I wanted to do a simple experiment and share my results. I started with 25 standard 6' power cables from computer towers and monitors. They were all slightly different and not exactly the same make and manufacturer. In all of the pictures I posted, I already tared out the box on my scale, so the weights shown are for just the cables. The 25 cables weighed 9 pounds 5 ounces, or roughly 6 ounces each (3/8 of a pound).
If I don't clip the ends, my yard buys these as low recovery at $0.34 per pound, which is $3.19 for the lot, or about for $0.13 each power cable. If I clip the ends, they buy the ends as transformers at $0.18 per pound and the wires become insulated #2 copper at $0.71 per pound. It took about 10 minutes to clip the ends of all of them using a normal pair of kitchen scissors. After clipping them the transformers weighed 2 pounds 11 ounces, about 29% of the total weight, and the wires weighed 6 pounds 10 ounces, about 71% of the total weight.
The value of the wires after clipping them, using my yard's pricing, was $0.48 for the transformers and $4.70 for the wires, or $5.18 for the lot, or about $0.20 per power cable. The values will change if you put in your yard's pricing, and your yard may not even require you to clip the ends off. For me this excercise earned me a couple of extra bucks in 10 minutes time. My yard actually paid me for 3 pounds of transformers, and 8 pounds of wires, so I got paid $6.22 for them, which is close to $0.25 per power cable.
I did not strip the wires because I do not currently have a suitable safe stripping solution. Once I get it worked out, I may strip a few and add the results to this post in the future. I hope someone finds this information useful. I was doing the test for myself anyway, so I thought I'd share the results.
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