How not to buy motherboards

Originally Posted by HLH&R Metals Recycling

Today I had a call from a semi-professional scrapper that should serve as a cautionary tale for everyone that buys their material. She called our company looking "to get as much cash as possible for 8-10,000 lbs of motherboards." I paused for a second to wipe the drool off of my mouth and asked her what she was hoping to get for them, the response was $4.50/lb.

I'll wait a second while all of the e-scrap buyers on this forum stop laughing.

I gently asked her how much she had paid for the boards, and her response was $4.00/lb ($32k+). When I asked what she had based the pricing off of, she replied with one word: eBay. To make matters worse, these were all newer, lower yield and Chinese boards. Needless to say, I did not jump on this deal.



Even as a buyer, I never purchase large quantities of high-value material without having a locked-in price. Always get a current quote before laying out enough cash to buy a new car, and never base high volume deals off of eBay.

Happy scrapping,

She is "semi professional" and went out on a 32K flyer based off the ebay market prices?.......That's going to sting a bit. Only the truly crazy would drop that kind of scratch on a deal with no legit buyer involved and committed. I would say the pool of "semi professionals" is going to quickly lose a member. Offer her 25% and wait for a phone call.