My first dumb question

the ends are all that's got gold or silver, I think the rest is just copper tracing. I collect what I find of em, but I've never put enough together to look for a buyer.
There are no dumb questions, they're just the easiest ones to answer ; )

Those gray wires are just like heavy ribbon cable wires and most likely no gold connectors, but I still check when pulling them to see if the pins they're connected to are gold, if so the connector probably is too, but most likely just tin

One of my yards classes the ribbon wire as #3 but the #2-3 can have the brass/tin ends left on. The other pays good on both (#2-#3) but wants the ends off. Watcha gonna do.

Its not a dumb question, we don't know either..........

Theres Gold plated ends, Gold on Copper base.
Theres 'Tinned' ends, they look like Silver, but its actually Tin on a Copper base.

Theres a few who say the metal in some may be actually 100% Silver! I wouldn't be suprised.
I also wouldn't be suprised if it was 100% Aluminium.....

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Theres a few questions we need answered about the printer cartridge mylar. The brown plastic mylar thats on the lexmart printer cartridges. And around the printer head on HP printers.

Some, I think, is thick Gold plating over Copper.
When I put it in acid, the Gold didn't just slip off, which would happen if it was plated thinly over Copper.
If its a real thick Gold layer over Copper, it may just cover ALL of the copper, that would stop the acid getting to the Copper & eating out whats under the Gold, letting the thin Gold layer slip off the mylar.
On the other hand, I melted some mylar, then put it in acid, it didn't do much to see, though after that I could peel off the Gold metal foil by hand & tweezers.

Originally Posted by cummins

separate it from your normal number 2 insulated wire and cash it in separate, they will give you a lower wire price normally for ribbon wire. Don't forget to clip the ends with gold plate/pins you'll have to find another buyer most scrap yards I've been two will only give you copper content for the ends even though they are gold...they just don't know what to do with them.

Don't kid yourself, scrap yards know what to do with everything. They are banking that you don't know what to do with them. Put all the ends in your "omg it"s whatever bucket".