e-scrap math: sell whole or part out?

Hi, everyone,

I'm very new to this, so would like some advice. Have any of you crunched the numbers as to whether it makes more sense to sell whole desktop computers, or to part them out? There aren't many e-scrapyards near here (northern Illinois), but one place is paying $0.30/lb. for whole desktop computers, not specifying what type of processor or other equipment they have. I've seen prices/lb. for various processors and other parts, but I don't know how many of each item make a pound.

I'm wondering whether that $0.30/lb. scrap price would be considered attractive enough by the experts here to accept rather than parting out computers and selling that way. Also, I think I'd have to pay shipping charges for boxes of parts to sell, since I can't find any decent places to sell computer parts other than as whole computers.

Thanks!

~Chiselhead

I wouldn't sell whole for that price. I'd buy them for that price if absolutely had to. As a matter of fact, if you will drive them to me in Milwaukee and I'll pay you $0.30 a pound for them if they have all of the components.

By the way, and not to be rude, but please use the search function and search for old topics. This question has been answered many many times. You can find comparisons for anything from whole desktops to floppy drives. This forum is awesome, the knowledge available is endless and the people are great. Welcome!

id definetly let them have the ones with the off color motherboards at that pricing $6-$8 per machine

your looking at maybe $8 per machine right now anyway, basically this saves you labor and shipping costs over parting them yourself

dont let them have any pentium pro's lol

At $0.30 per pound i would sell them whole as well. Not the older machines like jghilino said. I am only paying $0.15 for the ones i get now. That would double my investment with a much quicker turnaround. Guess it all depends on if you have the time and space to break them down, and how you are getting them.

This is an age old question. I would break down every machine and look for more than scrap value stuff. With scrap prices going down you need to look what your doing. Take you average pentium 4 or newer machine. They will usualy have resellable ram hard drive or dvdrw drive. Those items alone would you get $6 at the least from me. Now you get lucky and get a nice cpu 2 sticks of ram and a good size hard drive you could $15 or more for those parts. I tore apart a core 2 machine last week that had a bad power supply that I paid $6 for. Sold the cpu for more than $20. No granted it helps I have the setup to test all of this stuff but you can make good money on newer machines as well if you take the time to sell it yourself or send it my way.

Ill go pull a tower out of my garage today or tomorrow and do a breakdown for you.

But you have one or two big buyers near you around Chicago so you would not have to ship anything.
And they buy a lot more than just computers, they buy other stuff that would help fill a load and pay for the
gas to drive it there. Just take some time and do some research.

Scrap Buyers & Sellers - Scrap Metal Forum

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jghilino

id definetly let them have the ones with the off color motherboards at that pricing $6-$8 per machine

your looking at maybe $8 per machine right now anyway, basically this saves you labor and shipping costs over parting them yourself

dont let them have any pentium pro's lol

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Newer cases with colored boards tend to be lighter. Much thinner tin or even sometime alum. I have come across some that have come in under 20# full of items

Evaluating each machine before selling even if it's a colored board would be better.

Ok here is the breakdown I promised you I would do for you to decide if its worth selling whole or parting out. Ill be using highest scrap prices from buyers here on the forum and my non scrap price for comparison. Your buyer may differ.

1 complete dell 760 weighs in at 24.7 lbs at $.0 per lb your looking at $7.41
http://i41.tinypic.com/2ns1bba.jpg

Now lets tear it apart for scrap value.
http://i40.tinypic.com/jkd1fb.jpg

Case and plastic = 15.4 lbs Local shred price is $150 so that = $1.15
mixed wire is 3.3oz at $.65 per pound = $.13
1 dvdrw drive 23oz at $.14 per pound = $.20
1 case fan 8 oz at $.15 per pound = $.07
1 p4 motherboard 21oz at $2.60 per pound = $3.41
1 core 2 duo 2.8ghz cpu pinless .83oz at $7 per pound = $.36
2 1gb ram sticks .93oz at $12.50 per pound = $.73
1 150gb hard drive 26oz at $1 per pound = $1.62
1 mid grade board 1.2oz at $1 per pound = $.07
1 16oz heatsink at $.40 per pound = $.40
1 power supply 3.3 lbs at $.32 per pound = $1.05


Total pure scrap value = $9.19
so for about 3 to 5 minutes work tearing this particular machine down You gain $1.78

Now lets look at what you could send in for better than scrap value. Ill mark them with * so you can pick them out easy.

Case and plastic = 15.4 lbs Local shred price is $150 so that = $1.15
mixed wire is 3.3oz at $.65 per pound = $.13
* 1 dvdrw drive 23oz at $.14 per pound = $3.00
1 case fan 8 oz at $.15 per pound = $.07
1 p4 motherboard 21oz at $2.60 per pound = $3.41
* 1 core 2 duo 2.8ghz cpu pinless .83oz at $7 per pound = $8.00
* 2 1gb ram sticks .93oz at $12.50 per pound = $4.00
* 1 150gb hard drive 26oz at $1 per pound = $4.00
1 mid grade board 1.2oz at $1 per pound = $.07
1 16oz heatsink at $.40 per pound = $.40
* 1 power supply 3.3 lbs at $.32 per pound = $4.00
* 1 blue dell hard drive caddy = $.50

Total scrap and better than scrap value $28.73

Now lets look at ebay pricing if you want to take the time needed to test, list and everything else you have to do to post stuff on ebay.

Full machine with these specs seem to sell for $100 free shipping so your looking about $70 after shipping and all ebay and paypal fees.

Hope that helps you decide on what is worth tearing down and not. This just shows an example of a newer machine. Every machine is different.

If the computers work, you could always repurpose them as well. When I was in international trade, I used to purchased used laptops, have them refurbished then ship them to Jordan to be sold. I could for example, buy a few hundred laptops from UCLA for around $100 each, spend about $50 each refurbishing them, then ship them to Jordan and get between $300-$500 each depending on which type of laptop they were.

There could be a potential gold mine in repurposed computers if sold in the right market. Another extra expense I didn't have to concern myself about was tariffs because the United States signed it's third free trade agreement with the country of Jordan. So if you plan to repurpose and sell to another country, you might want to look for one that has a free trade agreement, just extra bucks in your pocket.

Scott