Computer Towers - Page 2

Thanks everyone for all the input. I’m definitely going to break them down. Testing / putting computers together is definitely not my wheel house - I know that’s an excuse & I could learn - but I think I need to get rid of the parts as is. And Logistically - I can’t really work on these outside of the storage unit they’re sitting in.

Pull the ram, finger cards and any i series processors. Sell the rest as 80% complete towers. I think you mentioned getting $.20 which is not the best but not too bad. I am getting $.25 for my 80% complete units.

Every i series processor is going to be at least $10 and on up to around $140 for a 4th gen i7 on ebay and they sell quick. Anything newer than 4th gen I would try to get the CPU working. 2gb pc3 and larger ram is going to have resale value, scrap the rest.

Unless you come across a graphics card that looks real nice then look it up on ebay but GPU prices are down and u probably aren't going to find newer GPUs anyway.

Older towers with ceramic processors be sure to pull those from the tower along with the i series stuff.

$6 a pound for board and cpu is stupid high. I could easily ship cross country for half that price. If that is a legit price than I need your buyers info. Message me please.

Originally Posted by SKWrapper

umm... yeah about that 5-6$ a lb for motherboards. I think I am doing too many things at once - sorry, I try not to be an idiot.

It's still not bad tho' at 3$/lb.

Here's what I had that day - the ferrous was all server cases and rack rails, except some little stuff leftover in the backyard and a neighbor across the street had a dryer without the cord.

2 tickets, one for the little scale and one for the vehicle scale (ferrous)

Man I gotta find somewhere around me to pay those prices. The places by me pay $1/lb for mother boards, and .20/lb for harddrives

Originally Posted by SKWrapper

Around here it's 6$/lb for motherboards with processors - so I pull it all apart if it's older than 4 years - all I have ever scrapped.

I'm around there too. What generation of processors are required?

Originally Posted by kss

Man I gotta find somewhere around me to pay those prices. The places by me pay $1/lb for mother boards, and .20/lb for harddrives

Have you checked out Gorven's post about buying hard drives in the Scrap Buyers and Sellers sub-forum?

Originally Posted by eRecycled

Have you checked out Gorven's post about buying hard drives in the Scrap Buyers and Sellers sub-forum?

I have not but will right now. I can sell the hard-drives without boards for $0.20/lb which is pretty good, to my local place, powersupplies with wires for $0.30/lb and dvd/cd drives for $0.10/lb. So I sell those locally, but they are buying all motherboards and ram and finger cards at $1/lb.

For the prices and the amount I have, I dont think it will work out profit wise to ship anything but ram and cpus. everything else does not have a $/lb price point good enough to pay for the shipping I havent found.... unless you have pallet load quanities... which i do not unfortunately.

I've been shipping & selling to one of the more prominent buyers here for awhile. Pretty happy with the returns & customer service. The buyer arranges for pick up and shipping through his FedEx account and then deducts it from the payout. The whole process is pretty smooth.

You might look into it kss. I'm shipping 68 lb boxes all the way from Maine and the numbers work.

Just so happens that the buyer is in your neck of the woods. Your shipping costs would probably be much lower than mine.

<sigh> I wish i could. I'm on an island just off the coast of Maine. There's a causeway over to to the mainland so we're not completely isolated but it's pretty remote.I'm not getting much volume these days. It might be 1/3 of what it was a few years ago ?

Towers are all but played out now. I get a few laptops here and there and the rest are the micro devices like tablets & phones.

You know how it is ... you have to change and adapt with the times. It's especially so in such a lean business environment.

You have to capitalize the few opportunities that come your way to the max. I've gotten pretty good at the better than scrap option. Just one unit will yield more than an entire 68lb box of scrap. I started buying copper wire locally and i'm gradually building the equipment to process it efficiently.Also picked up a 14 yo heavy duty 3/4 ton pickup truck for a grand last winter. It's only got 40,000 original miles on it. I got it cheap because it's got some complicated electronics issues that the locals can't deal with. Other than that ... it's in fairly good shape for it's age.It should be ready for the road by the end of summer.

Gawd ... i'm so grateful for what i've learned from doing ewaste for the last five years. Also very grateful for this forum and the people here.

For me: The technical knowledge gained has been worth far more than what little i made from scrapping.

Originally Posted by hills

I've been shipping & selling to one of the more prominent buyers here for awhile. Pretty happy with the returns & customer service. The buyer arranges for pick up and shipping through his FedEx account and then deducts it from the payout. The whole process is pretty smooth.

You might look into it kss. I'm shipping 68 lb boxes all the way from Maine and the numbers work.

Just so happens that the buyer is in your neck of the woods. Your shipping costs would probably be much lower than mine.

I had considered doing flat rate boxes, which you can load up to 70lbs from USPS, for $19-ish. But even that comes out to $0.27/lb for shipping so anything less that that obviously isnt worth doing in those boxes, plus they are not massive, even the largest ones, so I cant fit more than a few pounds of boards in before its filled up, making it not worth it to ship. How in my neck of the woods is he? Where is he located I wouldnt mind filling up my car and driving a few hours. I figure a tank of gas will be cheaper than shipping an equal amount by a significant bit.

< shrugs > Ahh ... it's no big deal really.

The way i see it ... you've got your gross profit and your net profit after expense. Ewaste is a volume business. Shipping costs are a significant business expense. If you are a small timer like myself, your operating costs are going to be high and net profit low. That's just the reality of the situation.

As i said before ... this ain't about the money. The knowledge gained is priceless. That's my real profit.

I can't play favorites and recommend one buyer over another here on the open forum. That wouldn't be fair to everybody.

Instead: Could you go over to the scrap buyers thread and check out the Ewaste buyers ? I know of at least a couple that are based one state over from you in Ohio.

I would advise against making a special trip with anything less than a pickup truck load. The real cost of running a vehicle these days is probably around 50 cents a mile. That figures the real costs of wear & tear, depreciation, repairs, fuel, insurance,taxes, and so on. (It's just shipping cost in another form without even figuring in the value of your time.) It would be so easy to tip your business into the red without ever realizing it. You gotta figure these things into the mix when you're running your numbers ... ya know ?