Satellite Reciever Board grade?

[jghilino]

theres a wide variety of pricing for midgrade, its probably pretty low right now considering where metals are, these boards are not worth shipping if you have to eat the shipping costs

[wannabescrapper]

It's been quite a few years now. Any more news on these? I have a bunch of sat receivers and cable boxes and am wondering what the best options are. I am thinking to pull as much copper, heat sinks, brass off of the boards and keeping them for when we have someone buying ewaste, if they are worth holding on to. This is an example of the boards. https://img.whaleshares.io/wls-img/w...c5a6a94d19.png

Would this be considered midgrade after the clunky stuff was removed?

[miked]

The best answers for the question "is this worth shipping" for me has been send a photo to my intended buyer and get a price. Also be fully informed on current shipping costs. By planning your shipment you can decide if you should ship now or later. Being a small scraper I tend to save up ewaste until I can fill a pallet or two which saves huge amounts on shipping. With the lower cost of shipping I have been able to include items that would not make sense to ship without the much lower shipping. Best of luck 73, Mike

[CopperMiner]

Cable / Satellite boxes as a whole is about Cdn 20¢ / lb at my neck of the woods. If you remove the boards from the boxes, Boardsort said on their forums that they buy them as pheriphral boards @ USD 1.25 / lb

[CopperMiner]

Cable / Satellite boxes as a whole is about Cdn 20¢ / lb at my neck of the woods. If you remove the boards from the boxes, Boardsort said on their forums that they buy them as pheriphral boards @ USD 1.25 / lb

Not sure it is really cost-effective to ship them down to the U.S., but I forget to mention that I've got a new local buyer for circuit boards. The issue is they don't pay much. It would buy them between 20¢ and 50¢ per pound.

[hills]

I think i've been getting mid grade high for mine. I remove the co-ax & RCA connectors along with as much other junk on the board that's easy to remove.

If you've got 120 VAC changing to 12 VDC happening on the board it's a good idea snip off that section with sheet metal cutters.

Send along the highest quality boards you can and shipping costs don't take as much of a bite out of the total payout.

[CopperMiner]

Today I talked to the prospect board buyer I mentioned earlier this week and he seems very picky about what he actually buys (vs what's on his buy price list - local, but cheap prices too). I guess that I'll continue to search a good board buyer in the Great White North to get good prices and low shipping costs (aka dreaming in colours?).

[miked]

I'm not joking when I recommend you might want to be a buyer. Like everything else it will take time and money but with the repeated questions from Canadians on the forum looking for buyers of ewaste. No doubt the margins will be small but it could be a big deal for you. 73, Mike

[hills]

I don't know if it's true or not ... but i read somewhere that 18 wheeler truck loads of circuit boards are shipped from the US to Canada for processing every year. It seems that it was somehow related to the copper mining industry up North. Processing the boards isn't terribly different from processing copper ore.

The copper yields are about the same per ton ?

The precious metals that are recovered are more like the icing on the cake ?

[JJinLV]

I don't know if it's true or not ... but i read somewhere that 18 wheeler truck loads of circuit boards are shipped from the US to Canada for processing every year. It seems that it was somehow related to the copper mining industry up North. Processing the boards isn't terribly different from processing copper ore.

The copper yields are about the same per ton ?

The precious metals that are recovered are more like the icing on the cake ?

Copper yields per pound of (non-low grade) circuit board about 30%. So if someone buys telecom boards at $6/lb and clean #2 copper is around $3.60/lb then the copper content amounts to about $1.19 of that value. Often the precious metals in circuit board refining are the cake and the copper is the icing!

[hills]

That's true enough.

One would think that low grade power supply boards would have more copper per pound but very little in the way of precious metals.

I suppose the math would be different for every kind of board that you're looking to refine.

[JJinLV]

That's true enough.

One would think that low grade power supply boards would have more copper per pound but very little in the way of precious metals.

I suppose the math would be different for every kind of board that you're looking to refine.

In just the board itself the average is about the same. But the transformers, heatsinks, big capacitors, steel and such dominate the weight and reduce the /lb copper recovery.

[hills]

It's true that there's more junk on the board. It's a hard call because you get copper wound ferrites and copper in the transformers. There's a lot of solder and that has value.

All in all though .... i've got to hand it to the refiners. I would imagine that the actual yields are something they mostly keep to themselves. They probably do allright if their refining process is good.

[CopperMiner]

The thing about the board recycling up North is true. I used to live where that copper smelter is located. By the way, they have an arsenic issue over there since they recycle PCBs.

About the comments on starting buying ewaste in Canada, I am not sure if it was addressed to me, but it has stuck my mind since. The opportunity is interesting, but I also wonder why the niche is developed in the U.S., but almost not existent in Canada. The margins must be very tight or someone would have already done it before. The computer breakers (the ones who buy electronics by the pallet or the full building floor), public ewaste recovery programs and the few scrap yards who buy them must have some kind of buyers for the boards, I guess that they don't just resell them to refurbishers / rebuilders or ship them away in the third world. Also, every now and then, there's someone who claim to buy boards to recover gold, then they disappear in the fog. If I can be willing to buy PCBs, I am not very interested to refine myself. That means, I need to find a commercial location, transportation and someone to resell them in large volume. Not sure the smelter in up North is buying them or just taking them for free and pay themselves with recovered metals and if I resell in the U.S., profits will be reduced by higher shipping costs and paperwork at the border. Lots of questions to figure out.

[JJinLV]

The thing about the board recycling up North is true. I used to live where that copper smelter is located. By the way, they have an arsenic issue over there since they recycle PCBs.

About the comments on starting buying ewaste in Canada, I am not sure if it was addressed to me, but it has stuck my mind since. The opportunity is interesting, but I also wonder why the niche is developed in the U.S., but almost not existent in Canada. The margins must be very tight or someone would have already done it before. The computer breakers (the ones who buy electronics by the pallet or the full building floor), public ewaste recovery programs and the few scrap yards who buy them must have some kind of buyers for the boards, I guess that they don't just resell them to refurbishers / rebuilders or ship them away in the third world. Also, every now and then, there's someone who claim to buy boards to recover gold, then they disappear in the fog. If I can be willing to buy PCBs, I am not very interested to refine myself. That means, I need to find a commercial location, transportation and someone to resell them in large volume. Not sure the smelter in up North is buying them or just taking them for free and pay themselves with recovered metals and if I resell in the U.S., profits will be reduced by higher shipping costs and paperwork at the border. Lots of questions to figure out.

The largest ewaste refinery in North America is in Quebec. When you mentioned earlier full truckloads crossing the border, they go to Glencore. If a town as big as Montreal truly doesn't have much in the way for ewaste recycling it could be a big opportunity.

[hills]

They say that timing is everything though. The best time to jump in would have been twenty or thirty years ago when resources were plentiful and competition was scarce.

You must have noticed .... the electronics manufacturers have gotten really good at doing more with less over the years. The boards are much smaller these days. Everything is smaller.

Nearly as i can tell ... the electronics recycling industry hit it's peak awhile ago. It might not be a good choice to invest in an industry that is past it's prime. Over the long term ... the only way to go is down ?

Jee ... how many e-waste members have we lost here over the last seven years ? Much respect to those who have survived. Those are the rare few.

[CopperMiner]

For your information, I spoke again today to the ewaste buyer I mentioned earlier. He doesn't ship ewaste to the States, but it doesn't sell to the smelter neither. He gotta go by a wholesale buyer, because it seems that smelters require full truckloads to do business with. It is a commercial buyer and they consider him too small for them. That confirm two points. First of all, getting a 53ft truckload of PCBs is A LOT(this is at least 26 gaylords). In that context, one has no choice to resell them to a consolidator, unless you can build your truckload by buying inventory from other buyers / scrap yards. Secondly, that confirms that at least one low profile Canadian ewaste buyer connected to the smelters exists somewhere. Finally, ewaste is not what it used to, but it also seem hard to see where I can get a profitable space in the niche in that context.

[JJinLV]

For your information, I spoke again today to the ewaste buyer I mentioned earlier. He doesn't ship ewaste to the States, but it doesn't sell to the smelter neither. He gotta go by a wholesale buyer, because it seems that smelters require full truckloads to do business with. It is a commercial buyer and they consider him too small for them. That confirm two points. First of all, getting a 53ft truckload of PCBs is A LOT(this is at least 26 gaylords). In that context, one has no choice to resell them to a consolidator, unless you can build your truckload by buying inventory from other buyers / scrap yards. Secondly, that confirms that at least one low profile Canadian ewaste buyer connected to the smelters exists somewhere. Finally, ewaste is not what it used to, but it also seem hard to see where I can get a profitable space in the niche in that context.

The basic idea is developing a clientele that will provide recyclable electronics consistently, having space to accumulate gaylords of commodities and, most importantly, fixing? upgrading and reselling enough electronics and components that you are not under pressure to sell your scrap until you have sufficient volume to sellto the refinery. If you want to go that way I mean. It's a consistently successful model that is not dependent upon scrap values. Full scrap gaylords you might source elsewhere are a bonus, not the bedrock which is greater than scrap value sales.

[aurum]

For your information, I spoke again today to the ewaste buyer I mentioned earlier. He doesn't ship ewaste to the States, but it doesn't sell to the smelter neither. He gotta go by a wholesale buyer, because it seems that smelters require full truckloads to do business with. It is a commercial buyer and they consider him too small for them. That confirm two points. First of all, getting a 53ft truckload of PCBs is A LOT(this is at least 26 gaylords). In that context, one has no choice to resell them to a consolidator, unless you can build your truckload by buying inventory from other buyers / scrap yards. Secondly, that confirms that at least one low profile Canadian ewaste buyer connected to the smelters exists somewhere. Finally, ewaste is not what it used to, but it also seem hard to see where I can get a profitable space in the niche in that context.

There are buyers for ewaste in Canada, prices are very competitive, more or less same as in US. However the volumes required are bigger than for the US buyers that advertise here. You need to send 3-4-5,000 lbs at a time on a somewhat regular basis, otherwise they are not even interested. They are not really geared up to buy from general public, and prices are not advertised. They in turn ship the big loads to the smelters/refiners. Also payment is 30 to 60 days.