Out of all the elements of e-scrap I think gold ends are probably the most difficult to explain. We get multiple questions on them each day and many times there is no easy answer to the whole thing. I tell most people to avoid keyboard and mouse connections because they are rarely gold plated. Your older style printer cables are almost always gold and when you get into higher end computers, like for the gamers, you will even find gold plated ends on power supply cables but those are pretty rare.
I honestly do wish that there was an iron clad list that could be provided but there are so many factors that have to be considered.
P.S.- Power cords are not gold plated, they are brass....I usually add this to all communications when dealing with customer questions. The brass gets a little dull in color and can resemble gold in poor lighting situations. I can't count the number of times that I have received a package with hundreds of power cord ends just to tell the customer that they have sent the wrong stuff. I still buy them but for no where near the price of gold ends. Our local yard buys them as dirty brass so they are worth a little bit of money.
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