Quick question about gold plated ribbon cable pins

Originally Posted by jw7783

Before I do anything with these are they plated? They don't look like it and stick to a magnet
New to this, sorry if its an easy answer

They are flash plated just at the end where you can see the gold. The rest is probably brass with a tin, or such coating. I have no idea what they are worth in gold after recovery or on 'the market'.

Not all of the connectors are like this one. Some are 100% gold plated & some are only 1%.

Even the same strand of interconnect cable will have different amounts of gold on different connectors. As a general lead, the older the better for gold coverage percentage.

These are the pins that I think people on ebay are melting down & selling as 'gold drops'. Theres a lot said about the morality of such sellers. but I think they are selling the partially gold plated pins, melted down into a blob, for making jewelery from.

And saving the high percentage gold pins for gold recovery. They are off setting their time spent picking the plugs apart.

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

They are flash plated just at the end where you can see the gold. The rest is probably brass with a tin, or such coating. I have no idea what they are worth in gold after recovery or on 'the market'.

Not all of the connectors are like this one. Some are 100% gold plated & some are only 1%.

Even the same strand of interconnect cable will have different amounts of gold on different connectors. As a general lead, the older the better for gold coverage percentage.

These are the pins that I think people on ebay are melting down & selling as 'gold drops'. Theres a lot said about the morality of such sellers. but I think they are selling the partially gold plated pins, melted down into a blob, for making jewelery from.

And saving the high percentage gold pins for gold recovery. They are off setting their time spent picking the plugs apart.

That's kinda what I was thinking since it was only the tips that looked like it.