Filing cabinets and e-waste (newbie)

I am going to have a near unlimited supply of filing cabinets that I am going to scrap
each month. I am trying to find out how much I am going to get for these (average). A few times a year there is an auction and guys come in and pay 30-90$ per cabinet. I can't imagine why someone would pay $90 for an old filing cabinet. Most do not sell for this much, usually about 30 dollars or so. Is there really that much value in these things or am I missing something? I am pretty confidant that everyone buying is doing so for scrap. What should I look for in cabinets and what makes one more valuable than another? Is there a particular types of magnets I should get to determine different steels?



What about e-waste? I am going to get a near endless supply of old towers hard drives and boxes of motherboards and processors. I know how to remove all the chips but what should I expect to get and what about using on of the online brokers for this? What about the rare earth magnets on the hard drives, is there a value to them? If so where do you send them?

Cheers and thanks

First off...Welcome to SMF...

I wouldn't want to pay much for filing cabinets as they're big, bulky and fill up your truck and/or trailer quickly. Not to discourage you from buying them, you just don't want to spend too much. As far as different magnets...I have one. If it sticks, it's steel (or cast iron). It will sell for shred price. In my area, that is about $205 per ton right now. You should call your local yard(s) to get a current price.

As far as the filing cabinets thats too much to make money on.

For the e-waste look for a local buyer or look in the buyer/seller section here.

Scrap Buyers & Sellers

as for the magnets, you'll just need one for steel, and one for copper

some guys were recently discussing cabinets in their resale stuff. I believe the general concensus was for keeping one or two around, for the occasional sale, but scrapping the rest

I haul a lot of files. It's going to depend on what kind you have. You are going to get paid by weight so thats something you'll have to figure out by experiencing it.

* on a side note I would like to share something with you. Make sure you never try to scrap a fireproof file. First of all they are extremely expensive and you should resell them. Secondly they are extremely heavy, you'll know one when you feel it, the lateral type run in the 7 to 800 pound range. Fireking is a common brand. The scrapyards usually won't take them. Their weight comes from being filled with concrete, which is what makes them fireproof.

dont know if you have used office furniture warehouses where you live, we have one here and i can usually make a quick buck on stuff like that selling to those guys. If you are doing ewaste you may want to keep a few to store any better then scrap items, i have a few full of power cables, SATA cables, high end power supplies, ect... that i trade to some of the local techs for their junk. And more then one small filing cabintet around here as been turned into a tool/parts box