Is it really worth the effort to try and recover gold from computers

It's a common story ... heard time and again here on the site over the last few years. Scrap metal prices are in the toilet and someone is looking to diversify.

The short answer is that timing is everything. The time to jump in was ten or fifteen years ago.

What you've got today is a lot of people with the same idea flooding in and competing for a diminishing resource.

My real expertise is anything cars. I pick them up now and then and bone em out selling the parts and pieces on Craigslist. Has to have a clear title though. Cannot legally get rid of them anywhere in Arizona without one however if the body/frame is torched in to pieces they will take it without paperwork. Makes no sense but that's the government. The last one I torched up used almost two full tanks of Oxygen. But this was when they were paying $210 a ton. Now at 3 cents a pound there is no money to be made if your overhead is higher than a buck or two. Used to be able to sell stuff on Feebay but with fees incured it's pointless unless an object makes decent money which most stuff thanks to overlisting and free shipping does not. My interest in E-waste was gone quickly. A mere memeory. There are sources for e-waste here but it has to be bought. Around here auction fever is rampant. People paying a hundred bucks for a dumpster load of shred steel that is really worth about 20 bucks.