What do you do with your ribbon cable?
I try to maximize my profit and cut off connectors
I sell them with connectors because my buyer doesnt care
I sell them as is and lose a little, but I dont have time to cut off
There is no profit in it so I cant be bothered even if I had the time
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What do you do with your ribbon cable?
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I nip the ends off the connectors, remove them from the ribbon cable, then pull the gold pins out of the connector with needle nose pliers. Low yield gold plated pins $80 per pound all day long.
Chop the ends off as close as possible. Sell those as gold connectors by shipping them to a buyer with other escrap. Around $2.10 a pound. Sell ribbon cable at local yard for computer wire price.
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If processed all the way down they yield no 3 insulated wire and gold pins, i wouldnt sell those as connectors, you need to pull the pins out of the connectors or your losing money big time. My breakdown analysis showed a 300% profit selling them as pins rather than as whole connectors.
Power cord power ranger
Have you tried putting the cable ends into a rock/parts cleaner/polisher to see if they would rattle loose. It would be awesome to be able to throw 1lb at a time in there turn it on for a few minutes and rattle them out...The bolt on one of those things sheared in the middle of the night while I was running it and ended up with a huge mess of rock polisher all over my house....
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Finally starting to see what JGH is talking about with pulling pins. NOW THIS IS MAXIMIZING YOUR PROFITS!
SCRAP GOLD PLATED PINS 1LB VINTAGE HIGH END YIELD FOR GOLD RECOVERY | eBay
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exactly, the base price of gold pins is $50 - $100 for standard pins , it goes sky high after that for gold filled and mil-spec pinsOriginally Posted by CTscrapman
Last edited by jghilino; 11-27-2012 at 08:18 PM.
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I think I remember seeing where you posted some numbers, but cant find it. I'm thinking of giving it a shot. Did you sell directly to a buyer or ebay? Are fees included in your breakdown (ebay fee, shipping, etc.)? Thanks for the video and information!
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
Would also be interested in the numbers such as how many lbs of IDE connectors to get one lb of pins
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
Me too, CE. I'm guessing appx. ten (just from guessing the pins to be appx 1/10 (or 10%) the weight in an IDE connector
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Yesterday I took apart 3 cables with 3 connecters each and had 9 grams of pins. So about 10 cables for 1 oz.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
My breakdown showed about 6 lbs. of ribbon cable ends = 1 lb. gold pins. I contacted several buyers here on the forum and the highest quote I got was $20 for these pins(some much less). Ebay seems very hit or miss on the pins from what I've seen. Jghilino has a big opportunity to become a buyer for these, with the prices he is getting and the niche market he has found. Something you should consider Jghilino, as I'm not seeing the prices you are getting as realistic for most based on my own pursuit for a gold pin buyer.
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most escrap buyers buy gold plated pins but prices vary wildly so dont get offended by these numbers if you offer less =), $50 per pound for lowgrade to $1,000+ for high end milspec pins.
ribbon connector breakdown for 1 connector, using my jewelers scale, it is so accurate that just the airflow across it will make the numbers change:
connector as is after the ribbon wire has been completely separated properly from the connector: (0.183 ounces / 16) x $2 (connector grade) = 2.28 cents
gold plated pins only: (0.030 ounces / 16) x $50 (gold pin grade)= 9.30 cents
By processing this 1 connector i increased the value of my scrap by 407%, i made it into a much lighter higher yield item that is now profitable to ship and is more desirable to a refiner.
So 533 ribbon cable connectors produce 1 pound of gold plated pins. Definitely not worth breaking down unless you have absolutely nothing else to do. The trick would be to find a way to get the pins out quickly. Ball mill has been suggested but the abrasive action will reduce the quality/yield of the pins.
Last edited by jghilino; 11-27-2012 at 08:14 PM.
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Pm me please if your having trouble moving these at a fair price. You are spot on with your estimate of 6 pounds connectors to yield 1 pound of pins. So basically you are turning $12 into $50 or whatever you get for the pins. I dont sell my pins to any of the buyers on here though. Again as ive said before not all scrap buyers advertise on this forum and im not going to give out my buyers info. I was able to convince my main buyer to join this forum but there alot of refiners/buyers that will not participate in a online forum environment. If they dont want there info to get out or to participate that choice is theres to make and i must respect that if i want too continue to do business with them. The one i was able to get to come here has not given me any referral credit, so there is not any incentive to get them to come here other than to pay the bills to keep this forum running.
I do see pins with alot of non plated metal on them going for $50 plus.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1LB-1-POUND-...p2047675.l2557
Last edited by jghilino; 11-27-2012 at 08:38 PM.
Whoever purchased these is out of their mind if they purchased only for scrap recovery. Anyone who wants to pay that please PM me and I'll keep you stocked for as long as you'd like.
A rule of thumb is 1% of Gold (Au) recovered for every gram of high end pins - pins that are gold plated to Mil-Spec requirements (50u plating thickness [u = micro-inches]). In addition to mil-spec these high end pins are in numerous commercial applications designed for high temperature and heavy corrosion environments. As I'm sure you know anything "older" basically pre-1990 will generally have a thicker plating than current commercial applications.
Note: This is not an end all be all, simply the formula many pin "buyers" use when calculating. Recovery rates can vary based on pin size (mass, surface area, etc; deterioration, and a handful of other things).
Pins/toz Max Buying Price Recovery/g Recovery/toz Au Recovery
14.5833 $168.00 4.536 0.146 $250.29
21.8750 $251.00 6.804 0.219 $375.44
29.1667 $336.00 9.072 0.292 $500.58
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The most i have sold a pound of pins for is $300 and it was not mil-spec.
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Seems majority of people cut off the connectors from the cable, but still appears to be mixed response about pulling pins or not. For those that do not pull pins, what are you selling the ends for and to who? Buyer here, ebay, scrap yard? What kind of pricing are you getting? My local guy is buying all my internal computer wiring for $0.80 lb with or without connectors. I'm not sure I have the time to cut ends and pull pins, so how do you think I would best maximize my profit (without pulling pins)? AJ earlier said he is getting $2+ pound...anyone else find that to be the case?
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Shendog, I cut the connectors off all cables that have gold pins, I do not pull pins because I don't have time. I sell them to a buyer here on the forum, look through the buyers in the buyer/seller section. I get 2.15#, I cut them off with a pair of sissors and can do a plastic tote of ribbon cable in about an hour or less.
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its not worth it to pull the pins on ribbon cables depending on the method you use it could take a full day to get 1 pound, i like floppy drive connectors the best for gold pin yield. I have no problem paying $4 pound for floppy drive connectors that have been removed from the boards properly and dont have much pcb showing around them.
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Not all of the pins from the connectors are fully plated.
We buy electronic scrap, Gold Karat scrap, gold filled, refined gold, silver and many other item's.
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