People buy CPUs because of their perceived value most times, not because of their actual value.
To this day I still meet people who swear up and down a Pentium Pro has 1+ grams of gold in them, when the truth is far different.
Another thing to consider is that gold coins, nuggets or even the "gold drops" as they are called, and which are really just melted metal like gold plated pins, can all be faked. It's far more difficult to fake a CPU and the gold it contains, so in an odd way it sort of is more secure than other forms of gold you can purchase.
I have a bunch of Gold Nuggets I have been selling on ebay, and although I get a premium above spot prices, it's still slow selling them. If I put up gold plated pins or CPUs, I can sell them by tomorrow with a better profit margin. As a refiner, it sometimes puts me in an awkward position where I have to choose between selling material for more than what I can refine it for, or conducting myself within the "noble" principles I want to be known for.
I don't see anything really wrong selling things for more than their actual value though when it comes to precious metals, for one reason the value changes all the time and for another, people are collecting them for the perceived value, and not the actual value.
Scott
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