$12.00 per tower??

So I get a call today fom a gentleman saying he has a wharehouse of computers and parts. He goes on to tell me that he handles between 20,000-30,000 lbs of computers and related parts a week, if I undestood correctly. He goes on to ask what I pay per tower and I give him my number. He then scoffs and says he gets 60 cents per pound or 12.00 a tower. I ask him who pays that kind of green per tower, I want in. He stated he deals with buyers all over Philly and NJ because he has wharehouses in both states. Im not calling him a liar because with those numbes in weight per week, maybe he can name his price. My question is how does any buyer profit paying $12.00 per tower?

PS, he told me to call back when my prices go up:rolleyes:

Maybe he's dealing with someone big enough to eliminate one of the steps in the chain. Or one of the middlemen, if you will.

Even if the numbers are off in this thread:
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/elect...tml#post105282

I still can't see how much profit there is in paying $12 a tower. I know there is all the added value in towers besides mother boards (drives, HD, heat sinks, CPU, power supply and ribbon cables) but that takes labor to break it all down.

The other question I would have is why would he ask what you are paying when he has that much ewaste coming through and he can ship direct to a refiner and cut out all middle men?

that is the rough scrap value per tower as long as it is complete!

I had a company tell me one time that they were getting. .55/lb for aluminum. I asked the owner of a local yard at the time who pays the highest around here and he said the guy was lying.

if he can't provide proof he just wants to get top notch

Look at this thread it looks like you can make a little money
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/elect...breakdown.html
It will be higher if the computers are older.

best advice I have , just forget it and move on. I wasted a month trying to deal with one of those guys when I first started.

resell is the answer to this question. If he is getting p4 and higher towers they can easly resell for $50 or more. So there is now way he is selling to a scrapper for $12 each. JMHO

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Originally Posted by ron22

Look at this thread it looks like you can make a little money
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/elect...breakdown.html
It will be higher if the computers are older.

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There does look to be some room for profit, but not enough to cover loading, transport, labor and shipping. Ill pass.

Guy is full of it. If he was getting 12 per tower then how much more is he looking for? Sounds like someone was looking for free info in regards to scrapping. Next time tell them for that qty you would like to meet in person and see what they have, if it is legit cool, if not you will know it when they make up excuses to not meet.

Top dollar for whole server parts that I found was .40-.44#. I never heard of any yard no matter how much you contract for,paying more than .20 to .23# for towers. Maybe I'm wrong but no one is paying $12 per tower unless they are reselling.

I just saw an auction of 1284 towers sell for $45,000 bid plus 10% buyers premium plus shipping. So your talking $50,000 plus. Thats about $39 a tower. Granted they were all pentium 4 or better machines with no hard drives. So there is money in resell if you have the time and space to rework all of those machines.

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Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

I just saw an auction of 1284 towers sell for $45,000 bid plus 10% buyers premium plus shipping. So your talking $50,000 plus. Thats about $39 a tower. Granted they were all pentium 4 or better machines with no hard drives. So there is money in resell if you have the time and space to rework all of those machines.

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That is what he said he does, rebuilds. But I was specific to the fact that I was only looking to purchase towers for recycling. He said he understood and the units he was getting .60 a lb were not salvageable. If he is getting $12 a tower, more power. A little rich for my taste...

Sounds like he is getting $12 a tower to someone who is still reselling parts from said towers. Most of the refurbers I know throw a hard drive in the machine and if it boots up they sell it. If not they move onto the next one. At $12 a tower another refurber may take the time to test the individual parts and make 1 good comp out of say 2 or 3 of the non salvagable ones? Just a guess here but I can see that logic. Either that or the person paying $12 a tower like to only make $1 each if that :)

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Originally Posted by PartTimeScrapper

Sounds like he is getting $12 a tower to someone who is still reselling parts from said towers. Most of the refurbers I know throw a hard drive in the machine and if it boots up they sell it. If not they move onto the next one. At $12 a tower another refurber may take the time to test the individual parts and make 1 good comp out of say 2 or 3 of the non salvagable ones? Just a guess here but I can see that logic. Either that or the person paying $12 a tower like to only make $1 each if that :)

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bs

Quite true. Never thought about it from that point.

Wait...P4's are worth reselling? I tore down 23 of 'em. :(

Sorry for the hijack.

OK. I keep hearing all of this stuff and see it myself on Govdeals and such about high prices being paid for P4 towers and such. I do know that in some developing countries P4 are still valid consumers machines. I have even sold a few in my shop in the last couple months. Now if the machines they are buying have a DVD burner then they can get their money out of that alone. Especially at $12.00 per machine with the burner having a retail value of around $15.00. That would leave the rest of the machines for their scrap value. Here in the real world I just don't have the cash flow to have hundreds of burners sitting around waiting for a home.

Right now I have 50+ Gateway Core 2 Duos sitting in my shop waiting to be sold as builder computers. I kept them because they are all SATA including the lightscribe burners. But in reality I have scraped hundreds and hundreds of P4 machines that would still work, but I just do not have the connects yet to ship them to some 3rd world country or the time to wait while sitting on money I have invested in them. Generally I have not had to buy machines. I pound the pavement and work with all of the local schools and private colleges and have so far been able to keep a steady stream of machines and equipment coming in like that. I do watch the auctions pretty close and have bought a few things that tickled my fancy. But for real it is as much about me staying right sized as anything.

I would try to find their connect if they are getting $12.00+ plus for machines. It would save me a lot of work tearing them down. The same is true for all of the rumors about monitors being bought. I keep haring that stuff, but find myself on my way right now to start tearing down some of the 4000+ monitors I have now just to get a few out of my way. Such is the way of life. But all told it is not a bad life.

Rebuilders are buying them from China, not recyclers. I have a similar situation here.

Olddude and PTS are right just forget it and move on. Had a similar sit happen to me I told him my prices couldn't ever go that high and wished him best of luck. Oh and George AL goes for $.63 lb at right place here in CT.

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Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

Wait...P4's are worth reselling? I tore down 23 of 'em. :(

Sorry for the hijack.

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Just go to ebay and type in p4 and go to completed auctions and then you decide if they are worth reselling. You have to decide what you want to do. Cant do everything by yourself. PErsonaly thats why I rip the drives ram and DVDRW drives out and just sell them on ebay. Much easier than trying to rebuild whole computers and selling them.

Check this out
Dell Optiplex GX620 3 40GHz 2GB RAM 80GB Hard Drive No Operating System | eBay

$71 plus shipping and the buyer gave positive feedback

Oh by the way I have alot of these machines if anyone interested in them..........All are sanitized by the tech guys at a local university and tested good....I just re-sell with no operating system to avoid any issues with liscenses or registration

P4's used to sell but I think refurb guys have hard times selling anything without 2 real cores and PCIE/DDR2. This guy must be getting 3 year old office machines after company upgrades and if so they are probably worth $12 just for parts to resellers if the brands and models don't vary too much. I don't think there is much money to be made anymore refurbing towers (too many people fighting over parts driving prices up), they seem to concentrate on laptops anymore of just quit.

I just tore down 900 gx 520s because I could not sell through them. The parts are worth more than the whole selling the power supplies at 20.00 each the hard drives once DOD wiped at 9.00 and the memory at 15 per 2gb stick the cpus sold at 2.00 each. Then we scrap the cases the plastic we bale and the mother boards we scrap.