Pentium Pro's for $30 each?

Buyers pricing is right close to actual value on the Pros. There has been a lot of talk on the GRF about actual yields.

Pentium pros have a yield of approx 0.33 grams of gold...someone is going to be seriously pissed when they get the return. I have to rethink ebaying the 6 I have if they are going for $30 each.

There has been a lot of discussion on GRF about the yields on Pentium Pros, but the prices people are willing to pay, compared to actual value are way way off.

I have literally processed hundreds and hundreds of Pentium Pros. I have processed all the different years they were made, the different caches, the different places they were manufactured and I can say without too much variance that the average yield is .33 grams. I have even gone so far as to process them in different ways, precipitate them in different ways, and the last lot I ran I actually did extraction with butyl diglyme with oxalic acid reduction. It seems however that no matter how many people process and post the actual yield data people who don't refine always believe their is more gold in Pentium Pros than their actually is. I also believe that it's because there are several places on the internet that have posted incorrect yield data. I am going to give an example of these incorrect yield data sheets so that when people come across them, they know they are wrong. I want to make this clear, these next sites are not correct, they are totally wrong.

I AM USING ALL CAPS ON PURPOSE TO MAKE SURE ANYONE WHO CLICKS THE FOLLOWING LINKS UNDERSTANDS THE INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE YIELD OF PENTIUM PROS IS WRONG, INCORRECT, AND SHOULD NOT BE USED TO GAUGE ACTUAL YIELD DATA.

THIS INFORMATION IS INCORRECT AND IS BEING OFFERED AS AN EXAMPLE OF INCORRECT INFORMATION: CPU Gold Content | OzCopper

THIS INFORMATION IS INCORRECT AND IS BEING OFFERED AS AN EXAMPLE OF INCORRECT INFORMATION: Gold Content List in CPU Chips

THIS INFORMATION IS INCORRECT AND IS BEING OFFERED AS AN EXAMPLE OF INCORRECT INFORMATION: Pentium Pro | scrap metal forum

So when the poor soul that is looking for the yield data, the actual gold content contained in Pentium Pros comes across these seemingly professional documents, they take them for their word and figure, according to this incorrect yield data, that there is actually around $50 worth of gold in Pentium Pros. Many times they also figure that it is more difficult to fake a Pentium Pro than it is to fake a gold bar, gold bars can be drilled out and filled with lead, or it could also be a lead bar that has been gold clad so when scanned by XRF it still reads as 24k gold. Pentium Pros would be far more difficult to fake.

If you thought you could purchase something worth $50 for $30 you might jump at the chance like the people who bid on these Pentium Pro auctions.

It's the old adage, if it seems to good to be true, it is.

Even on GRF where this has probably been discussed more than any other single place on the internet, there is still a lot of people posting incorrect information, claiming to have processed Pentium Pros and claiming all kinds of numbers. I myself thought the first time I ran Pentium Pros I had yield information that was far more than what there actually is. I made the mistake of not refining far enough out of dirty solution, and did not have access to XRF to check my yield data. It wasn't until I did a fire assay that I realized that my yield data was incorrect. This is because there were metals that were pulled down during the precipitation of the gold out of solution. Pentium Pros have other metals involved that will precipitate with the gold at the same time, unlike other ceramic cpus. If you do not know how to properly process, recover and refine Pentium Pros your yield data will be incorrect.

For whatever my word might be worth, there is only .33 grams on average of 99.95+ fine gold contained in each Pentium Pro.

I have been guilty of selling Pentium Pros on ebay in the past, before I understood the real yield of gold. Now that I know better, I don't sell them on ebay unless I post a buy it now price. I know that seems counterproductive, and I know some people will think that not selling them for as much as I can make sounds crazy, but as a refiner I feel I need to go the extra mile to conduct myself with honesty and integrity because so many large refiners conduct themselves otherwise. There was a post recently where someone posted that they think of refiners the same as they think of lawyers and politicians, and although that is offensive to me personally, I can understand why they feel that way. When dealing with gold, people start acting in ways they might otherwise not, refiners are especially guilty of this, specially when they have employees who think nothing of lifting a gold chain or picking the beads out of slag. Specially when the loss is chalked up to melt loss.

When selling on ebay, it's rare that items that contain gold sell for their actual value, but rather their perceived value. A scrapper who doesn't mind selling their items for more than their actual value could do very well for themselves if they choose carefully what items they sell on ebay. I don't agree with this personally, but I don't judge people who do this. In the end it's the buyers responsibility to make sure they are not paying more than the actual value for an item. But if someone is selling Pentium Pros and claiming there is 1 gram of gold per each, I believe that is wrong and those particular people should be banned from selling on ebay.

Scott

Originally Posted by NWOdrudge

but don't make people feel like they are doing something illegal for selling scrap for more than you are willing to pay!

I wasn't trying to make anyone feel they were doing anything illegal by selling Pentium Pros for more than their value, matter of fact I went out of my way to say the exact opposite:

Originally Posted by NobleMetalWorks

When selling on ebay, it's rare that items that contain gold sell for their actual value, but rather their perceived value. A scrapper who doesn't mind selling their items for more than their actual value could do very well for themselves if they choose carefully what items they sell on ebay. I don't agree with this personally, but I don't judge people who do this. In the end it's the buyers responsibility to make sure they are not paying more than the actual value for an item.

What I do feel is wrong is what I stated above:

Originally Posted by NobleMetalWorks

But if someone is selling Pentium Pros and claiming there is 1 gram of gold per each, I believe that is wrong and those particular people should be banned from selling on ebay.

So I want to be crystal clear about what I said because it seems that I was taken the wrong way. I don't judge people for making as much as they can off an auction they post on ebay, unless they post information that is wrong, and they do so knowing that it is wrong information. The reason I say this is because I have seen posts where the people posting posted incorrect information, and did so with full knowledge that the information was wrong. I'm not going to say who, but I can tell you there is one who posts from time to time on this very forum.

When I purchase equipment and even supplies, I try to trade precious metals for goods and services as often as possible. I prefer doing business this way to be honest. However, when you go to a grocery store, the only form of money they will accept is paper money, or credit/debit. In that cause what we are talking about are two totally different things that have no relation to each other.

Thanks for giving me the chance to clear up my post, I certainly do not want what I wrote to be taken in the way you took it, because that's not what I think and feel. I hope this clears my post up.

Scott

Originally Posted by NewbyScrapper

Pentium Pro cpus have been going for staggeringly ridiclous prices for years.
As both you and Nobel have stated, the yeild is far less than most buyers realise.

If I had 6 of those Pros, I'd be auctioning them pronto. Make hay while the sun shines

I know but they go so nice with the 386 and 486 chips that I hate to break up the family.

That depends on what exactly you are relating the value to. If you are asking what the value is in gold, yes, it's about $17.00 USD each at the current spot pricess. If you are talking about what people are willing to pay for them? That is whatever the current perceived value might be. I have seen them sell for as much as $45.00 USD each, and I personally buy them from a few scrappers in my area for $10 each. So you can see what people are willing to pay varies greatly.

Scott

"truth is irrelevant to an individual, their perception of truth, 'IS' their truth". mcw 1980s

Originally Posted by unknownk

I think I read grocery store profits are like 1%. So nobody is going to open a new one unless they are the only one in town (and can jack prices up).

During boom times everybody in the food chain takes a cut , once things level off then the top squeezes the middle who then squeezes the bottom. You will find regulations for scrapping are being done so the top end can weed out the middle/casual guys and keep their cut. Heck someday the local cities will make laws so that all scrap metals MUST be turned in to get recycled at the local city scrap shop so they can keep the profits, would stop those idiots who take manhole covers and utility lines from making a buck atleast.

It's almost like we are going through a period of time where everything is being concentrated in the hands of a few. Like medieval Britain, where land was concentrated in ever fewer hands until you had wealthy lords who owned the lands, and poor peasants who worked it. The difference in the US is that it's corporations that are concentrating the smaller businesses into larger businesses, and making us all employees. It's only when the average American owns the majority of businesses in the form of small businesses, that we concentrate power with the common people. I really believe this.

Scott