Per Pound for Tower

What is the most you would pay per pound for a computer tower?
I had someone call that has pallets of computers. He usually ships them out in a full semi at a time. He said he is getting $0.60 a lb like this.
He is looking for other options so he does not have to store them untill he has a full load. He said he currently has 12 pallets at about 2000lbs each. He would guess about 90% of the computers are complete. The other 10% have the Harddrive removed.

I usually pay $5 a computer if complete like most here. He is not interested in per unit but per pound. Doing the math of the average computer weighting 30lbs it comes out to $0.16 a lb. Assuming I make $15 per unit that comes out to $0.50 a lb.

So two questions
Is he full of it with his $0.60 a pound number?
What is the most you would offer per pound?

Ron, I've been in some scrap yards where they are palletizing the computers and have buyers coming in and buying large lots at .40 per pound and up. I think the .60 is high and would love to find a buyer at that price because I'll just wholesale computers and never take another one apart. Of course its probably an overseas buyer that will only deal in large loads, and they pay more for it. My guess is that some buyers are speculating that the price of precious metals will only go up and choose this as a good investment. Most other types of investments are flat now so it makes sense. You should stick to the $5 per unit price unless there are a lot of obvious indications of higher value (old computers with nice cpu's, or newer computers with resellable parts).

I think he is full of it. 12 pallets x 2000 pounds = 24,000 lbs @$0.60 = 14,400$
You can't touch that price. Unless you are a refiner...Even then...
I would like to know who is buying these at that price..?
I also pay 5$ per computer sometimes 3$...
The yard here pays $0.29 a pound.

.25 cents is the most I would pay for those computers. Offer him .25 and when he says no hand him a card with your name and number and tell him to call you when he changes his mind. I bet with in a few days he'll call and at least make a better offer if not take the .25.

I went out and talked to the guy. He had a warehouse full of Computer, Monitors, Printers...
He showed me what they do. Sort threw the stuff. Daul Core and higher get sold to a reseller. Anything that looks incomplete gets set aside and torn down later. All other computers go on pallets. Monitors go on pallets. Printers go on pallets. Servers go on there own. All the pallets get sold complete to buyers.
He said he currently has 3 buyers at $0.60lb. He gets more than they can handle so he is looking for more. He said would take a little less then $0.60 but do not insult me.
I told him after I broke everything down I would get $0.50 maybe $0.60a lb.
He then offered to buy complete computers from me for $0.45lb as long as I bring in around 2000lbs at a time.
He also said he would pay higher then I am currently getting for MotherBoards, RAM, Harddrives ....
He said he gets better prices becuase he will ship 1000lbs of motherboards 500lbs RAM in at a time. Something about go big or go home.

Originally Posted by olddude

sounds like he needs to be on the foum in the buyes section or is 10,000 sellers too small time for him ?

I think the problem is he does not want to deal with small qty and most people seem to do that.

Not sure if the numbers add up but if I can buy then at $0.10lb and sell to him at $0.45lb It works for me. But right now I do not have 2000lbs of complete towers

I dont claim to have any specific insight here, but I find that when the big boys start overpaying for stuff they have a good reason. Maybe some inside info on the market, or maybe they are in a position to manipulate the market (in their specific region)? I'm not saying you should follow suit, but people dont typically pay top dollar for no good reason. You just need to figure out where you can fit in and make a few $$ along the way.

Sellers like that have buyers that have means to part out/ fix or have means to refine themselves. Remember not everyone is buying oranges like you. Some people are buying apples* (pun intended). In all seriousness, I've learned from a similar situation. The process in which one buys and resells is different from person to person. If youre comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges then there is a profitability ceiling.

More than likely they have found an avenue different than yours as far as resale value.

Originally Posted by jghilino

where are the 3 buyers that pay 60 cents a pound??? i think that is the information we all want to know, would save alot of time on teardowns if i could just sell desktops outright at $18 each

That I could not get out of him. But he did say he had to ship a full semi at a time to get that price.

When you think of it, my yard here pays $0.29 per pound on complete towers. Then they resell it, ship it, what price are they getting? Make 15-20 cents per pound at least...they gotta make it worthwhile.
Otherwise why buy it? I mean all the overhead and expenses.

I am buying complete PCs at $0.35 lb. and laptops at $0.40 and we have a healthy margin factored in. That being said...I don't think $0.60 lb. is too unrealistic, but it does seem a little high.