How to approach scrap yard on E-Waste

Well I recently dived into the E-Waste recycling area and have been scavenging towers up lately. When I brought in the cases and other stuff to my local scrap yard I seen several hundred towers just sitting in the corner.

I find out the pay 3 cents per LBs for E-Scrap. Seeing as how they label it E-scrap on the tickets I am assuming they know somewhat on the value of these things. Most are Pentium 3s or older and I seen some Pentium 1 Machines.

Now should I see if the company is willing to sell them per computer/LBs?

-OR-

I could try a mass advertising campaign in our town to undercut them and perhaps outbid their prices.



What would you do in this situation? Whenever I see scrappers in the yard, I tell them that I buy them outright but up until now I didnt have cards. Should I try setting up a retail location near the yard or just keep it a small operation with free pickup?

Lol im sure they do pay 3 cents a pound for computers, i would too if i could get them that cheap. Thats less than $1 each. I buy complete computers for $5 each and do quite well on them. Im sure if you make them a fair offer they will be glad to part with some. Tell them you will bring the cases back after you disassemble them.

Yea, I just got done emailing the Director of Sales at the yard. I asked if he would be interested in selling per unit or per ton for the towers. Hopefully they respond back. Id much rather pay $5 per tower for several hundred vs paying $4 per tower for 20 or 30 at a time.

At $5 they must be complete, make sure the ram and cpus are in them, otherwise deduct for it.

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Originally Posted by jghilino

At $5 they must be complete, make sure the ram and cpus are in them, otherwise deduct for it.

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Of course, I am hoping I can get a per ton price. As long as all the boards are in them I would gladly pay $250-350 per ton as Id recover near $125-150 from the steel.

If they are paying .03# then offer them .12. Even at that price with just mobos in them you still make a nice profit.

I've had some success in putting out a seperate buy price sheet to yards and to the public. The price to the yard is higher and I let them know their price versus public price. They started doing more to get in computers and are better connected than I am. They upped their offer price for computer towers and started getting more in. Like you said, I'd rather get a larger quantity in one place so it saves me time and money.

They even called me last week because a customer wanted more than their offer price and they let me deal directly with him.

Here's my 2 cents on this one Andrew. Don't low ball them if you have alot of potential on getting their buisness, you don't want to lose out over a couple of bucks. I approached my local yard about possibly buying thier e-scrap they then told me what they get per lb (TOP DOLLAR), mind you they pay $1/lb for mobo and $5/lb ram and cpu's.They completely lowball their sellers, so in turn when i see an escrap seller in there i simply wait for them to leave the yard talk to them and then he becomes my customer 6 so far(man i wish i could be there more often)

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Whenever I see scrappers in the yard, I tell them that I buy them outright but up until now I didnt have cards.

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http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/lets-...ess-cards.html

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/lets-...vertising.html

Be prepared to pay 40 to 50 cents a pound from a yard.

Yes most yards are gonna ask around .40 to .50 a LB. Ive even had some say 1.00 a LB. At these prices for a small operation its not worth it. But if there only payin .03 a Lb its worth asking

Just a little fyi: I've contacted two yards, I offered up to $.30 lb for whole units. I know for a fact these yards are paying $.15 and $.10 lb respectively. They basically told me to fly a kite. Do some research, If you dig deep enough, you can guesstimate what the yards are getting from big buyers.