

It was bound to die anyway. The trend has been from towers to laptops ... from laptops to tablets .... from tablets to i phones. With each step smaller there's less and less value to recover in scrapping.

~ Just the changing nature of the world around us. ~

Back when I used to pay for computers I told a guy I would pay him $4 per unit (some still had a few good parts) and come get them. He said it wasnt worth it and was taking them to the dump. Go figure...

Originally Posted by aph

Excuse my french, but if their computer works so effen fine, why are they trying to get rid of it?

I do a LOT of appliances and the stupidity is beyond reason.
You won't believe how often I am told the fridge actually works, just doesn't get cold.

Oh man! Or, "The TV works fine, it just don't show the picture." Like, how do you define "works?"

Works just means the power light glows , or a fan spins, or something makes a noise to some people. My favorite thing to see is people selling something broken that just needs an "easy fix" but they don't have the time to do it so it is your gain. People will tell you anything so that you either buy their junk or come haul it away for free.

Multi processor servers have heavy boards so you will do better with those.