Hoard or not??

I've been collecting e-scrap for a while. This week I got 5 pick up loads of computers. It is a big haul for me. I will sell all of the steel, aluminum, copper locally. If cash flow is no issue, should I keep the gold until it goes up, or cash in now? Also, which e-waste buyer on here is most likely to spend some extra time with me to help sort a few things the most profitable way and answer a few questions. Thanks guys.

Please send them in as soon as you can, so that the price will go up the next day

one thing to consider is how much your storage space is worth to you.

will this stuff be in your way?

Do you have a more profitable use of that space?

Everyone's storage situation is different, some people have 10 barns, and some have a few square feet.


I have been shipping it out as soon as I have 70-140lbs, but I just put it to the side if I have other projects right now. when the price goes up, it goes up in priority, otherwise I break down and sort it when I have nothing more important to do.

Sometimes, if I need to get towers out of the way quickly, I will put the boards and drives and put them in bins to be processed latter. That way I can get rid of the bulky shred.

my opinion SELL SELL SELL alot of ppl i deal with are figuring gold will drop to about 1000 in 2014 and as low as 800 in 2015 and im starting to agree with them and the problem is if gold drops the price drops but when gold goes back up its sort of like a two steps forward one step back deal had this happen to me quite a bit gold drop 50 an ouce my scrap got cheaper gold went up 100 an ounce my buyers did not increase they price for me

I am hording the ram and the processors. Also trying to hoard anything that I get for free. The computers that I buy I need to sell quick to make the money back.

Originally Posted by Gravitar

My local buyer told me yesterday that prices are going down, down, down. I would sell right now, before prices drop any more and you lose more money.

I've learned to take, with several grains of salt, anything a buyer tells me about anything he's hoping to buy, as well as what a seller tells me, about anything he's looking to sell ; )

The next bubble isn't popped yet, so prices will still be dropping slowly. Anyone on TV giving gold advice has money in the game hoping you do what they want so they can profit.

Unless you are a collector or hobbyist my advice is to not play the hold game with anything as complicated as commodity prices. Your business model should never change. You should be aiming for a certain profit margin. As your buyers’ prices drop so should your buying prices drop; but the percentage return on investment should remain the same. Look to other avenues to make money or cutting costs.

When I get enough for a load I sell my shred, aluminum, brass, copper and low grade circuit boards and keep the good circuit boards. I have room to store them so I'm in no hurry to sell. I'm making enough from what I am selling to justify the time spent scrapping it.

I don't know much about the stock market but if the price of gold is dropping and a buyer is trying to convince you to sell before it's to late do you really think they are concerned about you losing money or are they only worried about their own back pockets.

No one knows the future
If I did I wouldn't be do this for a living
As a business sell when you have enough material for best pricing, the need for space or $$$$
As a hobby sell when you want to

Just my opinion

Hope you all buy low and sell high

Good luck and happy new year

I think the old adage of "stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime" is a great rule of thumb.

You should be buying at a point that you can make an acceptable profit to you at the current prices. If I had 100# of motherboards to sell it would be worth 240.00 at current prices. If I decided to hoard the boards until prices go up .25 cents, I would only be getting 265.00. This could take months, you never know. It's not worth tying up 240.00 for a few months just to get an extra 25.00. That 240.00 could be used to purchase more computers and allow me to turn them over.

It's a volume business. You should be looking to make a certain percentage of profit. They more you sell the more you make.

I do this as my full time job. Now its at the point that I need to net 10k a month to break even. So my situation is to buy and sell and flip as fast as possible. My margin is the same and there is more material than money out there for me. Most of our situations are the same. Some larger places spend 10k on power a month next to me. The guy dropping off boards or batteries and taking $500 a day from me is keeping most of it. I miss being him. Lol. Recycling has so much $ in it lures you in and omg next thing you know you cant sleep at nite, because your mind is thinking what can I buy next.

Boom a 2008 comes by again and you cant even unload or cats for aftermarket price. Steel is at nothing and copper a dollar. That was 5 years ago. Kitco didnt see that coming so these reports and experts can (bla bla bla). Only thing I keep are items I can retail. Memory, certain cpu, ssd, hard drives, good batteries and unique items you can ebay, retail or cl.

Everything else I buy, sell buy sell. etc. Unless I can build a truck load. Im confused if you guys mean truck load or TL like 44,000. Thats the only difference. If you can keep enough to take a contract or call your buyer and say I have half a load, you have half a load and your contract is going out........ Lets hook up and put them together. I have docks and can do this a lot. Only with a buyer I love trust and have done stupid $$ with or you can get screwed......

New to electronics. All Its Aaron. Love the forum and members.

Olddude, great post . It seems to follow that pattern. Few with power want to keep their power and get stronger at all costs. Id be very mad to see gold go so high. It would bring in so many other people that we would be fighting over it all. That what they want. Raise price, get us all in and drop it. We sell and get sad then they buy it all back and raise. LOL

If gold got so high wouldnt the whole pgm and base metal segment go sky high? I can just see it happening . But I was the guy who thought in 2007 copper was going to 6 bucks and got killed in 2008. Im a buy now sell now make the margin now trader. Why because I cant afford to stock pile and or have that much faith in the markets anymore. As a common man like me.

Aweome insight. Thank you.

Aaron.