Quote Originally Posted by rbrooks715 View Post
I was asking what refiners/buyers pay compared to the actual spot value of gold. Same thing I would do if I took a 14k ring in to sell. I'd want to know what percentage of spot I was getting. Shady guys try to get around the question - good ones tell you exactly. <<

not a good analogy. karat material is governed. which does not always mean that you are getting true karat value when it was manufactured. 14 k is usually 13.5 not 14. ( i have seen it lower.) i would agree that the average person would not be aware of that. you are not the average person. so you would know. ergo, you would know what your return should be. and what the value should be in relation to what you were being offered or what an assay showed for return.

plating requirements for electronics are not held to those same standards. plating requirements are set by the client and the manufacturer, who may or may not strictly adhere to them. depends on how good there quality control was on that day. or that run. while a certain cpu or circuit board has an average, that is all it is. an average. and the average can vary considerably. which means that your question is not a black and white answer. at least as far as a determined set value between comparable items.

it is more comparable to sterling silver. regardless of the hallmark, depending on where the item was manufactured and when, it can run from a true % of 80% to 95%. big difference.

electronics are the same way. with a few exceptions. military, nasa, etc. but those items make up a very small amount of the total ewaste being recycled.



shady guys just keep asking the same question in different forms hoping someone will just hand them a cheat sheet.

what were the recovered amounts you received from those telecom boards?
Good info - thanks - you are right. I guess I can get a ballpark (and that's all I wanted) by taking the actual gold content of a given CPU, determine how many CPUs in a pounds, compare that to what some of the buyers are offering to pay per pounds and then from this I can determine what percentage of actual gold content they are paying to the seller. Once I do this I'll post it here. Not exact of course but it will be a good rule of thumb for some, for me at least.

It's been a long while re: the telcom boards. Gold was at around $300 and I was getting upwards of $20 a pound as I recall. Some was made back in the early 70s, some in late 70s and early 80s. Gold plating on this stuff was much thicker than it is on today's electronics but it varied a lot as well. Amazing was the thickness of gold plate on attenuators - big chunks of brass weighing 1/2 pound or so. I removed the plate from this myself using a cell I put together after reading and corresponding with both C.W. Ammen and George Gadja. I'm guessing again but I think I was getting an ounce of gold for every 40 or so attentuators. Those days are gone, but maybe not in some of the very expensive military stuff - too much competition there for me.