Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I know for selling its best to group things together, for example same size pins, however dose it matter for a toll refiner? I estimate in 15 years I will have enough. I keep pins together, gold fingers together and then everything else. I'm just curious if I need to do more that that. I don't want to sort these little tiny things, if I don't have too. Just curious about your experience, I have glanced at gold refiners forum a few times and it dose not seem to matter.
"And if your train's on time, You can get to work by nine, and start your slaving job to get your pay. If you ever get annoyed, Look at me I'm self-employed
I love to work at nothing all day" -BTO
I imagine it'll vary depending on the buyer. Our buyer on the east coast wanted everything separated. I guess it was easier for him to determine weight/value. So, for me, I generally sort it all then ship it all together (separated).
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just throw it all in a box and hope for the best
BUYING ALL COMPUTER SCRAP WORKING OR NOT
CHECK OUT MY BUYERS THREAD http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...nic-scrap.html
https://getjunk.net/Knox-County-TN-0...Recycling.html
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I haven't looked for a buyer yet, but I have 6 different gold jars:
-Gold Pins
-Gold fingers
-Gold plated circuit board trimmings
-Gold plated cards (dish network cards, sim cards)
-Gold IC chips
-SD cards, SD adapter cards, any other random gold plated items.
I also am wondering if this is what buyers want or not? Or if I could combine some of these? For now this is how I will do it until I am ready to sell at least.
Keeper of the Cooler!
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I do as Parker does. I keep them separate. I know what my fella likes, as we've talked about it. For him it's easier to do it this way, an it makes sense to me. If I was him an opened a box to a mess of pins, fingers, etc not separated, I'd want to smack me like I'm sure he would want to.
I already did it that way, but asking confirmed it. No sense in sending him a hodepodge for him to sort out. That's time he could be using to refine!
An if it helps.. I sort mine like so..
Fingers
Pins
Gold plated items like audio inputs/outputs an various other funky things
Cards from cells I throw in with my Sat. cards, for trimming before sending when I'm ready to.
Cell phone boards.
LNB boards two groups - Silver and Gold.
SD Cards an others like it
I will separate the gold eproms on phones, an other things, at some point.
I also pluck what MLCC's I can off. Usually not many as they can be very small.
Anything I don't have a group for, I make it up as I go. Mason jars are great for holding the smaller items. An I have various size containers for all the rest.
Sirscrapalot - Goal - A jar full of MLCC's an TA caps. reality - It's not full yet.
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I would not spend 15 years working on a single transaction.
I don’t like all my eggs in the same basket.
Those who refine know the material you collect better than you.
I keep lots of categories and sub-categories. This allows for multiple transactions with multiple buyers (if necessary). I can send out lower grade material and see the results without sacrificing the “mother lode”.
Pins – with solder/partial plating/complete plating no solder/full plate minimal plastic (attached wire insulation)/3.5” floppy drive pins/etc.
If you make a complex organizational representation of your available product, no one has the option of discounting your years of work in one transaction.
Fingers – single sided/pre 2000/post 2000/80’s/70’s!!!.
Learn your product better than refiners know there mixes. Play with the law of averages. I understand the desire to get the metals you have saved, but throwing it all together and hoping for the best is a gamble I would avoid.
I had been setting pre 1997 motherboards to the side for several years. I felt they were worth more than the mixed motherboard pricing my buyer was offering. Now they have been priced at a higher grade, because they are less available, and I must decide my new course of action.
As you learn to grade/organize your product(s), you may find certain things do better on ebay, or with a locale refiner, or through a forum buyer, or refine yourself, etc. Categories give options. Bulk could lead to heartbreak.
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I refine some of my own material and I like to refine uniform material. Ram fingers seperate from finger card fingers. Cell boards seperate from lcd boards etc. It also helps me to know what to expect as far as yields on a specific weight of a specific item.
Also keep in mind that refiners can refine the same materials using different processes. Some processes are faster than others and not all refiners refine the same way.
Whether selling material or having it toll refined keep it seperated. Also weigh your material prior to shipping. If having it toll refined write down all your weights and make a copy of it. Include the copy in your package. Ask for what weight your refiner comes up with prior to anything being processed. Agree on the weight and procede from there. If you are dealing with large amounts I would recommend some sort of written agreement spelling out the % that the refiner is going to take as well as a reasonable time frame for getting the job done.
The best advice I can give someone who wants material refined toll or otherwise is to do your homework!!!! Speak to your refiner and ask questions before sending any material. I would also head over to grf and find some of the, for lack of a better word, horror stories where people have been burned and material stolen because people did not do their homework before sending material.
I am by no means an expert, but if anyone needs further info you can send me a pm and I will try to help you get answers to your questions.
PS- it is also worth your while to learn the difference between grams, penny weight, ounces and troy ounces. If you know how many grams are in a troy ounce and how many grams are in a penny weight you will never get the wool pulled over your eyes when buying, selling or having precious metals refined.
Last edited by BRASSCATCHER; 03-18-2014 at 02:08 AM.
I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.” John Wayne-- The Shootist
NEWBS READ THIS THREAD ABOUT REFINING!!!!
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/off-t...ning-read.html
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Hey scrap if you are pulling MLCCs the bigger ones have a higher probability to have the PMs in them. Or you can do what I do and buy them by the reel and roll the dice.Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot
Sirscrapalot - Goal - A jar full of MLCC's an TA caps. reality - It's not full yet.
Eric
I buy Tantalum Capacitors and offer other services. Check out my thread for more info.
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...-cap-more.html
http://recycletantalumcapacitors.com/
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Good post Brass also remember that your expectations are not always going to come true. most of the scrap out there is junk. you may think it looks good but most is thinly plated or plated over heavy base metals.
I have people all the time ask me what something is worth and I do my best to tell them. Its all just math, a set of calipers and a calculator you can come close to Au content. Also people forget that you are here to make you money to and they believe that they should make all the money for sourcing material.
Eric
Keeper of the Cooler!
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E.. awesome to know. I always pluck the fat ones off the boards I save if I can. My goal when the weather gets warmer is to go the sand bath route, an collect them all!
An totally agree on that the toll refiner must get his share. Just like in anything else. They provide a service an should get paid accordingly. As I like to say..I'd rather visit the buffet multiple times, an eat over a good long period, an leave some for others. Better then going in eating everything an leaving nothing for the next guy. Upset stomach an feelings, never profitable. They have costs, an time isn't free as we all know.
I for one appreciate the service, an will always make sure they are taken care of. No different then anything else. Do me right, an I'll do you right. Simple just the way I like it. On the recovery part..I go by the saying.."Plan for the worse, hope for the best."
Good info.
Sirscrapalot - There we were in the middle of a sexual revolution wearing clothes that guaranteed we wouldn't get laid. - Dennis Leary
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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thank you for all the replys and info. I live in very rural South Dakota and I mostly process my low grade boards and pins when its too cold to play outside. I tend to be a little bit of a hoarder when it comes to PMs and coins so when I say 15 years its more because I enjoy collecting them. I have never sold a silver coin and have more brass trinkets than an antique store. That being said, fingers, eproms, cpus and the like all get sold to my ewaste guy. I plan on putting together a sand bath set up once I get my foundry finished and my charcoal still tweaked, so hopefully that will speed up the process. I will definitely sort more thoroughly now. Thank you all for your advice.
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