single computer tear down with individual prices/weights

I told a user I'd look into this and make some observations on tearing down a single computer, of the lowest I would expect to find (small, all low-quality, no more than scrap value items, etc)

This could help get some ideas on buying prices.....

Category	amount	price/lb	total	notes
whole PC	18.94	$0.25	$4.74
hdd board	0.045	$11.50	$0.52
hdd w/o board	1.29	$0.20	$0.26
ICW	0.725	$0.36	$0.26	local place all wires
CD board	0.065	$4.10	$0.27
fingercard	0.085	$4.25	$0.36
ram	0.06	$18.75	$1.13
PSU no wire	2.77	$0.17	$0.47
floppy drive whole	0.625	$0.07	$0.04	dont take floppys apart
CD no board	1.31	$0.07	$0.09	mix in with whole floppys for same price as whole floppys at local yard. I checked with them they said its OK
alum	0.5	$0.21	$0.11	local yard
small socket mobo	1.115	$1.90	$2.12
CPU no pins metal top	0.04	$4.75	$0.19
Shred/light iron	10.31	$0.03	$0.31
Time to tear down	6 mins
total when torn down			$6.12
Difference between whole/torn down	$1.38
hourly rate for tearing down (diff of selling whole * number you can do in an hour @ 6mins per)	$13.80

So, those are all the numbers. All these numbers are before shipping (for parts that get shipped) and before gas/travel time to the yards (for all stuff that goes local).

Some observations:

It looks like tearing down gets you at minimum, $13/hr more than just selling whole.

I pay $3/PC tower. In the example above, meant to cover the "lowest denominator", It would only be a profit $3.12 about. And that is THE LOWEST profit I could get from a complete tower. Many towers are larger, have more ram, more finger cards, MTSV parts, etc.

So, in a typical example, lets say I get 10 of these same "lowest denominator" computers. I pay $30 (plus gas to pickup and come back which I am ignoring for now). It takes 1hr to take apart.
Profit would be ($6.12*10)-30= $31.2 for 1hr of work taking apart, or (

4.74*10)-30=$17.40 profit for 0 amount of time taking apart.

This ignores travel time, gas, expenses, shipping cost etc. BUT, its a bit more profitable that I had expected assuming I did the math right.

This also means, that, IF I wanted to, I could pay an employee $10/hr to take apart (assuming he could do 10 computers and hour like I can) and still profit $21.20/hr. So that could be an option if I ever had enough to try and scale up.

However, with scaling comes added expense so that may not work out great, but just an observation.

In summary, tl;dr

it is profitable, and worth it, in my opinion, to take apart PCs rather than sell whole
a buy price of $3/tower SHOULD leave around 50% profit margin before expenses. Traveling far to pick up just one computer would ruin this though, gotta do in bulk, or calulate out a distance/number of computers formula.
you could pay someone to take stuff apart, but it would be real real thin margins and probably not worth it/doable in the US

Looks good.......There is a reason ewaste is a niche market

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Looks good.......There is a reason ewaste is a niche market

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Yes, yes indeed! Its not all that hard, just getting a hold of enough supplies is the only issue/barrier. At least for me thus far. The other thread's OP, that this started in, said that he already had a supply of PCs to take apart.

his supply will go fast........I am experiencing a supply chain problem due to this covid-19 deal.......Places are now just starting to re-open again and recycling/upgrading/replacing computers is the last thing on their minds right now..........Getting tons of calls for just scrap metal........Am taking what I can to be profitable but would much rather do computers than move 1000's of lbs scrap

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

his supply will go fast........I am experiencing a supply chain problem due to this covid-19 deal.......Places are now just starting to re-open again and recycling/upgrading/replacing computers is the last thing on their minds right now..........Getting tons of calls for just scrap metal........Am taking what I can to be profitable but would much rather do computers than move 1000's of lbs scrap

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Yea I havent gotten many leads on computers recently but my resell-ables seem to be picking up steam. Now that I have a "guy" for lawn equip, a "guy" for bikes, a "guy" for powerwashers, its really streamlining the process of getting rid of stuff. No more listing and dealing with inquiries or unreliable lookey-loos. Even though I may be getting less than selling individually, its nice to have guys that I can take a truckload of stuff to and know theyll take it and pay fair prices for it, higher than scrap. Probably got rid of 30+ small engine/lawn equipment things and 30+ bikes, in the last month.

Anywho.... computers. Need to find some more of them lol. Me and everyone else on here.

That's a good breakdown on an average scrap PC tower.

Of course .... every place is different .... but i get a mixed bag of computer towers. Some of them are fairly new and others date back into the 1980's. The older ones are often richer in scrap value. The newer ones not so much so. I've had some Lenovos come in that are essentially a laptop board inside of a steel case. A lot of the other ones come in incomplete. It's common for the hard drives to have been removed these days.

It's often best to see if you can refurb the newer ones for better than scrap value if you can. It's not common, but a nice PC can go for 150.00$ A decent Mac goes for 300.00$ + and they practically sell themselves.

Ewaste is definitely a niche thing.

Afterthought:

I wonder if the lack of towers and desktops are simply a sign of the times. Folks started trending toward laptops, tablets, and hand held devices ages ago. It makes sense that that shift in consumer demand would be reflected in the waste stream years later.

That being the case .... we need to adapt accordingly ? Fewer towers to be had means we have to go on to something else to keep ourselves busy ?

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Originally Posted by hills

That's a good breakdown on an average scrap PC tower.

Of course .... every place is different .... but i get a mixed bag of computer towers. Some of them are fairly new and others date back into the 1980's. The older ones are often richer in scrap value. The newer ones not so much so. I've had some Lenovos come in that are essentially a laptop board inside of a steel case. A lot of the other ones come in incomplete. It's common for the hard drives to have been removed these days.

It's often best to see if you can refurb the newer ones for better than scrap value if you can. It's not common, but a nice PC can go for 150.00$ A decent Mac goes for 300.00$ + and they practically sell themselves.

Ewaste is definitely a niche thing.

Afterthought:

I wonder if the lack of towers and desktops are simply a sign of the times. Folks started trending toward laptops, tablets, and hand held devices ages ago. It makes sense that that shift in consumer demand would be reflected in the waste stream years later.

That being the case .... we need to adapt accordingly ? Fewer towers to be had means we have to go on to something else to keep ourselves busy ?

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It definitely could be a sign of the times. No one (in terms of consumers) wants or needs a desktop PC anymore. 10-20 years ago every house had a "computer room" or computer desk and a family computer. Sometimes even multiple computers per household. Now with tablets, laptop, and phones no one (except maybe people gaming on their PC, or doing serious editing/autocad work) needs or wants a desktop. So as far as PCs in the garbage, that is drying up and will continue to. Work places and enterprise customers are a different story, although they are still moving a similar direction.

Regardless, yes. People will have to adapt to whatever they can find and get a hold of. People who arent depending on scrapping as their main source of income dont really NEED to adapt.... might just need to find more hobbies lol

Ummm ... yeah. Workplaces and enterprises would be a good source. One might keep an eye out for "all-in-ones". Business class laptops are pretty common for use on the job too.

It's kind of a hobby business for me. I was on my own for a long time and miss the challenge of running a business. I knew going in that it wouldn't be easy but it's not my prime gig so it's not giving me sleepless nights. I sort of like having to diversify to keep it going. Over the weekend, it was a cat and a couple of chiller units. Last couple of days it's been small engines. No telling what tomorrow might bring. It keeps you on your toes.

I think i would overlook a lot of opportunities if i were just doing ewaste.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hills

Ummm ... yeah. Workplaces and enterprises would be a good source. One might keep an eye out for "all-in-ones". Business class laptops are pretty common for use on the job too.

It's kind of a hobby business for me. I was on my own for a long time and miss the challenge of running a business. I knew going in that it wouldn't be easy but it's not my prime gig so it's not giving me sleepless nights. I sort of like having to diversify to keep it going. Over the weekend, it was a cat and a couple of chiller units. Last couple of days it's been small engines. No telling what tomorrow might bring. It keeps you on your toes.

I think i would overlook a lot of opportunities if i were just doing ewaste.

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Im certainly not only doing e-waste..... you shoulda seen my truck full in the other post lol. tons more than ewaste in there.

Bikes and small engine things have been my bread and butter recently. Probably getting at least 5-10 a week. Just today found 2 mowers, 1 weedwacker, 1 snowblower, 2 bikes.
Shred is just gas money to pay for getting the rest of the resellables like the bikes/mowers and such.

It was really more about my own situation. Ewaste my thing and i passed off the brass,copper, and ali to other scrappers in the area that i knew could use it.

I remember when steel prices dropped out. Everyone started looking to get into ewaste. Now that ewaste is playing out ... it's back to traditional scrapping again. Funny how it goes around like that.

Traditional scrapping is a bit harder to do here because it's a 50 mile run to the closest yard. Most of the guys i know only make a run to the yard a few times a year. Even then .... it's generally when they're going that way on some other purpose.

More than scrap value seems the best way to go here. I did a cleanout for an elder fulla last winter. Picked up a couple of generators and a couple of yard tractors then set them by for later. They weren't really repairable but they've saved me hundreds of dollars in parts costs on some of my other projects. A dollar saved is a dollar earned.

Businesses, hospitals, schools, and government departments will get you more desktops than you can ever want. But, they're not necessarily a bad thing. Especially for the all-in-ones. Some of those AIO machines bring almost as much money as laptops, and if you're lucky, even more. My wallet smiles when I see an all-in-one in one of my recycling bins

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hills

Afterthought:

I wonder if the lack of towers and desktops are simply a sign of the times. Folks started trending toward laptops, tablets, and hand held devices ages ago. It makes sense that that shift in consumer demand would be reflected in the waste stream years later.

That being the case .... we need to adapt accordingly ? Fewer towers to be had means we have to go on to something else to keep ourselves busy ?

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I would also say there is no shortage of desktops and towers, as well as servers around here. And yes, as Matador mentioned most of these come from businesses. I get most of mine from offices, various businesses, IT departments at larger companies, etc. Larger quantities of servers come from IT departments and data centers.

It would also depend on where you are, as I am near Vancouver BC, big enough city with tons of high tech companies, offices, etc. In a smaller town you would have an entirely different market.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by matador

Businesses, hospitals, schools, and government departments will get you more desktops than you can ever want. But, they're not necessarily a bad thing. Especially for the all-in-ones. Some of those AIO machines bring almost as much money as laptops, and if you're lucky, even more. My wallet smiles when I see an all-in-one in one of my recycling bins

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I wish I could get more desktops than Id ever want! My only problem so far has been getting enough computers to keep me occupied. There was a few months where I had a ton coming in and they were piling up, but once I worked through those its been pretty barren out here for PCs. So I have been doing more non-PC scrapping recently. But hopefully with the corona coming to an end (in peoples heads, not actually) it will pick back up again soon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kss

Im certainly not only doing e-waste..... you shoulda seen my truck full in the other post lol. tons more than ewaste in there.

Bikes and small engine things have been my bread and butter recently. Probably getting at least 5-10 a week. Just today found 2 mowers, 1 weedwacker, 1 snowblower, 2 bikes.
Shred is just gas money to pay for getting the rest of the resellables like the bikes/mowers and such.

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I am now only doing e-waste (for the most part), and it has been a lot more profitable than I have calculated in this thread. Especially with resellables.

That's awesome. Looks like you finally hit your stride. All that hard work & dedication paid off. Way to go !

thanks man, always learning, adapting, and changing strategies, but things are starting to fall into place for sure.

The hourly rate has another factor . You pick the time to do it 24/7 full time or side hustle

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Originally Posted by CopperHeadAKA

The hourly rate has another factor . You pick the time to do it 24/7 full time or side hustle

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yup, cant beat the flexibility.... plus the other part, which is the variability. Some pickups go way better and get way better stuff....

One pickups was of ~15 desktops, took an hour to go get them. 9/15 had i7 CPUs that sold for $90-120/ea on ebay. Total time for that was like 3hrs if you take into account pickup, taking the CPUs out, photographing, listing, and packing/shipping. That maths out to around $300/hr, which is more than even my day job, with something easy and fun on the side.


Always money to be made out there, just gotta go out and get it.