Old computer chips. There is Gold in them thar motherboards

[ericwt]

Okay this is not my area of expertise. But this information was given to me by someone who knows and is willing to pay for these.

I think I will stick to treasure hunting and detecting myself. But here goes.

In the 1980's IBM some models with chips that had good amounts of gold.

Models: 3081, 3083,and 3084 have between 12-43 TCM chips. These chips have over $100 worth of gold in them.

See photo.

Good luck. Note: I have no idea about recovering this gold, so you are on your own.

 

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[BCR]

Yup it's true... CPU chips, finger and motherboards all contain gold in them.... there is definite market for them that is for sure!

 

[fiatboy]

Good info!

Unfortunately, I don't think I have any of those machines. Honestly, I don't know much about old PC's. I do have an old IBM XT (8088?), anyone know if it's worth scrapping?

 

[BCR]

The thing is you need to have a lot of volume in order to be paid by an electronics recycler... you aren't going to be paid if you hand them a tower that hasn't been torn apart, or if you do get paid it will be peanuts, because the recycler incurs a cost to dismantle it.

If you go to a recycler with a van load full of boxes of sorted material, they will be happy as clams because you've saved them the grunt work of manually dismantling everything and you will be paid accordingly.

You won't make much money off one PC. Hope this helps

 

[fiatboy]

Sure does. Thanks.

 

[Ascholten]

there are places that recycle electronic boards, the going rate seems to be 25 cent to 125 cent a pound depending on where you live. The computer chips themselves 386, 486, early pentium are good prices, up to 3 or 4 bucks a chip for scrap pentiums and 486's.

I do my own recovery on them so don't have to worry about selling the bulk but E bay is a good place to get an idea what they are worth.

Aaron

 

[Ascholten]

Also just for your information.

There is a heck of a lot more than gold on a motherboard.

Gold $600 an ounce
Silver $ 13.00 an ounce
Palladium $ 400 an ounce
Copper $ 2.25 a pound
Nickel $11.75 a pound
Tantalum, at one time was over $160 a pound.
Possibility of platinum on / in some of the IC's... 1200 an ounce.

rhodium... don't hold your breath, extremely rare... but about 6000 an ounce.

Tin $4.20 a pound.

For complete machines.

Hard drives contain platinum, palladium, cobalt.
Aluminum, extruded 64 cents a pound.
Aluminum, dirty extruded 48 cents a pound.

Floppy's, CD/DVD burners, contain circuit boards, laser diodes, sct chips. the tiny servo motors, as a whole unit about 10 cent a pound. gutted, see above scrap prices.

and finally the steel case.
2 to 2 1/2 cents a pound.

chips and cards and stuff that works, some companies have machines that use the old stuff, and will pay top dollar for working stuff. E bay it.

there is plenty of money in this stuff if you know what you are looking for.

Aaron