My local yard a while back stopped accepting computer fans.

Well my local yard used to take computer fans whole like the whole fan, well a while ago, I tried taking some fans in, they said nope we don't take them anymore, cause apparently it costed them 5 grand because the refinery rejected the load cause of all the computer fans. They used to take all my fans for electric motor pricing, well I had to take these to the other yard nearby and they gave me motor price but B***ched about the plastic fans, so they took like half the weight off of it. I was just wondering if anyone else experienced the same problem? Or if your yards just take them whole too. I was kind of mad about it cause I wasted a lot of time taking the fans off so now i just scrap em with the fans still on now.

yea, not much incentive to remove, when we can get shred, if we leave them on. One yard still gives me motor price, if I have motors, mixed in. The other just dropped them to .03. May just leave them all on from now on an avoid the extra labor.

I mean now, I just give the fan a wack with a hammer, if it doesn't come off, i leave it go and if it looks like I can pry it off in like 2 more shots then I take it off. But other then that, I'm not gunna sit there and unscrew em, I've been starting to leave on my cd and floppy drives aswell, because its not worth my time to do them really. Floppies are just a pain, and CD drives are a pain too for the one board you get out of them. Also power supplies, cut the wires off and leave it on, I'm starting to pile some stuff up cause I plan on taking a trip out to see Ewasted, load my truck up and as some people said before, that floppy drives and power supplies will pay for the gas used to get out there and then all the nice boards are pure profit.

No kochy ive never had that problem . I sell cord ends as motors and the yards fine with it. The story the yard gave you may be nonsense cause I was always under the assumption that motors dont get processed domestically , it would cost to much . I thought they put them in container and off to china they go

Yeah they told me I need to poke the motors out of them, and that ain't gunna happen, I'd burn the fans to get the motors out before I did that, and I don't burn plastic and or wire.

Same thing happened to me. Yard manager said it was because of the board inside the plastic, NOT the plastic itself. I have a pile of them now, trying to decide what to do with them.

I just took about ten of them apart, all of them were the same size.

Take apart, with just the motor portion it weighed .4 ounces and whole it weighed 2.3 ounces.

Are they paying more per pound, taken apart?

Probably not, my yard will probably pay the same amount.

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Originally Posted by Kochy

I mean now, I just give the fan a wack with a hammer, if it doesn't come off, i leave it go and if it looks like I can pry it off in like 2 more shots then I take it off. But other then that, I'm not gunna sit there and unscrew em, I've been starting to leave on my cd and floppy drives aswell, because its not worth my time to do them really. Floppies are just a pain, and CD drives are a pain too for the one board you get out of them. Also power supplies, cut the wires off and leave it on, I'm starting to pile some stuff up cause I plan on taking a trip out to see Ewasted, load my truck up and as some people said before, that floppy drives and power supplies will pay for the gas used to get out there and then all the nice boards are pure profit.

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You might want to see if he buys the fans.

When making a trip like that, you might as well fill your truck. If the boards don't fill it, the load up drives and stuff like that.

Yeah I'm gonna start saving everything I get now, cause I'm planning a trip.

My yard recently went to $0.05 per pound on their scale price.....

I still pull them off and give them a few whacks with the claw end of a hammer and bust the plastic off and expose the copper windings inside. The 2 yards I normally use both have rejected fans before, but neither one has ever given me any problems when I have the plastic busted off. I do the same thing with flyback transformers out of tvs and monitors. They won't buy them whole, but when busted open so they can see the copper inside they never question them.

Is there no resale value at all for fans? Iv wondered this for a while... I dont build computers or anything, just rip them apart so I have no idea if they would even sell at all as usable parts. But maybe to someone else for another use? May be worth a test listing on ebay if nobodys done it before. Easy to test them too. .05-.10 each would be a heck of alot better than even motor price. Even just a couple cents each would work out better.

Haven't had any problems like that. 2 yards I use both take them whole, no problem. One buys them as motors, the other buys them as electrical breakage. $0.15-0.20 per lb. I usually pull them, turn them in when I have 100 lbs or so.

My main yard will take the fans as CBM, same with flybacks. They know what's in them so don't mind. I save the nice ones for folks down here I trade with, as they use them in their machines, or other devices. Either way, I get more then shred for them. So taking them off I will continue to do till it isn't profitable or trade fodder.

Don't have to sell everything to make a profit. I find trading can lead to more profit then just giving up an tossing it in shred. Then again I have quite the network of folks I interact with whether business, private, whatever. I don't limit my networking. Talk to everyone, never know what kind of deals you can work. Not everything has to be item for money. Sometimes what you taking in trade can work out better then the low ball offer cash, or it could just be me.

As always...YMMV

Sirscrapalot - Sanity is highly overrated, or so the voices tell me at lest. - unknown

I did the math awhile back:

I get paid .05/pound for computer fans.

I get paid .09/pound for shred.

So fans are worth .04/pound more if I don't take the time to remove them from the case. Easy decision.

My yard takes the fans mixed with power supplies at mtr price. Usually bring in 200-300# at once. They never questioned it and I never asked.

I got .05 cents this week, disappointing, I will be leaving them in/on the towers also from now on. Not enough weight to even fodder with for me.

thank the lord I am still getting .18/lb on power supplies and .15/lb on fans here locally.........I still wait for the day when I go to that yard they will tell me it's all just shred

.18/lb is with the wires cut off so it helps to add to the bottom line

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Originally Posted by jord0690

Is there no resale value at all for fans? Iv wondered this for a while... I dont build computers or anything, just rip them apart so I have no idea if they would even sell at all as usable parts. But maybe to someone else for another use? May be worth a test listing on ebay if nobodys done it before. Easy to test them too. .05-.10 each would be a heck of alot better than even motor price. Even just a couple cents each would work out better.

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I mean yes they could have a bit resale value, not much, I mean for my main computer I'm soon gonna overclock it, I can do it one of two ways, watercool it or hook up a bunch of fans blowing air in to it to make it really good, so thats the only other use I'd have for the fans. I mean the bigger fans like 120mm, they probably can bring a couple bucks, but also new fans aren't all that expensive aswell.

I haven't tried taking fans to my local yard as of yet, but I've been hanging on to most of them. I leave most of the power supply fans on the case for shred weight. Once I get enough to fill a large flat rate box, they're going on eBay as a mixed lot just to see what they bring. I figure a bulk assorted lot will be easier and less time consuming than listing them individually.

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Originally Posted by RustnGrease

I haven't tried taking fans to my local yard as of yet, but I've been hanging on to most of them. I leave most of the power supply fans on the case for shred weight. Once I get enough to fill a large flat rate box, they're going on eBay as a mixed lot just to see what they bring. I figure a bulk assorted lot will be easier and less time consuming than listing them individually.

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Let us know how it goes. Im interested to see if anyone buys them.

Mine go in my transformer/motor bucket, I don't know who would trust a fan that has run it's lifespan in another computer and is just waiting to die.

Yeah your right, but for my situation with the overclocking, the case has 7 fans in it, those are good fans and I would set up some server fans like around the desk and make the like a mini wind tunnel in my desk lol. If one blows, just replace it with another one.

When I use them for trade fodder, the folks I trade/exchange with, know they came out of scrapped items. If the stuff worked before I trashed it, I let them know that. Most of the fans I have are in good order. I take them from everything that has one. Again the nice looking ones get saved. If they look trashed, dirty, or I'm not confident in the looks, I toss in the pile that my yard buys from me. I win either way. I either get paid (more then shred) or I get other items/goods I can use in swap.

Trading is a fun time for me. I usually make out like a bandit when I do trades, an not just with the fans. YMMV

Sirscrapalot - Always looking for another outlet besides the yard, or the accursed an life sapping entity known as Ebay. - Unknown, so we'll go with..Me.

I just got electric motor price for fans today, .34# takes alot to make a lbs but I just throw them in with the motors.

wow .34/lb for electric motors! I'm getting $.15 and I bring in at least 100lbs at a time and its a good mix of all diff types. I was told any motor with a board on it-i.e printers where the connections are the small boards aren't allowed anymore but they did take mine.