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Has anyone done an analysis of the profit/loss of breaking cell phones for the boards vs shipping in complete less battery?
Looks like if i ship complete a good price from venders here is 6.25 I've found other vendors not on the forum currently paying $10.25 to $15.20 for clean boards.
Cleaning the phones would be best deal. I am buying the sell phone boards right now at $9.00 a pound as a test run since we refined a batch not that long ago and it came back good. Once we get this next batch down our pricing may up go alot higher. But if you have a good amount of of cellphone boards send me a pm/e-mail and I will give you an offer on them. Weight with me means I will pay more.Quote:
Originally Posted by jaydee1445
Talking to a cell repair guy tomorrow about boards, I can get agressive on buying them and may have a good load when you get your next results.
I am new to e scrap and find it enjoyable just to collect. I am looking for a buyer and I like your prices. Do you have a minimum shipment weight requirment? My collection is small at the moment but growing daily.
A lot depends on how much time you have. For me, the profit is not big enough for the amount of time. If you have the time then it may be worth it.
I just know I got what I thought was a pretty good deal with my first load of cell phones selling 60 pounds at 6 bucks/pound. Now I smile every time I throw another cell phone in the bin!
im gonna shop around for a bit but i will PM you if needed as i have Hundreds of Boards that i were getting $15lb but the guy came up missing ??? ( number went dead and no more replys to my emails ) either way nice to meet you ill PM if needed thanks
I'm suprised mechanic has not jumped in here but this has been gone over time and time again.....If you break down the phones you lose money....There is no way around it.....THe only phones you should break down are the old brick phones which most buyers will not accept....I do not claim to be an expert but we have run the numbers on this several times and breaking down cell phones is a losing proposition
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/elect...tml#post109299
selling the phones whole without the back and battery was the better bang for the buck on the batch of flip phones i had
12-13 phones = 2 pounds
it would have taken 35 boards from the same phones to make 1 pound
Selling them whole is the only way to go. the time it takes and the weight you get never adds up to a profit.
If your buyer was baying $15.00 he was hardly making any money either.
Eric
cell phone boards produce trimmings that sell for $60 for finger grade to $120 for double sided continuous plated
At 16.00/lb for the boards you should come out quite well breaking them down if you have quantity . i personally dont but am thrilled when my customers do it and bring it in ...
Beating your self over the head is not productive. Sell the phones and if a cell phone company sells you the boards they did all the work. If they give you the phones you shouldent do the work.
AmenQuote:
Originally Posted by ddelatorre14
Are these special phones? I have a few blackberries floating around my van that I have no clue where to sell.
It all depends on your markets. I pay a little less than some of the other buyers on here on cell phones and I work close on those margins yet I pay over $16.00 for the boards and make a larger margin. Thats what makes this business what it is and why you will see so many scrap yards right next to each other in the same city. Each buys everything yet has one or two items that they specialize in (that and zoning laws lol)...Quote:
Originally Posted by etack
It's been a while since I had to ask a ? and I'm hoping since the topic is cell boards this will fall under the category. What grade are cordless phone boards; not speaking of the base but the handset. The boards are very similar and in most cases more populated and also contains the plating. I haven't seen anyone buying them broken down or whole. If someone could give me their 2cents on the matter I would greatly appreciate it.
We recently changed our pricing to make it much more attractive for suppliers to NOT even take out the backs and batteries. Save yourself the time and effort of taking out the back and battery, let alone stripping the phone down. We are paying $5.90 a pound for complete phones with backs and batteries. Most companies are not paying that without the backs and batteries.
Don't forget you can sell them for higher then scrap also depending on the phone. One of our buyers here pays more then scrap for them, depending on make/model, etc. An then there is always Ebay. That is of course smart phones, an not the non-smart. I even think some Blackberries are on there. Mine typically go to a buyer or Ebay/CL.
I didn't get many at first, but that is now changing. Friends and folks in my networking bubble now know i take them, and they are passing on their old ones to me, as they replace them/break them..lol. Picked up 2 iphones and a android from a buddy who runs a pawnshop the other day. One of his customers herd me and him talking and brought them in for me.
I usually don't break down the flips, did one once for giggles. Now I only break them down if a. Bored, b. New type I haven't broken down yet, or c. It pisses me off and I take a sledge to it. :)
Either way, good luck with it, no matter which option you choose. Long as its worth it to YOU it's a win.
Sirscrapalot - Life would be more fun if you could whack stupid people like a whack-a-mole game.
the only reason you should break down a cell phone in my opinion is to recover gold bearing material otherwise sell them and skip all the work. if someone will pay good prices for whole phones which most of is plastic then by all means make some money and get some more scrap with the time you save. Sirscrapalot has it right the newer smart phones will bring a much better price as resell or salvage prices although if you are going after gold bearing material these phones have a lot more in them then the cheaper old phones in most cases. As far as profit/loss to whole phones or boards lets look at a single phone. single phone with battery is about 1/10 of a pound at $6.25/lb = 62.5 cents a phone and a single board about 2/100 of a pound at your high price of $15.20 a lb = 30 cents a board. so as you can see breaking down a cell phone for any reason other than gold recovery is a losing endeavor! if you are looking to make good money put the smart phones on ebay or sell them at the machine at the mall these will bring you the best prices! all others dont even bother to open them up just sell them by the pound unless you are curious or mad sirscrapsalot hehehe!