Finding gold in ribbon cables

[theelectronrecycler]

Here is a very useful youtube link for looking for and finding gold in ribbon cables






Hope this will help answer your question about ribbon cables. Also, for the new E-Scrapper's out there, this guy has about 85 "E=Cycling" videos with a lot of useful information.

[jghilino]

Now i know how to process those, just been saving them up. Those gold plated pins will bring $50 per pound

[Craasher]

I would like to see a breakdown between selling these as gold ends and then as gold pins and see if this is worth it.

[jaydee1445]

Now i know how to process those, just been saving them up. Those gold plated pins will bring $100 per pound.

Really? Where do I send mine?

[jghilino]

On ebay theyre going for $80-$200 per pound of gold pins depending on grade. I am not sure what the base rate for gold plated metal/pins scrappers are paying on here.

Gold Scrap Recovery Gold Plated Pin's 10 lbs | eBay

3 lbs gold plated 14k pins & 9 circuit boards for scrap recovery | eBay

[JPete]

jghilino,
How long or how many ribbon cable connectors do you have to get to save up to 1 pound? I've never broken them down, but if someone on Ebay thinks that they are getting a deal paying $100 a pound for it, who am I to argue.

[jghilino]

I took one apart. 0.273 ounces as is for connector grade scrap, it yielded 0.039 ounces of pins. As weighed on my jewelers scale. The pins look like low grade or base rate pins. If connectors are $5 per pound and pins are $80 per pound i can do the math.

1/16x.273x4= 6.875 cents complete connector
1/16x.039x80= 19.5 cents gold pins only

so yes its worth it to take them apart, but you are gonna have to process 400 of these to get 1 pound worth of pins, 7 pounds of connectors to yield about 1 pound of gold pins, 3 pound of insulated wire, 3 pounds of plastic. I think i could process 400 of these in about 2-3 hours. Not the most efficient use of time to make money, but its still way better than hunting for aluminum cans. $20 an hour cash is not a bad gig.

[JPete]

Thank you. That is a clean, fast way to make money, even with the Ebay fees, with little floor space required. It is only up to what the "market" will pay and it looks like Ebay people will pay it.
Thanks.

[Ecycle Atlanta]

Does every ribbon cable conntector have gold? I took some apart and they looked more like silver color with a slight tint of brassy-look. Also seems like a whole lot of effort, and not sure I could do 400 in the time you mentioned. Let us know how you come out with it.

[jghilino]

Does every ribbon cable conntector have gold? I took some apart and they looked more like silver color with a slight tint of brassy-look. Also seems like a whole lot of effort, and not sure I could do 400 in the time you mentioned. Let us know how you come out with it.

Yes these are low grade, there is only one small contact spot on the metal part that is gold plated. But still considered to be gold plated metal/pins. They are nowhere close to the grade of the pins on the motherboards these ribbion cables connect to.

at 3 per minute you can easily do 400 in 3 hours, this guy spends more time jacking his jaws than working

[happyscraper]

Seems like there is more gold on the pins from cable conectors whitch I have about 1/2 pound right now. Does anybody buy these pins other than on ebay? And how much per pound?

[Mechanic688]

Here's one more way of getting to the pins;
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/tools...-pins-atm.html

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/disma...s-soforth.html

[Mealane8]

I've taken some of those IDE cables apart that looked to be completely covered in gold plating. But there were also the ones that had a mere spec of (I believe you call that "flash plated") gold on them. However, I think most of them (if not all) should contain a small (at least) amount of gold on their pins.
Thanks for the question, thanks for your time,

[travistemple202020]

I am glad this got brought up again not just the videos which are fun but gold pin separation. now I know for a lot of us its better to sell the ends and wire separate for a flat rate $1.25-$2 or so lb and I use to do this but now the profit is so much greater that its worth the time. as gold and prices are down, its so much cheaper to buy these or just get them as a bonus with computers anyway, so that now it flips the table on these because you can still sell the wire to be rid of that and the pins are easy to store even in a kitchen cupboard. process them while watching tv or something and just sit on them for prices to go up up up and when it does and yes it will again here soon the profit will be awesome and even more on ebay lol

[Kochy]

HOLY CRAP I have a lot of this stuff that I was gunna give away! Lol. I know what I'm doing for a little while.

[jghilino]

there is gold in them but its certainly not a gold mine, it pays about double by processing them than selling them as connectors though

[Mechanic688]

I took some apart and they looked more like silver color with a slight tint of brassy-look.

I have also noticed that the older the computer the better looking the gold color is on the pins you pull out
Some of the old ones look to be completely covered.

[Jonniebrass]

I was dealing with a buyer that scanned just about everything thing I brought in. One time he bought the connectors from ribbon cable that came from late 80's units and the next time he refused them ( came from newer units) because the gun did not show any gold.

[Kochy]

I'm taking some apart now and all of them I've taken apart are silver colored pegs?

[Flinthills]

Yes these are low grade, there is only one small contact spot on the metal part that is gold plated. But still considered to be gold plated metal/pins. They are nowhere close to the grade of the pins on the motherboards these ribbion cables connect to.

at 3 per minute you can easily do 400 in 3 hours, this guy spends more time jacking his jaws than working

So, it's not a problem selling pins( eBay) that have only one end plated?



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