How not to buy motherboards

Today I had a call from a semi-professional scrapper that should serve as a cautionary tale for everyone that buys their material. She called our company looking "to get as much cash as possible for 8-10,000 lbs of motherboards." I paused for a second to wipe the drool off of my mouth and asked her what she was hoping to get for them, the response was $4.50/lb.

I'll wait a second while all of the e-scrap buyers on this forum stop laughing.

I gently asked her how much she had paid for the boards, and her response was $4.00/lb ($32k+). When I asked what she had based the pricing off of, she replied with one word: eBay. To make matters worse, these were all newer, lower yield and Chinese boards. Needless to say, I did not jump on this deal.



Even as a buyer, I never purchase large quantities of high-value material without having a locked-in price. Always get a current quote before laying out enough cash to buy a new car, and never base high volume deals off of eBay.

Happy scrapping,

I can't believe this lady dropped $32,000 into something she obviously knew nothing about. I get nervous over $500 when it's something I DO know about.

There ain't no fixin' stoopid. With 2 Os

Originally Posted by camdaddy

hey,what would be the best place online to sell motherboards 150lbs and up and what per lb so many sites vary in price whats your opinion also i would like a place that pays for shipping

Here you go, the good and ?? Ewasted and I think Easyrecycle help with the shipping. Scrap Buyers & Sellers

my cleaning lady said my husand says there is 8 dollars worth of gold plus some silver in every cell phone LMAO , I replied why did mine only cost 4.99? her husband runs a pawn shop no wonder stuff just sits there!

Several months ago we used to get the same emails over and over of 40,000lb + ongoing loads of motherboards... everybody was trying to make a buck on it. It was a whole load of chinese boards before the word really got out about them. I am sure someone bought them, but they easily lost $3.00+/lb.... if this business were that easy, everyone would do it

She should deal directly with the refiners with that kind of weight.

Originally Posted by KZBell

She should deal directly with the refiners with that kind of weight.

Yeah, with that kinda weight, I'm sure she could get her money back plus make a little (unless the boards are all newer colored, them I'm not certain).

Bump Racer-

They were all newer boards. I spoke with two of the refiners that I have used, their statement was "you would be taking a big leap of faith if you buy them at over $4.00/lb." I don't make leaps of faith with my business. Additionally, the woman with the boards told me that she could keep the cash tied up for the length of time it takes to get a check from a refiner.