Non computer circuit board values

[alperin]

I am trying to gauge how profitable it will be to accumlate and scrap circuit boards coming out of other electronics such as the following:



DVD players
VCR's
Stereos
Printers
Fax machines
Etc...

How are these boards graded? What is the current going rate? Any other devices besides computers that are worth scrapping?

[Mechanic688]

Any other devices besides computers that are worth scrapping?

Yep, satellite dish receivers, cable tv boxes, servers, UPS, printers with memory card slots, that's for a start.

DVD players,VCR's,Stereos

Those are all considered low grade boards, along with TV, crt monitor boards. Usually only brings from $ .05 to .25 a lb.

[newattitude]

I get around 30 cents a lb for the crap circuit boards where they buy them by me.

[drozenski]

What about the boards from floppys and CD drives?

Are they considered the same as hard drive boards?

[easyrecycle]

What about the boards from floppys and CD drives?

Are they considered the same as hard drive boards?

yes and no...some buyers yes...some buyers no.

[alperin]

Actually, that brings up another question. Is it better to pull the boards off of the cd / floppy drives then sell the drives as mixed metal to a traditional yard? Or sell the drives whole to an electronics buyer?

[Enoch43]

I am undecided what the best course of action is for CD drives, because I am looking at shipping for a diminished return, so I pull the boards. Hard drives, though, I recently had a conversation with an e-waste buyer that convinced me to always tear them down myself. This conversation enlightened me to the fact that the buyer checks out drives, and if illegally disgusting material is found, then authorities are notified. Sooo...i tear those bad boys all the way down now....I am certainly not ever wanting to defend myself against CP charges because of some HD I could have gotten at any random garage sale or Craigslist pick-up.

[harrisvh]

what does a lb of sim cards go for -also the chips on credit cards and such anyone know?

[Hemi22!]

I looked up on Google a little while back and it seems about 1000 sim cards equals an ounce of gold. There was about 5 or so websites/yahoo answers that said the same thing. Hope this helps ya.

[harrisvh]

Just looked it up and found a mumbai listing on a site looking to buy smartcard chips and sims @£50/oz

[easyrecycle]

yes I have came across child porn more than once...sad but true. But this is HOW the cops/fbi take it.

I will stop where I am at when checking a drive (I only check 80gb or bigger for resale) An..I don't spend to much time. I look in photos and then read folder names. People are pretty straight on folder names...make it easy for THEM to find it..and me, anyway back to the point. So once I find it I hand it over to the fbi and I let them take it from there. What you forget is this.

That hard drive was in someone computer. They used that computer...they have there OWN photos on that computer...your photos are not. They most likely paid for things using that computer. They never uninstall the messenger clients that have there login info/past chat logs. Did they clear there browser history...most likely NOT. Did they have Paypal? every sign onto there bank account?

I think you get the point. They want to know who I got it from. They may or may not get a hold of you. But simply give them any info they want....they just want to know WHERE you got the computer...if you remember. I don't all ways remember where I got that hard drive as people send me boxes all the time with them and I will check them fast for 80gb or bigger an the rest is dumped into a gaylord box.

[Pcbmine]

Is it necessary to check a hard drive to resell it. I don't think people give you their stuff, thinking you are going to be searching through their information and pictures. Cant you just test the hard drive for functionality(using a hard drive health tool) and then over write it if it comes back OK, instead of plugging it in and searching through it.

Zack

[Mechanic688]

On anything resellable H.D. wise we always nuke the hard drive before it goes anywhere, kinda like a military wipe. That's the least that should happen, so people's private info don't fall into the wrong hands,,, That way we can insure our customers that any info is destroyed.

[Pcbmine]

See we don't resell any hard drive. Since most of our business comes from banks, hospitals and other commercial settings, we purchased a Certified Degaussing machine that totally kills the hard drive. That was the best 4000 bucks we have ever spent. What does a 80gb hard drive generally bring and who buys them.

[ilyaz]

Is it necessary to check a hard drive to resell it. I don't think people give you their stuff, thinking you are going to be searching through their information and pictures. Cant you just test the hard drive for functionality(using a hard drive health tool) and then over write it if it comes back OK, instead of plugging it in and searching through it.

Zack

Generally, if you want to make sure you have really overwritten every bit of storage on an HDD so that data is not recoverable, you have to wipe it several times in a special way. Here's one tool that supposedly does that:

http://eraser.heidi.ie/

I was told that the reason simply formatting a drive once would not work and you still might be able to recover the old data is that magnetic media has some type of "memory". I don't understand the physics of it so I am just parroting what I was told.

[Pcbmine]

Ilyaz,

Yeah see i know there are Dod wipes out there that will take care of that but we purge all our hard drives, meaning we subject them to a very high magnetic field(via a Degausser) and then have them shredded. When we are dealing with hospital equipment, there is no way we are letting any of that information out, as it would mean huge fines for us.

My first question however is in regards to easy looking at peoples information(pics, folders, etc.) Is this totally necessary to do?

[ilyaz]

Is this totally necessary to do?

necessary for who to do what?

[Pcbmine]

I will stop where I am at when checking a drive (I only check 80gb or bigger for resale) An..I don't spend to much time. I look in photos and then read folder names. People are pretty straight on folder names...make it easy for THEM to find it..and me, anyway back to the point. So once I find it I hand it over to the fbi and I let them take it from there. What you forget is this.

Also enoch said a ewaste buyer he knows looks through the drives as well.

Is it necessary to look through the drives at peoples personal information.

[Rich]

I am along the lines that if you have info on your hard drive that is private, it is your responsibility to get rid of it. Why take it for granted that the next person getting the drive isn't going to do whatever they want with it.

[Mechanic688]

I am along the lines that if you have info on your hard drive that is private, it is your responsibility to get rid of it. Why take it for granted that the next person getting the drive isn't going to do whatever they want with it.

That may be BUT the majority of computers we have broke down had some physical problem with it that would not let the people delete anything, as in blown caps on the mother boards, bad power supplies or cpu's burnt up from heat.
That's why we do a military wipe, and for the new-bee's if your not sure what a military wipe is, look it up. (it's not GI Toilet Paper)