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I tried out a new yard a couple months ago - decent prices, but it's 30 miles away. It's out in the middle of a quarry in the country. My other option is driving to downtown Austin - also 30 miles away. Prices are better in downtown, but I hate having to go into the city.

Anyway, my first trip was small - about 150 pounds of shred (mainly empty computer towers) and 10 pounds of aluminum (mainly cans) - $20 in my pocket. Second trip was a bit bigger - mainly the same stuff, just more of it - $40 in my pocket. This time I ask them to put up a flyer saying I buy computers with a price list with little tear offs on the bottom. I figured that would be for the other scrappers coming in. Basic prices - $5/tower, $4/laptop, up to $10/server. Told them I would buy from the yard at twice shred price.

Last Thursday I get a call from the yard - they've got some computer stuff they've set aside for me. A few computers, a couple of servers and a couple of laptops and some power supplies. They don't know much about it, just called because I have a flyer in the office. Not really expecting much, I tell them I can be there Saturday morning and will take a look at it. He says no problem, he'll have it laying under a tarp on a couple of pallets when I get there.

I figure I'll shell out maybe $50 for everything, unless it's already been picked over. Something tells me though to bring more - so I pull a couple hundred out of the bank and head over there. Whole family wants to go - wife, son, daughter. It's always nice to involve everyone.

I get out there and get rid of $15 in shred (down to $180/ton). Carl points at the tarp - it's much bigger than I expected. I pull the tarp off - 4 big, old rack mount servers (dual P3s), one big desktop server that I haven't opened, 5 desktops, 4 old laptops, and 28 APC battery backups. When Carl said power supplies, I was expecting a box of laptop power supply cords - not UPSs. Then, in various boxes, about half a gaylord of circuit boards - everything from bare green to bare blue boards with nothing but trace, to full boards brand new in the box in static bags. There's some emulator boards (emulating what I don't know - they're just labeled emulator). Most of the removable ICs have been removed, but there's still plenty.

Carl says they want $0.25/lb, I counter with $0.22/lb and he accepts. I proceed to load the back of the mini van with 820 pounds of this stuff. I left behind a box of printers and another box of DVD and VCR players, along with boxes of plastic parts. I also passed on the adding machines. $190 later, I'm moving low and slow back home with all the goodies.

All this from just one little flyer at a place I had only made two trips to.

Where do you live? I used to live in San Marcos and there is a yard there, if that's closer for you.

Cedar Park/Leander

I would stay with the yard you got all this stuff frome, bring all your scrap to this yard for a while and see what happens this could turn out to be a good source of e-waste. Congrats. on the pick up and good luck.

Nice pickup. + 1 on happys advice.

Yeah, it's a win/win for both of us. They buy it the first time for shred, I pay them twice as much, then bring back everything except the circuit boards, batteries, and copper. They essentially get the metal for free. I've got an e-waste yard 3 miles away that gets all the stuff I keep from the first yard. We'll see how long this can keep going - hopefully it's going to be a great summer.