I am a yardsale scrapper and I hit a bonanza

[cyberdan]

Yesterday, on my very first stop (I followed a sign on this one) I hit a bonanza. It almost filled the back of my HHR. I go up the driveway and ask my normal questions.

*Do you have and jewelry or old coins?
That didn't work so I ask me 2nd set of questions.
*I also buy old cellphones and computers. Broken or not doesn't matter. I recycle.
That still didn't work so I polietly say thanks and started to leave. When another member of this yardsale comes up. I guess he had overheard me. He pointed to a big trash can. The recycle type you take to your curb. He said he just threw some computer parts in and I could have for free.

Inside was about 10 motherboards and a couple sticks of RAM. I almost have to crawl inside to get that RAM. As I am trash can diving he starts a conversation and it turns out he builds computers and has a lot to get rid of. So he takes me into his "shop" (garage)

He says you can have all those hard drives for $5 and out comes a $10 ready to ask for change. Then he says see all those motherboard boxes (about 15) he will take another $5.

Then he starts talking geek and I am lost. But my ears perk up at the mention of two servers in the backyard. I offer $1 each, sight unseen. (I am dollardan) They were big and heavy. Well I just finished for the day getting ready to pack these all up and send to Jack at Relectrocycle. If he reads this he can get ready to send another label. That will make 7 cartons shipped to him this month.

And to make my day even better at the end of my route I bought a digital sony mavica MVC-FD73 camera. The memory is a 3.5" floppy disk. This is the exact camera I wanted when it first came out. Is was around $600 and way out of my budget. No I didn't pay a dollar. I paid 50¢

Here is my stash taken with my new "old" camera.

 

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[palidin20603]

What is the gold scrap value of this e-scrap?

 

[Beachkid23]

Where do you recycle this at? Is it worth good $?

 

[centfladigger]

that is a good haul for you and what you do. I wish you lived near me, I find stuff like this in the vacants quite often. I have brought home a few dozen towers and laptops. I have found boards and other internal pieces. I have a friend who gets them when I find them, in return he has fixed or gotten into some nice laptops for me and I give them to my kids

 

[Beachkid23]

that is a good haul for you and what you do. I wish you lived near me, I find stuff like this in the vacants quite often. I have brought home a few dozen towers and laptops. I have found boards and other internal pieces. I have a friend who gets them when I find them, in return he has fixed or gotten into some nice laptops for me and I give them to my kids

I have access to a room packed full of this stuff. 100s of it. But no idea where to take it!

 

[vpnavy]

Nice buys. Thanks for sharing...

 

[Bassmaster96]

Man, you are lucky. I found a tower for $5 the other day, and weighed out, it will bring about $12 or so. The cpu was a no pins model. Out of curiosity, how many times when you ask do you get something? I just never have much luck at all.

Beachkid, check ebay, and then you can check places like boardsort.com.

 

[clovis97]

Nice haul, Dan!!!

Do you also scrap the metal out of these computers, in addition to scrapping the boards?

Steel pays about 7 cents a pound here, and aluminum (heat sinks) pays about 50 cents a pound. Our scrap yard was also buying harness wire, but it didn't pay much. Scrap cords were about .90 a pound the last time I scrapped them.

 

[cyberdan]

I have access to a room packed full of this stuff. 100s of it. But no idea where to take it!

hey Kid and centfladigger good news for you. go to Responsible Electronics Recycling For Ocala And Central Fl contact Jack. I have been selling to him for over 4 years. I only sell my boards and cell phones to him. I am keeping harddrive boards, RAM and CPUs for now. Saving them for retirement, worth a lot more.

right now Jack pays up to $2 lb on greenboards and $4 lb on cell phones and if you can send a box full he pays for fed-x.

 

[cyberdan]

Do you also scrap the metal out of these computers, in addition to scrapping the boards? Steel pays about 7 cents a pound here, and aluminum (heat sinks) pays about 50 cents a pound. Our scrap yard was also buying harness wire, but it didn't pay much. Scrap cords were about .90 a pound the last time I scrapped them.

everything goes someplace. A buddy of mine has storage space so I give him all the metal frames and power supplies, no charge. everything else goes their separate ways.

 

[dejapooh]

How many Cell Phones are in a pound? Does that include batteries, or do you pull those for local disposal?

 

[Bassmaster96]

If you sell them with batteries, they bring less on the site that I sell to. I've found out that a cell phone weighs between .20 or .25 pounds normally without the battery.

 

[dejapooh]

If you sell them with batteries, they bring less on the site that I sell to. I've found out that a cell phone weighs between .20 or .25 pounds normally without the battery.

So, about $.80 to $1 per cell phone. If I get them for $.25, I am good as gold... Literally!

 

[cyberdan]

How many Cell Phones are in a pound? Does that include batteries, or do you pull those for local disposal?

I figure they weigh 2.9 oz on average (no battery - no back) and at $4 lb that is .72¢ each. not a lot but i ship about 400-500 phones every 3 weeks. I always pay .50¢ each.

I save the Li Ion cell batteries untill I get about 25-30 pounds and also ship them to Jack. He pays .75¢ lb on those.

 

[Bassmaster96]

Yeah, I normally try to give 25 to 50 cents each for them. How many of those do you find at yardsales? I don't find many.

 

[firemac]

Nice haul dan, I still have one of the Sony cameras stuck in a closet. Made great Picts !

 

[dumpsterdiver]

When I worked for Marriott we had to hire someone to clean out all the old computers and servers from the Server room. Tightly stacked room about 6 feet high monitors, keyboards, and the box that contained the hard drive, (mostly the hard drive part) maybe 10 feet wide by 4 feet deep. We paid the guy several hundred dollars because apparently we couldn't just throw them away because of heavy metals. They asked if I wanted to take them home. I really didn't know what to do with it. Now I am really thinking the guy that cleaned the room out must have had a good laugh when we paid him and he sold them.

 

[dejapooh]

I find a phone here and there, but generally they want $5 each. I've made a few big purchases (10 to 25 phones at a time). I generally go 4 for a dollar or 5 for a dollar. The later in the day it is, the more likely I am to get them. Most people have 4 or 5 old phones now, they just don't want to let them go for a reasonable price.

I'll have to start a battery box to go with my phone box. I've been taking the batteries to the local public library in order to dump them at their battery dump. If I can pull another $.75 a pound from them, that's pretty much free money at this point.

 

[cyberdan]

Yeah, I normally try to give 25 to 50 cents each for them. How many of those do you find at yardsales? I don't find many.

usually only 10-12, but they are usually in pretty good shape. got 3 iphones that way, those went on ebay.
Also, if you see empty iphone boxes grab them I have seen those go for $5 or more on the bay. I always ask for them for free if I buy something else. I have 3 to list.

I get the majority of my phones from "Cellphone Juan" that is what my phone says when he calls
very little English but lots of phones. Always at least 400 every three weeks. 99% are trashed. I should have save a few as conversation pieces. one was a doggy chew toy, another got shot three times, and another looked like it was run over by a tank.

I have tried to coax out of Juan where he gets all his phones but no straight answer. I know they are not stolen, pretty sure he does a lot of dumpster diving. maybe behind a cell phone store.

 

[cyberdan]

We paid the guy several hundred dollars because apparently we couldn't just throw them away because of heavy metals. Now I am really thinking the guy that cleaned the room out must have had a good laugh when we paid him and he sold them.

No heavy metals (except the monitors) just lots of heavy metal to take to the recycler for cash.
On another chat group I belong to are folks that do just that. Have companies pay them to clean out old computer equipment and then they turn around and make $$ recycling.