I've seen posted that there's a sheet (Mylar?) in keyboards that contains silver I believe. Is there enough to bother breaking them down? I have about 50 at the moment. My yard will take them as shred for some reason, even if I cut the cord.
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I've seen posted that there's a sheet (Mylar?) in keyboards that contains silver I believe. Is there enough to bother breaking them down? I have about 50 at the moment. My yard will take them as shred for some reason, even if I cut the cord.
thinking I've read it was worth roughly a dime per sheet, but not totally positive of that, didn't seem worth it to me, when the yard took the ones I mixed in with shred, for recycling, and saved me hauling(and paying) to dump
Burly, Check out Midwest Industrial Metals on Stevenson Highway. They only pay 3 cents per pound, but its better than nothing. They will still pay the same if the cords are cut off.
Here you go; http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/disma...ard-mouse.html
I do want to mention that there is actually 2 mylar sheets inside separated by a clear sheet, just remove the clear one and pitch it. The biggest pain is all those blasted screws,
I have a pegboard hook on my wall and I just hang them up until I get enough to send off or Ebay.
Also the ball inside the mice has metal under the rubber, not sure right now if it's steel or alum.
There are two sheets of silver printed mylar per keyboard. Jack at Relectrocycle pays 4.00# and he pays shipping. I still have not determined how many sheets per #. But if you could save up 50# that would be 200.00. You can find Relectrocycle in the buyers section.
Another thing to consider is are they something to resell. I had a good load of them and most were old. Many fell into the "cllicky" type of old keyboards are selling for much more than scrap and no tear down is needed. I ended up with about 15 that sell for between $15-$100 each. Most were in the $20-$25 range. My best advise is look them up on ebay. Mike.
if your yard buys them as shred, they are only worth breaking down if you have a yard that pays you for plastics. the mylars are worth about $2lb there is a buyer from Florida that buys them and pays shipping, you might get enough out of 50 to register on your scale LOL.
New Unicomp Model M BO40B56 Mechanical Buckling Spring Keyboard PS 2 B | eBay
This is one I'm selling now......Also if they are newer with USB cord they have more than scrap value if in good condition
I sold an IBM model M a few months back for $45. It had a date code of 1984 or 1985. Listed it on cl and sold it within 2 days. Have a coulpe I am sitting on now that have to be listed. Had 3 Gaylord's of them that I bought with server equiptment back in sept. all newer dells, I cut the cords and my buyer paid .08 # for them. There is definetly value in them if you can find a buyer and you have quantity to move.
looking at ebay completed listings silver mylar is going for 10 cents-50 cents per sheet, i was only able to find 2 listings that has sold, id say even at 10 cents a sheet the keyboards are worth breaking down. Heck id buy 10 pounds at $3 per pound just to see how well i can resell them.
I think I am going to save a gaylord of them and superglue the letters to the wall.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
It's steel-I collect them and put them on microwave magnets, no clue why-weird fascination.
I read somewhere it takes about 5 mylars to make 1 gram of silver. At todays prices that would put a mylar at a melt value of $.21 each.
I've got a couple hundred I've been putting off disassembling.
As far as my piles of stuff go, it's not too unsightly, but reading what the mylars are going for I guess I should get to them.
Here are the numbers that I came up with, your numbers might be diffrant because not all mylar sheets are created equel. 100 sheets= 1.75lbs x 4.00 (thats what I get per bls)= 7.00 or .07 per sheet or .14 per keyboard.
There are a lot of contributing factors that decide how much keyboard Mylar is worth. Smaller keyboards do not have the spacing between keys that larges ones do, older keyboards contain more silver than newer keyboards. Some keyboards contain two sheets, some do not.
There is approximately 1/8 - 1/4 grams of silver per keyboard mylar.
Scott
I've only done about a hundred or so but all I've done has had 2 mylars per.Quote:
Originally Posted by NobleMetalWorks
With those number I would say then my aproximate of 5 mylars per gram was pretty close that I read. Thanks for the info.Quote:
Originally Posted by NobleMetalWorks
Thanks for all the input guys. Sounds like way too much work for too little return to me, so I took them in with shred, and am glad to be rid of them.
keyboards are a great item to get the kids involved in scrapping, whether they be yours or neighbour kids.
there's nothing really toxic inside, there's lots of screws, buttons to drop everywhere, a low or mid grade board bit, the mylars and a nice clean sheet of steel that can be used for fun projects maybe aswell.
older ones can have a huge board instead of mylar sheets and there's silver in 'em too.
if your over 'em then just crack 'em open with a hammer in one simple hit, pull out the mylars and your done.
every keyboard model has a different pattern sheet, not all mylars are equal that's for sure.
some have thin lines of silver and some are thick so the silver content could be double on some.
not every scrapper lives for the moment, not every item needs to be sold and pushed out the door today for some,
some things are accumulated over a long period and sold when not only the qty is high, but time has given the things time to grow in value.
so yeah 100 mylars won't buy you much beer 'n smokes, but 10,000 mylars in 10 years time when silver is $1500 oz will buy you lots of beer 'n smokes.
We buy the maylars from the keyboards at $2.00 /lb an whole keyboards with cords attached for .02 /lb.
by then beer and smokes will be $1500 ; )Quote:
Originally Posted by scrapperben
Ha! yep, good point.
Why would anyone sell for that when they can be mixed with shread
I weighed up an average keyboard with cord and it was 2lb, so your paying 4c for it?Quote:
whole keyboards with cords attached for .02 /lb
I cut the cord off and weighed it, it's worth 12c alone.
anyways I took some pix to show you the older one, the pattern is printed into the board..
http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/.../eb1eb1002.jpg
this is the back..
http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/.../eb1eb1003.jpg
here's what I believe was the next stage going onto mylar, the bottom one, it's mylar..
http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/.../eb1eb1004.jpg
and today's mylars, some have very intense silver patterns, other's are merely traces and dots..
http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/.../eb1eb1005.jpg
http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/.../eb1eb1006.jpg
http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/.../eb1eb1007.jpg
http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/.../eb1eb1008.jpg
so in high volume mylar stacking, you can see how you would have like a division in between your stack.
the low grade patterns and the high grade ones.
if your selling by qty or weight then your option is to sell the low grades and keep the highs or turn them in
to a refiner that returns the silver in a blob instead of cash, that way your maximising your return.
same with buying them, if you can buy the bulk lots up, like 20's, 50's or 100 of 'em in one go then you could also
seperate the highs & lows and resell the lows and build up a good stack of silver that way.
Here's a perfect example, this one is still joined together so obviously the pair of mylar from one keyboard.
look at the difference, I know which ones i'd pick out of a bunch, do you?
http://i1049.photobucket.com/albums/.../eb1eb1011.jpg
The mouse-balls I've seen have been steel. Certainly not worth much, but I suppose they are worth SOMETHING.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
"Jack at Relectrocycle pays 4.00# and he pays shipping."
Happyscraper, thanks for this info. I have contacted Relectrocycle and am currently waiting for a reply.
I use mouse balls as slingshot ammo :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Mealane8