what did i get myself into now???? lol

ok so i have been working on this ewaste thing for a little while now, picking up some gear here and there, and just learning as i go, well i get a call on my craigslist ad about ewaste, the guy has run a computer shop for 10+ years and needs to clear out his back office that he had been throwing old parts in, and wanted me to come look at the stuff said he wanted $1000 for everything, this seemed a bit steep to me so i put it off for a few days and finally went yesterday to take a look, and HOLY COW man this guy was serious i stopped counting at 150 towers, and boxes and boxes of drives, cables, laptops, cpu's, memory, monitors (crt and flatscreens) ect. ect. my lot where i tear down scrap looks like a bomb went off right now, but its cool cause its been a slow month and i have been looking for something to make some money on i should be able to keep busy for a little while.

just wanted to share like i said its been a slow month and i have been drawing on some reserves, but this should make some money as so far all the system i have torn down have been 486 and early pentium timeframe i even founf two pentium pro's so far, and i havent even worked all the way through the first trailer load yet.

estimated totals so far
200+/- towers
40+/- laptops
half dozen boxes of MB's, finger cards, memory, cpu's, HD's, cd/dvd drives, and lcd monitors (filled a long bed chevy s-10)

miles of power cords and power supplies for laptops and printers.

and a dozen or so crt monitors

http://i1041.photobucket.com/albums/...111214a_01.jpg

the trailer in the picture is 18ft long for reference

Man, I would be in hoggy heaven. Just don't get in too big of a hurry tearing down, and end up missing some good value. Good job,,,

Awesome! Would love some pics of the CPU pile when they are all torn down :)

nice Haul!! what did you end up paying?

Could you put up a link to your CL ad. I have been trying to figure out how to word one for me. Oh yea, congrats on a monster load, Mike.

Any good laptops, or power cords for sony handycam's? If so, send me some pictures! georgebeale@viprecycling.com

Sweet!!!!!!!!!! More pictures if you get a chance, please.

We need a drooling smiley, I'm drooling over here right now big time! Nice haul!!

WOW awesome find. Little bit of advice when tearing down the old systems. there is better then scrap value in a couple of the parts for sure. The 5.25 flppy drives seem to sell pretty well on ebay. Even untested I have sold 1 for $15 and one for $20 just this month. Also the 5.25 and 3.5 floppy drive combo drives sell well too.

Now that is a load!

I am currently working on a load of 100 to 150 (newish) towers. A large company had their sprinkler go off and ruined a bunch of their computers. They are currently taking the HDD out so I won't get those but everything else I should be able to get. But as I said, they are newish ones while yours is older models.

GREAT PICKUP!!!

one of my craigslist ad's
its kinda basic and the prices listed are what i have to set them at to beat out the prices of the other ewaste buyers in the area (most of the anyway)

http://greensboro.craigslist.org/cps/2653488934.html

i'll put up a pic later of the cpu's i have found so far

I had a nice little ad like that on C.L. and it kept getting flagged/or banned, but I don't know why.

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

I had a nice little ad like that on C.L. and it kept getting flagged/or banned, but I don't know why.

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Did you have it under "Small Biz" or "Wanted"?

Thanks for the link to your ad. One more question. You don't mention crt/tv's. Here in Onslow county it costs to take them to the landfil and I'm not sure if they have limit. So my question is do you have a lot of people trying to get you to take crt/tv's? This is really my biggest concern, dealing with customers who want those items taken as well. I look forward to more pictures, Mike.

Quote:

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Did you have it under "Small Biz" or "Wanted"?

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I put it in the computer section. I had tried the labor/moving section and got no calls; I think it got lost in all the hundreds of like ads. So far, C.L. has been a real waste of time for me,,,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by newattitude

We need a drooling smiley, I'm drooling over here right now big time! Nice haul!!

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http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c331/Mark97/drool.gif

Jackpot, nice work!

craigslist is real hit or miss for me sometimes an ad will stay up for a month no problem, and sometimes it will be flagged within an hour, i have just gotten into the routine that every morning when i wake up i check it and if its been flagged i repost it, i think whoever was flagging it before is finally starting to get the point that i am not going away as the past month or so has been trouble free as far as ads getting flagged.

and i post my ads in the computer services section.

and also like i stated in my original post i am typically not that enthusiastic about replies i get from craigslist since most of them are for one or two gutted towers or a bunch of printers/monitors, but i do go check every single one of them because like this group of stuff, every once in a while the person really does have what they claim.

as far as crt's go i set them off to the side and on my slow weeks i strip the copper and low grade boards from them, then the rest goes to the dump, i can take 5 a week to each one in the county so its a little driving but saves alot of hassle on getting rid of the tubes.

i have some more pictures to post, i probably wont get them up here till tomorrow as i have to go do homework now (i am a full time college student as well as a scrapper).

Whoa...I wish I had that...only problem is I don't have an 18 foot trailer!

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Originally Posted by tryingtoscrap

Whoa...I wish I had that...only problem is I don't have an 18 foot trailer!

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Boxes this week...18 foot trailer next week.

I wish

nobody starts at the top i worked out of the back of an 85 buick station wagon for a long time- you gotta start somewhere.

and also on the "i wish" comment that attitude DOES NOT get you anywhere, you have to set a goal and go after it with everything you got, and here's the key to getting it, never, ever, let up. once you start you have to be determined enough to see your goal come to fruition.

i am like a few others on this forum i am kinda young (24), i got out of the military while the economy was taking a nose-dive, and all the skills and jobs i knew (construction, steel work) were drying up at record pace and i HAD to do something to support my family. now i am a full time student working on my BS in electronics engineering in the mechatronics field (robotics) and a full-time, scrapper/surplus salesman/ electronics repairman. its all about motivation, i have never wished for anything i have and will continue to work for everything i want in life.

^^^ Nicely said :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ilovejunk

nobody starts at the top i worked out of the back of an 85 buick station wagon for a long time- you gotta start somewhere.

and also on the "i wish" comment that attitude DOES NOT get you anywhere, you have to set a goal and go after it with everything you got, and here's the key to getting it, never, ever, let up. once you start you have to be determined enough to see your goal come to fruition.

i am like a few others on this forum i am kinda young (24), i got out of the military while the economy was taking a nose-dive, and all the skills and jobs i knew (construction, steel work) were drying up at record pace and i HAD to do something to support my family. now i am a full time student working on my BS in electronics engineering in the mechatronics field (robotics) and a full-time, scrapper/surplus salesman/ electronics repairman. its all about motivation, i have never wished for anything i have and will continue to work for everything i want in life.

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Ok well maybe I'm 13 and WISH my dad would let me start collecting stuff...

I like your "can do" attitude, ilovejunk!

I tell my kids to wish in one hand and crap in the other and see which one fills up first.


Trust me, they are not deprived by any means...just not spoiled either.

Wow nice haul. Something we should all remember he or she who puts forth the most effort will reap the most reward

tryingtoscrap, dont let us on this forum get you too wound up the reaction you see is a result of many people older than you that should know better asking blatantly ignorant and dumb questions, if you want to get into the ewaste game search out the posts by easyrecyle, ewasted, computerscrapper, and others, they can give you a crash course with plenty of info to get you started.

and for a young person like yourself a bike is a great exercise and scrapping tool, trust me i wore out quite a few of them at your age. like one of the replies to your other post said nothing is one size fits all, you have to figure out how to make your situation work for you. living with your parents there will be rules you have to follow that others here do not, however like others have said, be considerate, clean up after yourself, learn from what you read on the forums and from what you do, and i think your parents will likely let you proceed.

oh and remember never let anyone take away your motivation, to see someone 13 even considering actually doing something other than ride the welfare bus this countries political system seems to want everyone one on is refreshing, don't let someone take that drive from you.

i love junk is right, a bike is a great tool if u live in a decent sized town. I find a lot more stuff on a bike or on foot walking through alleys and down tracks or old roads i think i spotted half a truckload of junk in a few backyards in my parents neighborhood just walking the dog one day.

Im 23 years old and im very grateful to own a dump trailer an old f-150 that works very well after all the torture i put it through
started with a little nissan pickup 2 years ago
theres also been times where ive picked up stuff in my corrola because the truck was in the shop just gotta work with whatever you have, just cause you dont have a truck doesnt mean you cant go to an auction and buy 200$ worth of romex and bx for 11 :)

cpu's i have recovered, i also got a bunch of cartridge style and pentium 3/4 cpus's but i only took a picture of the "good stuff" i got from those towers so far.

http://i1041.photobucket.com/albums/...7111242_01.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tryingtoscrap

Ok well maybe I'm 13 and WISH my dad would let me start collecting stuff...

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Whats really stopping you?

Make a cart, get on your bike and ride around town and pick some stuff up.

When i was 13 i picked up cans. People in school always laughed at me when i walked home and had a bag full of cans. The next year as i flashed my $2000 laptop, it shut them all up.

You don't have to store scrap in your home. Build a fort or find an abandoned shed.

Be resourceful and you will succeed. Allow people to hold you back and the only place you will end up is Mcdonalds asking me as i drive up in my Mercadies if i want fries with that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by drozenski

Whats really stopping you?

Make a cart, get on your bike and ride around town and pick some stuff up.

When i was 13 i picked up cans. People in school always laughed at me when i walked home and had a bag full of cans. The next year as i flashed my $2000 laptop, it shut them all up.

You don't have to store scrap in your home. Build a fort or find an abandoned shed.

Be resourceful and you will succeed. Allow people to hold you back and the only place you will end up is Mcdonalds asking me as i drive up in my Mercadies if i want fries with that.

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Well I think my dad is finally letting upon me...so I hope...no, no, not hope as the word wish disappoints people...I will get started as soon as I can. p.s. what laptop is it?
After i get myself some profit for tools I'm saving up for adobe after effects...wonder how long it will take...

here's the cl ad i use and get ok responses from. it does get flagged occasionally and just repost it as needed


***RECYCLE COMPUTERS FOR CASH***

We are looking to purchase your obsolete, broken, and unwanted computer equip
we purchase items regardless of age and condition
looking for whole computers as well as parts and pieces

examples of items we are looking to purchase include (but not limited to)

whole computers, laptops, no working lcd monitors, circuit boards , video/sound/modem/etc cards, harddrives, memory, processors, servers, routers, switches, hubs, cables, and the list goes on

All items are responsibly reused and/or recycled

To put some extra money in your pocket contact us for an appointment

Direct Recycle

feel free to reuse and adjust as needed

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tryingtoscrap

Well I think my dad is finally letting upon me...so I hope...no, no, not hope as the word wish disappoints people...I will get started as soon as I can. p.s. what laptop is it?
After i get myself some profit for tools I'm saving up for adobe after effects...wonder how long it will take...

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This was years ago I'm 27 now.

It was a Toshiba, with a 19 inch screen and 600 Mhz processor. It served me well for 4 years when i sold it in college to a friend.

Nice!
Do you know which one would be more, broken laptop for 25 cents a pound or it broken down, not selling any plastic or glass?

me personally for laptops i just sell as parts or if they are too old scrap as a whole, since they are a huge pain to break down if you have alot, if you got the time though, tear down a few and look at the numbers for your situation, also with some old laptops they have removable cpu's that can be taken out without tearing the laptop all the way apart, and obviously, the ram, hard drives, and some optical drives are worth pulling for scrap/resell

Thanks and wow, that's at least 6lbs of processors I'm guessing, And less than 1/3 of the haul
Will you post the profit when you've sold it all?
Awesome work!

yeah i'll post total number and probably a few pics once everything is torn down probably the end of the week as i have alot of schoolwork to do for the next couple of days.

been a crazy couple weeks, school, work and i blew up one of my trucks, but i finally got all my ewaste to boardsort and i think i did pretty well.

113 lb harddrives
356 lb Power supplies
85 lb laptops (no battery,HD,memory)
4 lb junk cell phones
28 lb gold tip connectors
49 lb expansion cards
27 lb cd-rom boards
94 lb #2 motherboards (p4 junk)
183 lb #1 motherboards (old stuff)
2 lb p4 cpu's
.5 lb k6 cpu's
.75 lb black fiber cpu's
.5 lb ibm/cyrix cpu's
.25 lb Motorola/foreign cpu's
.5 lb green PCB cpu's
.25 lb 486 cpu's
1 lb amd creamic cpu's
.5 lb pentium pro cpu's
1 lb pentium 1 cpu's
2.5 lb slot cpu's
10 lb memory

plus a few other things but thats the basic breakdown this load ending up at just a bit over $2k

all told i had $1400 in the this load and another 2 smaller ones i have picked up since starting this thread, i hauled the shredder steel and wire off and got $400 total back on all that. all said and done i had 5 or 6 days invested and $1000 cash out of pocket so i think this deal turned out well

payday is always good.