I've found that you can make more money reselling functioning tv remotes than you can scrapping them specially the remotes from higher quality televisions. some do have gold contact and some will have gold bonding around a single IC but most dont. Recently stumbled upon a hoard of several thousand remotes that I picked up from a former cable employee. I was reluctant to go get them at first but then he showed me a sample of the remotes he scrapped himself and next thing you know it I'm the new owner of the remote control hoard.
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