New to e-scrap...Possible opportunity here

I am new to e-scrap and would like to give it a shot. I didn't even know until about a week ago that computers were worth more than low-grade breakage (18 cents/lb). Boy do I feel sheepish. Well, look past the past and move on.

I am a senior at my high school and we got brand new computers about 2 years ago. In the back storage room, there are about 80 computer desktop units stacked against the wall. There are also several laptops and some old servers. I talked to our technician and expressed interest in purchasing them to process them as e-scrap. He seemed surprised that I would be willing to pay for them, but said he would talk to some people. I told him that if he just wanted them gone, I could take them for free, but that was my bad because I already said I'd pay. :s Oh well, you live and learn. Always offer free removal first, I suppose.

Well anyway. these computers are small Pentium 4 units. They have either one or two (can't remember) 512 ram sticks, an aluminum top AMD processor, a hard drive (unless they removed them), a floppy drive, and obviously a CD drive, mother board, and Power supply. After reading up, I see ram goes for about $15/lb and AU AMD processors are about $30/lb. Motherboards are what, like $4.50/lb? As for the hard drives, I would remove the boards, which go for I believe $12/lb. The platters I will sell on eBay and the rest will be AU. But now, my question, what, if any, processing shall I do on the power supplies, floppy drives, and CD-rom drives? And what is the max that you would pay for a lot like this?

Is this a good find? Or am I just being dumb again? I would rather know now and not end up being able to get them rather than assuming I'm hitting a gold mine, buying them, and then realizing I screwed up.



-Jeremy
"Can I scrap it?"

I pay up to $5 each for systems like the ones you describe. As for the power supplies many people sell them whole either to an escrap buyer or to a yard, sometimes as copper motors. I personally take the time to pop them open and pull out all the wire, copper donuts, motors and sometimes the aluminum if it is easily grabbed. The rest goes with the steel cases to the scrap yard for shred.

CD drives are easy, 4 screws on the back come off to reveal a high grade board that goes on the motherboard pile, the rest goes on the shred pile. There are tiny light weight motors in them that some people will take the time to tear out but for the prices I get for motors I don't worry about them since they weigh so little.

Floppy drives sometimes have high grade boards in them and if they do I'll pull them off, but if the board is low grade I'll snap the gold plated pins off and usually the rest goes to shred. Sometimes if the floppy drive looks to be made of cast aluminum I'll set it aside and break it down.

Also know that there are many gold plated connectors in computer wire. All the IDE/EIDE cords inside (the flat ribbon wire) can be cut apart. The connector ends go into my gold plated connector pile that sells for about $2.50/lb. and the ribbon wire goes into my low grade wire pile. The rest of the internal wire (all the rainbow colored wires, etc) go into my mid-grade wire pile.

Also keep in mind that if they are pentium 4 units they probably have pentium 4 chips, one of the least valuable processors at about $6-$8/lb.

Other advice: Look up all the components on eBay, you'll find that some parts may have resale value above scrap value. If the computers have plastic panels on the side that have Windows COA code stickers you can sometimes get a couple dollars each for these on eBay. Definately plan on taking the steel shells to a scrap yard since often times you can recoop up to half of what you paid for them just by scrapping the metal frames when you are all done. You don't have to have a truck, I can fit over 30 computer shells in my Toyota Corolla. Good luck!

Thanks for the tip man! I will keep that in mind.

Originally Posted by CanIScrapIt

Thank you very much for the information!

Okay, so THAT'S how you sort wire. 3 grades of shielded wire? I was always so confused about that.

$5 is also what I've heard, I will try to stay around $2 or $3. They are pentium 4 chips but they are the ones with AU tops...aren't those $30/lb or am I mistaken?


Thank you!

Edit: Oh and also, my scrap yard buys any computer components, torn apart or not, as low grade breakage, about 2x shred pile value at about .18-.21/lb. I suppose instead of shredding the power supplies and drives w/o boards, I can get a little extra for them.

Sweet deal on the yard buying components as breakage.... I would kill for something like that, would definately up my bottom line a lot. I'd still pull the copper out of the power supplies I've found some supplies have single copper/ferrite 'donuts' that have over a 1/4 of copper on them. Rip em out with pliers, two whacks with a hammer and all the copper is free and the ferrite goes into the shred pile.

When it comes to wire each yard is different... my yard has three grades and they pay out based on copper yield. IDE cables are low grade, 30% recovery so I keep those seperate and get about $.45/lb. Power cords, and the rainbow colored computer wire all goes in the middle category 55% recovery which I get about $.95/lb. My yard classifies high yield as 85% of weight being copper and there isn't any of that in computers. I'd just keep them seperate then take them in different bins to make sure.

I've been accumulating them and havn't sold any yet but I believe one of the larger escrap buyers is currently paying $8/lb for the P4 chips.

Yeah, now that I think of that, that is a very good deal. That is pretty much how my yard does it, I believe.

Thanks

The P4 chips might be the lowest price processor per lb but they are also one of the heaviest common processors at close to 40g which gives them a value of $0.70 each at $8lb.

Consider going back to your yard and see if you can buy towers from them. I would be glad to pay $5 each if I could return each week and get a regular supply. Best of luck with the school computer, Mike.

harrisvh-
Good point, and thank you for the direct figure! That helps a lot in estimates.

miked-
Good idea, but I don't know. The people at my yard are jerks, for the most part, and probably would blow me off. I will ask though.


Thanks!

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

I also pay from 2 to 5 each for computers depending if their whole or have been picked apart. You have a couple of good buyers just south of you just East of Cleveland. Save everything computer related (except for shells/carcasses) and when you get enough just make a roadtrip. I might make one more trip before Christmas. Also save cable boxes and satellite receivers, (pull the circuit boards). PM me for more info,,

I'm just east of Cleveland. Which yards out here buy e-waste?

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

BoardSort.com
34300 Lakeland Blvd Suite 5
Eastlake, OH 44095
http://boardsort.com/

and

http://www.cashforcomputerscrap.com/
That is Ewasted here on the forum

I will give this a try. Been saving for a little bit not sure exactly the name of some of this stuff but I am learning

I'm seeking some more information on this topic. If I wanted to specialize in computer scrap and place adds in various oulets that "We buy computers", what could help me create a pricing plan?

For example, a person calls me and says , "how much will you pay for my old broken laptop and printer"?--Say, they live 15 miles from my home?

I'm sure I could give them a better estimate if I knew what type of laptop they had and the specs of it, but I'm betting that the customer I'm talking to over the phone will just know that it is a "Dell" and nothing more.

Does anyone know of any additional articles, posts, etc that might help me with creating a pricing plan?

yeah there is a whole section on this forum for escrap. read it.
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/forum...nics-Recycling