As a refiner I have noticed a shift in just the last few months in the scrap market for smaller lots.
I am very lucky in that I have more scrap coming in than I can currently process. The excess material I sell on ebay in small lots. The reason I do this is because I have noticed a huge number of new people who are hobby refiners. It seems like there are a lot of people who are just learning how to refine, and doing so purely as an interest and not as a business. What this means is that they are looking for smaller lots, and willing to pay closer to the actual value rather than beating scrappers up over pricing.
This is just a suggestion, but I promise you that if you do this, you will make double your investment with very little work involved. Not that I am promoting laziness, I am not, my intent is to help you make a profit off your first investment so that you can keep growing your business.
Put your material up on ebay in small lots. If you have around a lb of your CPU's put them up all together, if not. if you have more than a couple lbs, put them up in lots around a lb, and sell them separately. All you have to do is search on ebay, to see what any individual type of material is selling for currently. Or if you are willing to put in the time, look at the history of gold prices, find a similar time frame then limit your google search to look for past ebay auctions during that time period. In any case, if you are smart about it, put up small lots, you are going to at the very least double your money.
Another suggestion is to wait until after the first of the year when gold prices start going up again. Gold is down about $50.00 compared to just a few weeks ago. When gold falls, people expect a much larger discount that isn't really in relation to the price of gold falling, but rather the fear it will further fall. If you watch the gold markets, and read the precious metal trends you will better know when you put your scrap up for auction. In doing so you will make a better profit, honestly. This is what I do, and it works perfect for me. I literally figure out and track this type of information, and have over a few years now. And not to toot my own horn, I'm not about self promotion honestly and I don't want to give the wrong impression, but I have over 1,000 ebay sales in scrap and have never made less than twice my investment on any given type of material I sell, with the exception of gold pins.
Scott
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