Serious Board / Pricing discussion

[drozenski]

I want to open up some serious discussion and would like the large buyers on this forum chime in a lot if they could.

I want to bring up what is brought up on this forum more often then anything and that is removing parts from a board to "Maximize" profit.

Sure you can squeek a few extra cents here and a few their but is this hurting the industry as a whole?

Do buyers of circuit boars and other electronic junk now build into their pricing knowing that parts will or can or will be stripped?

While doing this and squeaking a few extra cents are we only hurting ourselves in the long run and other people that don't do this?

Here's an example of what i came across the other day. I had a guy bring over 22 pounds of finger cars. He said the ends were not cut. At first glance they looked like they weren't. Well if i had dumped them into the box i would have not seen what i saw. As i was hand moving them each one had about 1/2 an inch of gold cut off the back. It was a very clean cut to so it was hard to tell. I brought this to his attention and he said he was working on getting clean cut fingers and didn't think if he cut off a small bit rather than the whole thing that it would matter. Well we ended up settling on a price and he said he wont be trying that again unless he cuts the whole finger.

[freonjoe]

In the old days people used to shave and drill gold coins. It got so bad that the US mint had to start reeding the edges of the coins. So there have been scammers for a long time. I think if you don't know the seller well, you have to treat them as suspect until proven otherwise.

[JPete]

Great topic. Clearly needed to address ongoing posts.

[EcoSafe]

great thread: I brought this up to my primary buyer and have posted about this before.

I am a moralist when it comes to business, I am diligent and clean my boards as much as possible with out removing value.

I used to remove the bracket from finger cards, even after being told I didn't have to but still got the same price as those not so diligent after a while I quit doing it and I feel guilty every time I throw one in the box.

I suggested that the buyers do a photo shoot or video of what premium trimmed boards are. and got no response. lets face the facts. me and others that are concerned about the products we send to buyers are subsidizing those who aren't. just like a store, they all charge a premium on every item to cover theft, you pay that so they are forcing you to subsidize the thieves.

in this case we are subsidizing those who are either not properly educated, lazy, or just plain cheats. my .02

[Jeremiah]

Good topic and good comments.

My $0.02.

I think this comes down to developing a good relationship with your buyer. Much of this could be nipped if buyers offered a grading system of each supply we sent them. For example, you send in a box of boards the buyer who sorts them could quickly mark feedback to how they were prepped via a 5-star system. A record of numerous positive feedback could give the buyer an incentive to give us higher per pound prices.

[hobo finds]

olddude people do this with all kinds of scrap. Rocks in cans, fill up hot water tanks before turning them in, plastic in copper tubes. It happens and the price they give covers the cheats and scammers...

[EcoSafe]

hobo I fully understand that as I stated but it is upside down like the world today is what im saying.

the good should not have to pay for the bad, either the good should be rewarded or the bad should be punished. but as the world has learned there is no longer reward or punishment for ones own behavior. it has become accepted to just make all pay, it's easier, but that doesn't make it right.

I would like to see the buyers set a standard like #1 steal prepared, and #1 not prepared

#1 prep e waste and #2 prep. # 2 gets downgraded say, .25 or .50 a LB and that is added to #1 prep.

I understand the problem with volume buyers who sell to bigger volume buyers. my 70 # of good grade stuff gets mixed into 2000 # of not so good grade stuff. when the refiner refines it he is interested only in the end result and pays for that end result.

a while back I tried to get interest in a sellers grading system, so that buyers could know what to count on from a seller and offer prices accordingly. I still think that would be a plus for all concerned.

[BroJer]

great thread: I brought this up to my primary buyer and have posted about this before.

I am a moralist when it comes to business, I am diligent and clean my boards as much as possible with out removing value.

I used to remove the bracket from finger cards, even after being told I didn't have to but still got the same price as those not so diligent after a while I quit doing it and I feel guilty every time I throw one in the box.

I suggested that the buyers do a photo shoot or video of what premium trimmed boards are. and got no response. lets face the facts. me and others that are concerned about the products we send to buyers are subsidizing those who aren't. just like a store, they all charge a premium on every item to cover theft, you pay that so they are forcing you to subsidize the thieves.

in this case we are subsidizing those who are either not properly educated, lazy, or just plain cheats. my .02

Olddude...I still take all of them off. I even sent one of the buyers a breakdown to think about. I do not have my notes but I think it was about 20-25 brackets = lb of steel. (will do it again and post results) how many thousands of those are in a gaylord? and how much better would that pay being refined if it did not have all that steel? would like to have those answers and YES... we who do that, go the extra mile to pull the heat sinks, metal brackets, and batteries, etc... SHOULD get a better price than joe get-r-dun who just tosses it all in and gets the same payout. (rant over) BroJer

[billygoat]

Do buyers of circuit boars and other electronic junk now build into their pricing knowing that parts will or can or will be stripped?

Now there's an interesting question. It will be interesting to see if there is a reply.

I just sent to one of our buyers some medium grade boards that I had received with inductors and small transformers ripped off. I had obtained them for free, and that's the way they came to me. I forgot all about it until you asked that question, and had grouped them with the other medium grade boards. Ugh.

[skylinejack]

From what see the OP of this thread asked 3 direct and serious questions to the buyers of this forum. Only one , freonjoe, (who I think is as honest as the day is long and just real good guy in general) is the only buyer to even respond to drozenski so far. Come on SMF buyers. He wants honest answers to honest questions. Why aren't you all responding to him? Like he said, "Chime in".

[grouchyolddude]

Great question and one I've pondered myself.
I'm pretty new here and new to escrapping. Spent a good number of hours here reading posts and researching both what is 'acceptable' and what is 'preferred'. What/how to be rewarded with the best return. I haven't really found solid answers to many of my wonderings. I've seen a question asked about removing transformers or brackets from some boards, and seen replies like "Why would you do that when you're getting paid by the pound".. I'm another one that would take the extra time to remove specific items if it were rewarded and I knew exactly what was preferred.
I for another would appreciate insight from the buyers. THANKS!

[MattInTheHat]

Great question and one I've pondered myself.
I'm pretty new here and new to escrapping. Spent a good number of hours here reading posts and researching both what is 'acceptable' and what is 'preferred'. What/how to be rewarded with the best return. I haven't really found solid answers to many of my wonderings. I've seen a question asked about removing transformers or brackets from some boards, and seen replies like "Why would you do that when you're getting paid by the pound".. I'm another one that would take the extra time to remove specific items if it were rewarded and I knew exactly what was preferred.
I for another would appreciate insight from the buyers. THANKS!

if you have enough volume, most buyers would probably negotiate a price for extra clean boards or whatever.

[billygoat]

if you have enough volume, most buyers would probably negotiate a price for extra clean boards or whatever.

True as that may be, the "would probably" part still has me mystified. I really wish we could get an across the board answer. Yes, I know I can ask my buyer. But sometimes it can be something I never considered because I just didn't know any different.

Maybe it's just me, but I'm starting to think we won't see any of the buyers piping in on this thread. Nothing against them if they don't; to the contrary I can understand why they might be reluctant to do so.

[Mechanic688]

I've seen a question asked about removing transformers or brackets from some boards, and seen replies like "Why would you do that when you're getting paid by the pound".

I think that answer applies to the low grade boards as there is not any transformers on motherboards and finger cards.

[billygoat]

I've seen that with the higher grade boards as well. The question of "why would you do that when you're getting paid by the pound" was asked by someone who is now "on vacation," and related to both motherboards and finger boards, if I remember correctly.

[EcoSafe]

I think maybe the answer is to have the smaller operations (buyers) chime in here. the problem is most of them are not set up to process things like boards but only premium hi content stuff.

[mikeinreco]

I am a local buyer here in knoxville and I do pay a "premium" for boards that are clean and ready to be shipped.......On some stuff I make as little as 20% (like Mboards) but on other stuff I make much more........Not sure if this helps but there you go

[freonjoe]

I have a 2 tiered price list on motherboards and finger cards. Clean (ready to ship) and dirty. There is a fairly big price difference between the two as there needs to be a penalty for laziness.

[BumpRacerX]

I'll ask the million dollar question. What's the price per pound that you guys would like to see a buyer pay for fingercards without brackets?

[hobo finds]

If everyone is buying them with metal brackets on them Boardsort.com buys Gold Tipped Connector ends by the pound. then they (the buyers) may be able to ship them that way to the end market