E-Scrapping Lower Bucks County (Philly area)

[bubba64]

I've been selling e-scrap on ebay for years. However, due to a very, very, very bad buyer, and ebay siding with him, I dropped my ebay account. I did find a scrapper near me who's offering .20/lb for computer towers. I normally tear them down, but my employer let me take all of the old equipment out. I have about 20 full size desktops, which I decided to just scrap as is without tearing them down. I also took 7 servers, but 5 of those I'm going to install linux on them and put them on craigslist for $50 a piece, beats scrapping them.

Anyway, does .20/lb. sound good for a whole desktop? I know I can make more by tearing them down, but I have a full time job, and not enough free time it seems anymore. As I said before, I usually tear them down one at a time, but 20 pc's will take me a while to take apart, and it's getting cold outside to boot. If it was still a bit warmer, I'd be out there with my tools for sure.

Another scrapper closer to me is only offering .10/lb. Good news is the outfit offering more, isn't that far of a drive to take fuel into account.



Thanks,
Brian

[HipoGear]

If you don't have the time or place to break them yourself, then yeah, twenty cents a pound is decent.
The case and power supply is where most of the weight is anyhow. You would only get about 3 cents per pound for the case right now and about 20 cents/lb for the power supply.

[matador]

That sounds like a good price to me for complete towers. That said, if they don't need them to be complete, I'd pull the RAM. I can do it less than 1 minute per machine, and RAM is paying $10 a pound.

[bubba64]

Thanks for the replies everyone

[ItAllAddsUp]

That 611 Metals paying .20 lb?

[bubba64]

That 611 Metals paying .20 lb?

No, it was Sullivan's, but I was disappointed when I got there, it was only .15 lb., and the website stated .20. I should've called, but it was still more than DelVal's .10. I had about 20 desktops, 7 servers, a trash can full of power supplies, a recycling can full of low grade pc boards (mostly telco), and a tote of motherboards from a previous scrap. I didn't factor in fuel, but it was only a 30 minute drive and it was midday, so not a lot of traffic. I still made out ok, and was pretty happy with the total. The setup was good there, and the guys working there were pretty helpful. Still not happy about the price difference, but I should've called ahead.

[Mechanic688]

Bubba, I'm buying them up from my contact at .12 a lb. Still making some money breaking them all the way down. Tried to sell a couple of XP custom case computers on C.L. but no bites so far. I'm thinking about stripping one down and just selling the case. Leave the 400 power supply in along with the wiring. You'd think someone would want something like this cheap to put their good parts into. I forgot to mention that the 2 fans in the side are LED fans. Bling bling.

[bcrepurposing]

I have put customs togeather in much worse than them. you should be able to get that out of them

[matador]

I think someone will go for the cases, but they have to be close to you (This may just be a Wyoming problem)

I can order a new Rosewill case (Love the Redbone, by the way) for $30 shipped. I can't go too far to pick one up.

That one isn't, but check for name brand power supplies. Builders love Corsair, Cooler Master, Antec, ....

[gus4113]

im always leary about buying computers for scrap off people because they do take out ram and cpu's out and your left with a mobo and power supply...not much....i live in the northeast Bubba so if you ever run into any thing and you dont feel like dealing with it let me know and we can work something out..ive been to sullivans too...thanks..gusoreo35@gmail.com

[Mechanic688]

im always leary about buying computers for scrap off people because they do take out ram and cpu's out and your left with a mobo and power supply...not much....i live in the northeast Bubba so if you ever run into any thing and you dont feel like dealing with it let me know and we can work something out..ive been to sullivans too...thanks..gusoreo35@gmail.com

That's why I buy at .10-.12 a lb.

[gus4113]

where is a good place to get escrap Mech686?....schools and business here hire professional companies...craigslist they want 25$ for junk and curbco it takes a small miracle or lucky timing to get something...the city wont pick them up anyway so they people must hide them in trash...any ideas. ? thanks

[Mechanic688]

Gus, We started out with a lot of networking at yard sales, hit the usual computer repair shops also. Catch the community yard sales as there's not much driving and the sales are close together. The people are easy to approach as their outside and it's not like cold calling. Just hand them a "business" card and a quick explanation of what you do or take. I lucked into this deal as Ind. passed that law where no electronics were supposed to go to the landfill. Ind. did not give the trash companies a viable option for recycling and doing their part. I approached a family owned trash service and offered to buy their computer related components thereby allowing them to be compliant.

I buy the computers and satellite receivers from them but single items from individuals I no longer pay for.
I still get a call occasionally from the original networking (see above) and I have one or two people that own businesses that I get calls from still.
One of my repeats the man buys and liquidates businesses and I'll get a call to haul off old inventory out of the offices.