Got my first load

Well Im getting into Electronics recycling now hard core and am driving to pick up some computers on monday.

I got

15 regular PCs
2 Laptops
3 Large Servers

Im paying $3-4 each for them figuring Ill make $10-15 per unit. Am I paying the right amount for them? I figure around $70 for the load, and I am traveling 35 miles to pick them up. I was actually going to be up near there anyway so gas wasnt an issue.


Hopefully all of them fit into my saturn 4 door when I take the passenger and rear seats out.



Now should I make a bill of sale with the serial numbers of each machine or not worth it in this situation?

I'm intrigued to find out how you do. Many places in/near detroit tell you to throw them into steel piles... I have never gotten much from them even when I strip 'em! Metal by metal, bits of steel, some aluminum heat sinks, insulated copper. Hell, the payoff I've seen out of a tv (copper, alum) would probably be about $1-7/ pc after being stripped. When copper was 3.30/lb. Then again, this is my first move back into scrapping in two years except for the occasional roadside appliance. Are you planning on selling the computers for use? Or parts?

From what you are saying Bgregory I hope you aren't throwing out the most valuable pieces like processors, ram and motherboards. Shipping those to a buyer on here would make you a lot more money than in the shred pile at your scrapyard.

Originally Posted by Craasher

From what you are saying Bgregory I hope you aren't throwing out the most valuable pieces like processors, ram and motherboards. Shipping those to a buyer on here would make you a lot more money than in the shred pile at your scrapyard.

Sounds like he is. And I bet they do tell you to throw them in shred so they can go get them out after you leave. The steel, heat sinks and copper is the least valuable parts

You dont have to have a place in Detroit that pays you for them ship them to a buyer on here. You will make tons more money on them that letting them go into shred. These prices I'll quote for comparison aren't exact but say you get $4 / lb for motherboards and it costs you .38/lb to ship them to a buyer you still make $3.62 a lb. If your throwing them into shred for say .8 you would make $3.54/lb more by shipping them.

Alright so I got some break down numbers as a first timer at this sort of thing and so far it looks like I should make a small profit.

20 computers broken down as I kept the 5 laptops, 1 server, and a motherboard/cpu. paid $80 for everything which was a steal.

20 computers =

233LBs of Steel at 5 to 10 cents/LBs pending day = $18.10
052LBs of Electric Motors at 30 cents/LBs = $15.60
008LBs of Aluminum Heatsinks at 60 cents/LBs = $4.80
003LBs of #3 Ins Copper at 35 cents/LBs = $1.05
004LBs of Radiators/Heatsinks at $1.25/LBs = $5.00
003LBs of #2 Ins Copper at 75 cents/LBs = $2.25
---------------------------------------------------------------
TOTAL = 46.80 before boards

As of now, the boards, memory, and CPUs weigh 39.7LBs according to the USPS digital scale. I also have another 15 or so HDDs weighing in roughly 2LBs each. So I figure another $30 for the HDDs and whatever the boards bring in. With all the CPUs and Memory, if the rest can average $4/LBs, that would be an additional $160.

So my estimate from 18 regular desktops + 2 Smaller Servers = about $236. Minus the initial cost and about $10 in gas plus Im going to guess around $20 shipping deduction it will leave me with a profit of about $126. Not to bad for 5 hours total work including pickup and dismantling.

Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

I can help you make a little more profit if there are hard drives over 40gb. Check out my current prices on my signiture links.

Most were 30GB and under. The 3 80GB & 1 1TB drives I am keeping for backups.

Will keep you in mind for the 40GB ones though if I get any.