How not to buy motherboards

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,

Sounds like she made a great investment..wow ppl can be ignorant..had a lady call the other day telling me she had 12 towers for sale..when i asked how much she was asking, she said "how about two grand? i know you will be recovering gold out of them.".. Jesus lady they didnt cost that brand new...i politely declined n hung up..what do ya do..there will always be dumb ppl around

I can't believe this lady dropped $32,000 into something she obviously knew nothing about. I get nervous over $500 when it's something I DO know about.

My cousin stopped by about a week ago with his buddy and his friend said he had a computer that didnt work it had a virus or something. He said what would you give me for it. I said bring it over and we can weigh it and i would buy it by the pound. He said it cost him $1,100 new and wanted to know how much a pound to equal out to 900$. I tried not to laugh at him and said never mind.

the sad part, as our real prices sink into oblivian, their prices will continue to rise do to "REALITY SHOWS" the tv zombies watch. like "pickers" ( I hate that stupid term) scrape kings, auction wars etc.

They will wake up when they lose all thiere money. I wont even pay 5.00 for a tower now unless I can look inside first.

Hey i like storage wars..Brandi is smokin..

She will be in great shape if gold jumps to.... HUMMMM say $5400 an ounce? I had to stop running an ad on Craigslist cause people kept calling wanting too much for crap. It got iresome people offering me $100 laptops for $80 with cracked screens, no cords, and broken screens. I don't really even offer to buy anything anymore unless they got to my facebook site and see my pricing and figure it out. Then they can bring it to me.

People like that got money they need to make money with because they live life based on fear. Then they make bad decisions.

There ain't no fixin' stoopid. With 2 Os

I like stupid people they make me look smart.

hey,what would be the best place online to sell motherboards 150lbs and up and what per lb so many sites vary in price whats your opinion also i would like a place that pays for shipping

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Originally Posted by camdaddy

hey,what would be the best place online to sell motherboards 150lbs and up and what per lb so many sites vary in price whats your opinion also i would like a place that pays for shipping

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Here you go, the good and ?? Ewasted and I think Easyrecycle help with the shipping. Scrap Buyers & Sellers

my cleaning lady said my husand says there is 8 dollars worth of gold plus some silver in every cell phone LMAO , I replied why did mine only cost 4.99? her husband runs a pawn shop no wonder stuff just sits there!

Hey Greytruck,
Here is about the same story. I set up a booth at a local flea market and advertised that I buy obsolete or non working computer parts. So a guy stops by with a few mother boards and asks if I will weigh it for him. Sure...no problem. It was a little over three pounds. He takes out a pen and paper and multiplies the weight by gold price per ounce and asked me how close I can come to that. I tried to explain to him how it worked, but his eyes just glazed over. Finally I told him EBAY might be a good place to sell those parts.

Several months ago we used to get the same emails over and over of 40,000lb + ongoing loads of motherboards... everybody was trying to make a buck on it. It was a whole load of chinese boards before the word really got out about them. I am sure someone bought them, but they easily lost $3.00+/lb.... if this business were that easy, everyone would do it :)

She should deal directly with the refiners with that kind of weight.

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Originally Posted by KZBell

She should deal directly with the refiners with that kind of weight.

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Yeah, with that kinda weight, I'm sure she could get her money back plus make a little (unless the boards are all newer colored, them I'm not certain).

Bump Racer-

They were all newer boards. I spoke with two of the refiners that I have used, their statement was "you would be taking a big leap of faith if you buy them at over $4.00/lb." I don't make leaps of faith with my business. Additionally, the woman with the boards told me that she could keep the cash tied up for the length of time it takes to get a check from a refiner.

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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,

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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.

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Originally Posted by Victor

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.

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People can make huge mistakes by getting too gready. Kind of wonder if they actually paid that $4/lb in cash or charged it on their credit card hoping to make a killing and now are on the hook for a bad deal.

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Originally Posted by Ewasted

Several months ago we used to get the same emails over and over of 40,000lb + ongoing loads of motherboards... everybody was trying to make a buck on it. It was a whole load of chinese boards before the word really got out about them. I am sure someone bought them, but they easily lost $3.00+/lb.... if this business were that easy, everyone would do it :)

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I think that everyone does think that it's easy... that's why they're trying it. Which makes starting out more difficult and a little scary for someone who has genuine interest for the industry, understands that there is a good deal of work involved, and is willing to put the time in to actually learn about what they're doing (at least to some degree)

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Originally Posted by camdaddy

hey,what would be the best place online to sell motherboards 150lbs and up and what per lb so many sites vary in price whats your opinion also i would like a place that pays for shipping

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I'm confused: is this a serious question?

Is there some tv special or show that i missed that got everyone so interested & "knowledgeable" about ewaste scrapping? If so I should look into it so I can graduate to a "semi-professional" lol The prefix of that word kinda negates it's whole definition.

No julie its the internet..just like u found it..i highly doubt back in 2010 u had a clue on anything scrap value..ppl make assumptions..whoever purchased that just dint take the time to really research

Posers! Hopefully the lessons are expensive like the examples here and it weeds out the ones that are trying to make the quick easy buck

My posts i got going around the web are only getting more hits everyday. Let the ewaste scrappers come i need more material to buy.

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Originally Posted by Dunemaul

My posts i got going around the web are only getting more hits everyday. Let the ewaste scrappers come i need more material to buy.

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but not crappy material obviously. Are you recruiting the people and inspiring all these "free ewaste pick up" ads?lol

Pretty much Julie and Im working on a line for better pricing on small socket mobos that should help alot :-)

Gathering minions and having them do your bidding... sounds fun

My minions need to answer their phone today already. I know i got a trailer load of server parts to go pick up and the guy is still passed out smh.

I was dealing in e-waste in 2007 back then I could follow the scrapers around and still pick up a truck load of electronics. The problem is in this busness things change so fast that it is a constant learnig thing.