Basic E-scrap Prices and Values

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I am going to do something with this article that many people want to charge for. I am going to give a rundown of what the different parts of e-scrap are worth and the prices that you can expect when you are selling them.

It was a tremendous pain in the neck for me when I would start searching the net trying to find the price breakdowns of e-scrap. Every link I would click on would take me to another page that wanted me to pay a monthly fee to see this coveted information. I think it is high time that we just end the secrecy and get on with life.

Alright so let’s get right to it.

E-scrap prices are broken down to the basic parts of most electronics. When scraping electronics it is important to separate everything but they all have different values.

For standard motherboards and slot boards (video cards, sound cards, etc) the standard price is $3.80 per pound. It does not take long to build up a rather hefty sum of cash considering how much one motherboard weighs.

Mid-Grade Boards, such as those that are found in CD/DVD drives, printers and so on sell for around $1.00 per pound. They do have some precious metal on them but it is far less than the motherboard or slot boards.

Low Grade Boards or brown boards (because only one side is green and the other is brown) are the lowest in the circuit board scrap area. They sell for .50 per pound maximum and have very low quantities of precious metals.

Hard drive boards are a bit different. They are referred to as logic boards and they sell for $9.00 per pound or more.

Ram goes even higher in the price range. Ram from older computers does not contain gold but has silver contacts. Refiners buy Ram as mixed memory and the standard price is $13.00 per pound.

Now for the processors or CPUs. The prices vary depending on the processor. Some processors are insanely valuable such as the old 386 and 486 units that will sell for $110.00 per pound. The higher the grade the higher the value.

However, there are the old Pentium II slot processors that are sold for $11.00 per pound as they are more similar to Ram than to processors themselves.

Hard drive platters vary in price depending on how they are sold. They can go as high as $9.00 per pound when sold on eBay but usually they go a bit lower depending on who is bidding.

So, that should give you an idea of the money that can be made through e-scrap. I have seen some forum posts on the internet from people that claim there is no money to be made in e-scrap. Well with the above prices and a little hard work it is easy to see that there is some serious cash to be made.

The Dangers of DIY Gold Refining and Recovery

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Electronic scrap is a highly lucrative market for those that have the drive and desire to succeed. However, there are some dangers involved for those that attempt to take things to the next level and recover and refine the gold and other precious metals themselves.

If you start researching this topic you will find that there are plenty of people out there saying how easy it can be to recover and refine the gold at home. I, for one, think that this is irresponsible and dangerous to say the least.

All over the internet on sites like eBay and so on there are people selling DIY kits and plans for gold recovery and refining. If you read through the listings these people talk about how they are able to refine X amount of gold and make a fortune, yada, yada.

Well one question springs to mind: If they are making so much money then why are they selling DIY kits rather than refining the gold?

The fact of the matter is that refining and recovering gold from electronic scrap is dangerous and should be left to the professionals that have the proper equipment and knowledge to complete the process.

Many of the “at home” methods that you will find on the net make use of dangerous acids and other chemicals that are deadly if inhaled or spilled and the idea that you can use them in your garage in a safe manner is ludicrous.

There are more than enough places out there that are willing to buy gold bearing material for a nice price which will keep you safe.

Furthermore, there are many laws that govern the use of these chemicals and simply using them in your garage or basement can get you into a lot of trouble with the law.

I should point out that there are some places on the net selling actual gold recovery and refining equipment that is safe to use. However, the cost is prohibitive as the systems, without the necessary chemicals, run into the thousands of dollars.

So for safety sake I recommend that you stick with selling the gold bearing materials to a refiner and be happy with the price that you are getting for the materials.