Feeling the pain.

I wouldn't panic just yet. I have seen nothing in any world ecomic indicators that would cause Gold to drop permanently. my guess is some very big players just profit taking. However middlle income families world wide do include Gold as an investment against inflation or failing currency, and they do make up a decient percentage of the buys. It could be they are pulling back as they run out of money.

In my opinion most don't realize how volatile the e-scrap end user pricing system is. Even the slightest movement in gold generally brings about a price change. Like Easy, I generally try to maintain a certain level even when there are price changes. I receive changes every 24 hours give or take but most often keep our buying level even.

I have been watching the gold prices closely. Most experts said that gold will rally again in the coming week but many of the same experts also said that Bernie Madoff was a good investment, so you really never know.

most think there is a mountain of Gold in them thar computers when we know ther is really a minute quantity in each and it takes a lot of Gold plate to make an ounce . so when gold dropps $50 per oz, imagin how much that $15 for ram has to drop. The major cost for people like me is shipping and fuel that is one factor we know is going to rise continually and never drop. as shipping and fuel cost rises the profit in computers becomes more amd more marginal, plus in many areas the scrap computer prices have been artificially inflated by the falce impression they are loaded with Gold Gold Gold, just take a look at the auction sites, scral computers going for $20 each or more. That said Gold will hit $2000 by the end of the year as long as people have money to buy it. just my .02.

Originally Posted by olddude

most think there is a mountain of Gold in them thar computers when we know ther is really a minute quantity in each and it takes a lot of Gold plate to make an ounce . so when gold dropps $50 per oz, imagin how much that $15 for ram has to drop. The major cost for people like me is shipping and fuel that is one factor we know is going to rise continually and never drop. as shipping and fuel cost rises the profit in computers becomes more amd more marginal, plus in many areas the scrap computer prices have been artificially inflated by the falce impression they are loaded with Gold Gold Gold, just take a look at the auction sites, scral computers going for $20 each or more. That said Gold will hit $2000 by the end of the year as long as people have money to buy it. just my .02.

Olddude you don't know how right you are....I have run into so many people that belileve that there are thousands of dollars of gold in every computer...Sad thing is that they do not like it when you tell them that there is not that much. I have had people argue with me for hours about how much gold a computer actually contains. They have no idea that this business is all about volume, not individual pieces.

What's a new desktop cost nowadays? Bare bones model around 400/500? and then up from there. Why people would think that a computer would have thousand of dollars worth of gold and then be sold for hundreds is beyond me.

Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

What's a new desktop cost nowadays? Bare bones model around 400/500? and then up from there. Why people would think that a computer would have thousand of dollars worth of gold and then be sold for hundreds is beyond me.

Blame it on the internet! Most of the people that come to me say that they were looking on the internet and found out that there was gold in a computer and then find out that the price of gold is so high and they start to jump to conclusions.

Originally Posted by easyrecycle

A bare bone system is like $300 or so. You can get a nice pc for $500.

I haven't bought a computer since '06. (My first Mac ) Just tossing generic numbers out. I still think people are crazy!

CS, I think you're right on that.

The gaming machine I want to build would cost me about 3 grand but its 1200 just in video cards. Well thats my current dream machine anyway. But easy is right you can build a real nice computer for about 500.

One idiot once told me "The chips are worth their weight in gold"

hahaha At least I had a larf about it.

LOL did you offer to sell that idiot all your chips for 50% of spot?

For us we know exactly how much we are going to take a hit regardless of the price. If the spot drops 100 bucks we know we are going to lose .30/lb on our boards. If it drops 50 we know our boards will be .15 cents less. So our say spot was at 1700/oz, and gold dropped 49/oz, we still get purchased at the 1700/oz price, if gold falls 51/oz we will get purchased at the 1650/oz range.

This way there is no questioning what price we are at, which in turn makes it easy for us. We actually are sitting on 10000+ lbs of boards because we will not take a 3000 dollar hit.

On a brighter note we did just purchase an additional 300oz of silver. Love bargain shopping.

wish I had the funds to buy a 100 ounce bar right now silver is sitting at 28 an ounce and falling like a rock.

Yeah... even the scrappers are feeling this. The pile of motherboards I did this weekend are selling about .$30/lb less then my last shipment. All the components lost value. Can't blame the buyers, they follow the market.

Scrap yard zinged me also this AM. Communication wire dropped to $.35/lb and power cords went to $.85/lb. Aluminum dropped to $.45 and #2 copper is at $2.35. Batteries are at $.15/lb. Thank god this isn't my full time job... or even a major source of my second income. This would really be bothering me if it were!