EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: daqq on April 29, 2015, 11:14:28 am
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While looking for something else I came upon this section of ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/Scrap-Recovered-Gold-/162134/i.html (http://www.ebay.com/sch/Scrap-Recovered-Gold-/162134/i.html)
Basically it's various scrap, but there are some interesting items for those who know what they are looking at/for:
HP boards:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/39-HP-BOARDS-WITH-GOLD-TRACES-ON-BOTH-SIDES-10-POUNDS-HIGH-YIELD-/191567240966?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c9a4c1f06 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/39-HP-BOARDS-WITH-GOLD-TRACES-ON-BOTH-SIDES-10-POUNDS-HIGH-YIELD-/191567240966?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c9a4c1f06)
Mil boards:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Collectible-Military-Board-/181705105142?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4e77def6 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Collectible-Military-Board-/181705105142?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4e77def6)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASPRO-VME-Array-Memory-25500-3418606-003-1-3418205-001-101-Says-Boeing-D-SG-/111640002719?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19fe43409f (http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASPRO-VME-Array-Memory-25500-3418606-003-1-3418205-001-101-Says-Boeing-D-SG-/111640002719?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19fe43409f)
Goodies for the RF connonsuer:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CARDS-6-FOR-HIGH-GOLD-CONTENT-RECOVERY-5-1-2-x-4-1-4-1-2LBS-/111651143023?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19feed3d6f (http://www.ebay.com/itm/CARDS-6-FOR-HIGH-GOLD-CONTENT-RECOVERY-5-1-2-x-4-1-4-1-2LBS-/111651143023?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19feed3d6f)
Great wall tiling:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-recovery-over-23-Pounds-of-Sun-CPUs-/371295066207?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5672e9185f (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-recovery-over-23-Pounds-of-Sun-CPUs-/371295066207?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5672e9185f)
Probably FPGA or similar dev/test boards:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/450lb-Circuit-Telecom-Server-Test-mother-Finger-Boards-Scrap-Gold-Recovery-NR-/131494473477?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e9dae6f05 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/450lb-Circuit-Telecom-Server-Test-mother-Finger-Boards-Scrap-Gold-Recovery-NR-/131494473477?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e9dae6f05)
Misc:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Computer-part-Electronic-Gold-Scrap-Looks-Expensive-/171745185453?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27fccf8ead (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super-Computer-part-Electronic-Gold-Scrap-Looks-Expensive-/171745185453?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27fccf8ead)
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Two-Hitachi-main-frame-system-boards-Scrap-CPU-for-gold-recovery-made-in-1999-/181724455700?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4f9f2314 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Two-Hitachi-main-frame-system-boards-Scrap-CPU-for-gold-recovery-made-in-1999-/181724455700?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a4f9f2314)
I think it might be interesting to some of the locals... Damn, if I had money to spare for more toys...
Note: I have no relation to the sellers.
David
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"Super Computer part? Electronic Gold Scrap - Looks Expensive!"
It'd be interesting to see under the milled pressure chamber. RF amplifiers? Processor? Bare dies exposed directly to coolant?
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Likely absolutely nothing, as it is clearly marked as a seal integrity test board. Only things there are the nice pressure sensor and the schraeder valve. It will have a solid top layer like the bottom of ENIG plate.
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That "telecomms" board is actually a set of test/serdes characterization and development boards for the recently-defunct Tabula corp which aimed to bring out new FPGAs. Basically, by using time division multiplexing on the LUTs with a faster clock you could increase the capacity by an order of magnitude.
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It's unlikely that they still work after being thrown around like that. I'd love to have a working one.
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Another find for the RF enthusiast:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/302661059822?ViewItem=&item=302661059822 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/302661059822?ViewItem=&item=302661059822)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/5Lbs-roughly-250-pieces-of-VATs-mini-circuits-Scrap-Refining-L131/292483213667?hash=item44195ba963:g:2ccAAOSw73NaqTHw (https://www.ebay.com/itm/5Lbs-roughly-250-pieces-of-VATs-mini-circuits-Scrap-Refining-L131/292483213667?hash=item44195ba963:g:2ccAAOSw73NaqTHw)
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What a truly odd little corner of Ebay!
Particularly so as some of what they are selling is almost certainly worth far more if you DONT recover the gold!
I still think the prices are insane for scrap there, the gold plating is just never that thick.
Regards, Dan.
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Certainly worth more than $8:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Scrap-Recovery-100g-Gold-Plated-Connectors/392009904441 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Scrap-Recovery-100g-Gold-Plated-Connectors/392009904441)
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Certainly worth more than $8:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Scrap-Recovery-100g-Gold-Plated-Connectors/392009904441 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Scrap-Recovery-100g-Gold-Plated-Connectors/392009904441)
Holly shit, I wish the shipping will be less in DE, but whoever buys them, if they don't have some strange flaw will make at least 3 times the money.
DC1MC
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The PCB- and panel-mounted stuff might be nice. The hacked off, crimped cable connectors less so. Yeah, what a nifty little corner of eBay.
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Particularly so as some of what they are selling is almost certainly worth far more if you DONT recover the gold!
Yeah, I almost cried when one guy I know told me what kind of test equipment he "recycled". He almost cried when I sent him a few ebay auctions and price estimates on how much similar gear was selling for these days. So I guess we're even.
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One of IBMs chunkier MCMs, a nice piece into any collection:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/22-x-IBM-Power6-Processor-Ceramic-CPU-for-Collection-or-Gold-Scrap-Recovery/184153486396?hash=item2ae067343c:g:8Q8AAOSw2OVeMywb (https://www.ebay.com/itm/22-x-IBM-Power6-Processor-Ceramic-CPU-for-Collection-or-Gold-Scrap-Recovery/184153486396?hash=item2ae067343c:g:8Q8AAOSw2OVeMywb)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-IBM-Power6-Processor-Ceramic-CPU-for-Collection-or-Gold-Scrap-Recovery/184153482884?hash=item2ae0672684:g:dmMAAOSw5G9eMyt1 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-IBM-Power6-Processor-Ceramic-CPU-for-Collection-or-Gold-Scrap-Recovery/184153482884?hash=item2ae0672684:g:dmMAAOSw5G9eMyt1)
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Cool connector
https://www.ebay.com/itm/20-PCS-93-gram-rf-connectors-for-gold-recovery-scrap-any-use/372399637169 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/20-PCS-93-gram-rf-connectors-for-gold-recovery-scrap-any-use/372399637169)
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One of IBMs chunkier MCMs, a nice piece into any collection:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/22-x-IBM-Power6-Processor-Ceramic-CPU-for-Collection-or-Gold-Scrap-Recovery/184153486396?hash=item2ae067343c:g:8Q8AAOSw2OVeMywb (https://www.ebay.com/itm/22-x-IBM-Power6-Processor-Ceramic-CPU-for-Collection-or-Gold-Scrap-Recovery/184153486396?hash=item2ae067343c:g:8Q8AAOSw2OVeMywb)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-IBM-Power6-Processor-Ceramic-CPU-for-Collection-or-Gold-Scrap-Recovery/184153482884?hash=item2ae0672684:g:dmMAAOSw5G9eMyt1 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-x-IBM-Power6-Processor-Ceramic-CPU-for-Collection-or-Gold-Scrap-Recovery/184153482884?hash=item2ae0672684:g:dmMAAOSw5G9eMyt1)
Surely those don't contain anywhere near as much gold as you could buy for that price. I am totally OK with the price for them as collectors' items, but for gold recovery, there's no way that is worthwhile, right??
(For context, right now, gold is about US$50/gram. Given how thin the gold platings are, I doubt there's 11g of gold in those 22 CPUs. And that's if somehow the gold recovery process were free, which it's not.)
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Cool connector
https://www.ebay.com/itm/20-PCS-93-gram-rf-connectors-for-gold-recovery-scrap-any-use/372399637169 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/20-PCS-93-gram-rf-connectors-for-gold-recovery-scrap-any-use/372399637169)
Factory rejects, or just someone clueless who came across them and doesn't know what they are?
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What type of connectors are those?
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Cool connector
https://www.ebay.com/itm/20-PCS-93-gram-rf-connectors-for-gold-recovery-scrap-any-use/372399637169 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/20-PCS-93-gram-rf-connectors-for-gold-recovery-scrap-any-use/372399637169)
Factory rejects, or just someone clueless who came across them and doesn't know what they are?
The latter is fairly common actually.
Surely those don't contain anywhere near as much gold as you could buy for that price. I am totally OK with the price for them as collectors' items, but for gold recovery, there's no way that is worthwhile, right??
Not sure about those particular ones, but there are ones (such as Pentium Pro) that are reported to have even a gram a piece. See: http://www.ozcopper.com/computer-cpu-gold-yields/ (http://www.ozcopper.com/computer-cpu-gold-yields/)
It's unlikely that the newer IBM MCMs have such a high gold content though. I would like to know :)
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What were these?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/25-lbs-OF-HIGH-GRADE-CERAMIC-PARTS-FOR-GOLD-RECOVERY/153830343663?hash=item23d100c3ef:g:jVsAAOSwG5teRBST (https://www.ebay.com/itm/25-lbs-OF-HIGH-GRADE-CERAMIC-PARTS-FOR-GOLD-RECOVERY/153830343663?hash=item23d100c3ef:g:jVsAAOSwG5teRBST)
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The part number (21-01170-01) is from Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), which had factories near to the item's location, in Maynard and Marlborough, Mass. I have not seen that part before, and it doesn't appear to be indexed by G**gle anywhere.
My wild-ass-guess would be that it has something to do with the VAX 9000 (Aquarius), which was a VAX supercomputer with vector extensions. The mezzanine connector looks like a FCI Meg-Array 10022671. These chips are probably not usable by breaking bond wires due to rough handling.
Incidentally, your "divide by cucumber error" sig is relevant to DEC microcircuits. The engineers there published a joke paper about "organic light emitting materials" in which they stuck electrodes into a pickle. That inside joke became the code number for Alpha CPUs, which were numbered EVxx for "Electro Vlasic" (Vlasic is a brand of pickle). EV also could stand for "Extended VAX", but the joke explanation for the name was preferred.
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I just wanted to know what it was as it looked really cool. Damn, I would probably buy one if there was shipping to Slovakia.
The guy released some new photos of the devices ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Recovery-Ceramic-Chip-Gold-Bond-Wires-Brazing-Pins-2Lbs-Scrap-Refine/184176288713?hash=item2ae1c323c9:g:tPwAAOSwveheSKOs (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Recovery-Ceramic-Chip-Gold-Bond-Wires-Brazing-Pins-2Lbs-Scrap-Refine/184176288713?hash=item2ae1c323c9:g:tPwAAOSwveheSKOs) ). It looks more like some photodetector + readout than anything else. Can't imagine why a supercomputer would be built in this way.
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The fairly expensive trim caps from Johansson as scrap:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Plated-Pins-and-Connectors-Scrap-Gold-Recovery-1-10lbs/283817720036?hash=item4214dab8e4:g:ZZ8AAOSw6wdecEZk (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Plated-Pins-and-Connectors-Scrap-Gold-Recovery-1-10lbs/283817720036?hash=item4214dab8e4:g:ZZ8AAOSw6wdecEZk)
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10kg of various coax connectors? Sure, why not?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10Kg-NET-LOT-Gold-Scrap-Recovery-High-Yield-Plated-Connector-Pins/184259507475?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D800d6d7e8e804138b4a6e369d70e4789%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D183948966691%26itm%3D184259507475%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A28501c13-8312-11ea-b6c9-fe0f55a31350%7Cparentrq%3A97f6b3a01710ad31c3d19800ffd64b32%7Ciid%3A1 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/10Kg-NET-LOT-Gold-Scrap-Recovery-High-Yield-Plated-Connector-Pins/184259507475?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3D800d6d7e8e804138b4a6e369d70e4789%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D15%26mehot%3Dnone%26sd%3D183948966691%26itm%3D184259507475%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2380057&_trksid=p2380057.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3A28501c13-8312-11ea-b6c9-fe0f55a31350%7Cparentrq%3A97f6b3a01710ad31c3d19800ffd64b32%7Ciid%3A1)
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My God! The prices there are insane! US$30 + shipping for a pound of RAM sticks? I can't imagine that you could profit off of that if you were able to magically lift the gold off and then sell it for spot. Never mind the dangerous chemicals and labor involved...
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10kg of various coax connectors? Sure, why not?
https://www.ebay.com/itm/10Kg-NET-LOT-Gold-Scrap-Recovery-High-Yield-Plated (https://www.ebay.com/itm/10Kg-NET-LOT-Gold-Scrap-Recovery-High-Yield-Plated)
If they were made in china do not expect any gold to recover.
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Another set of goodies with precise resistors:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-LBS-8-oz-of-Scrap-1970s-FLUKE-Test-Equipment-Circuit-Boards-for-GOLD-Recovery/193584123866?hash=item2d12834fda:g:mdUAAOSwhUVfFMbN (https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-LBS-8-oz-of-Scrap-1970s-FLUKE-Test-Equipment-Circuit-Boards-for-GOLD-Recovery/193584123866?hash=item2d12834fda:g:mdUAAOSwhUVfFMbN)
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Pretty good test points:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Plated-Small-Pins-for-Scrap-Gold-Recovery-249-grams/324479481544?hash=item4b8c7bf6c8:g:L~MAAOSwb71gIVGM (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Plated-Small-Pins-for-Scrap-Gold-Recovery-249-grams/324479481544?hash=item4b8c7bf6c8:g:L~MAAOSwb71gIVGM)
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Pretty good test points:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Plated-Small-Pins-for-Scrap-Gold-Recovery-249-grams/324479481544?hash=item4b8c7bf6c8:g:L~MAAOSwb71gIVGM (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Plated-Small-Pins-for-Scrap-Gold-Recovery-249-grams/324479481544?hash=item4b8c7bf6c8:g:L~MAAOSwb71gIVGM)
Yes. They look like they might be pins from DB connectors maybe?
Which make great mini-patch panel lead pins. A block of panel-mounted female DB-25 connectors, and flying leads with the male pins.
Too bad the lazy bastard seller doesn't have a closeup pic of one with a size scale.
I'd buy that bag of pins, if it was say $15. But US$60? GTFO.
(Seller auto-declined my offer of $15 btw.)
People selling nice electronics parts for gold scrap, whether overpriced or not, should be shot. Barbarians.
Like these guys:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Recovery-Vintage-80s-Mil-Spec-computer-pin-Scrap-Refining-lot-100-Gram/184650569454 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Recovery-Vintage-80s-Mil-Spec-computer-pin-Scrap-Refining-lot-100-Gram/184650569454)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Recovery-Lot-of-25-Vintage-High-Voltage-7-Segment-Driver-297n-Refine-Scrap/184638025827 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Gold-Recovery-Lot-of-25-Vintage-High-Voltage-7-Segment-Driver-297n-Refine-Scrap/184638025827)
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For the optics and all things obscure enthusiast:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/324648257478?hash=item4b968b47c6:g:KXgAAOSw6JxgsSCx (https://www.ebay.com/itm/324648257478?hash=item4b968b47c6:g:KXgAAOSw6JxgsSCx)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/324644397259?hash=item4b965060cb:g:sG4AAOSwx-ZgrckH (https://www.ebay.com/itm/324644397259?hash=item4b965060cb:g:sG4AAOSwx-ZgrckH)
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Interesting items - Apex op amps, high end solid state relays, INA117s...
https://www.ebay.com/sch/jb8783/m.html?item=304189116518&hash=item46d3159066%3Ag%3AJeoAAOSwMzthbGvQ&autorefresh=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562#_pf=item46d31324d2 (https://www.ebay.com/sch/jb8783/m.html?item=304189116518&hash=item46d3159066%3Ag%3AJeoAAOSwMzthbGvQ&autorefresh=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2562#_pf=item46d31324d2)
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That area of ebay always makes me feel sick. Rare old parts and boards, getting crushed for a few cents worth of gold (after a lot of messy, polluting chemical processing, that might not even break even in costs.)
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=gold+recovery (https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2334524.m570.l1313&_nkw=gold+recovery)
Lots of brass being sold 'as gold' despite probably having very very low gold alloy concentrations.
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That area of ebay always makes me feel sick. Rare old parts and boards, getting crushed for a few cents worth of gold (after a lot of messy, polluting chemical processing, that might not even break even in costs.)
While I understand that sentiment and agree that a lot of people are using a really awful process and are only in it for the 'OMG SHINY!' feeling, there is a legitimate reason to recycle old electronics. Re-use is preferable, but if that's not an option...
Not saying that someone should not try to find a 'new home' for a lot of the stuff, but if you have 5000 pcs of a transistor that went obsolete thirty years ago, no one wants it, what are you supposed to do? Or wholesale quantities of EDO RAMs? Hold on to it till the end of time?
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Hold on to it till the end of time?
Of course not. Another curator will be chosen by my executor (so she says).
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Of course you do get the odd entertaining ones ;D ...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194447474254 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/194447474254)
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164847043659 (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164847043659)
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That area of ebay always makes me feel sick. Rare old parts and boards, getting crushed for a few cents worth of gold (after a lot of messy, polluting chemical processing, that might not even break even in costs.)
While I understand that sentiment and agree that a lot of people are using a really awful process and are only in it for the 'OMG SHINY!' feeling, there is a legitimate reason to recycle old electronics. Re-use is preferable, but if that's not an option...
Not saying that someone should not try to find a 'new home' for a lot of the stuff, but if you have 5000 pcs of a transistor that went obsolete thirty years ago, no one wants it, what are you supposed to do? Or wholesale quantities of EDO RAMs? Hold on to it till the end of time?
Of course. Recycling in general and recovery of precious metals is good. I should have been more specific.
What bugs me about the ebay 'scrap recovery' area is the very high degree of irrational expectations. What's needed is a way for people with old junk to easily pass it to expert industrail scale recovery operations. Entities with sensible, non-poluting, economically viable production line processes. Where the price offered for items to be scrapped, would be an actual sane estimate of the value of recovered gold etc, minus processing costs, plus a profit margin.
Instead, in that ebay category it's the norm to see stuff listed for what must be multiples of the actual recoverable gold cost, because the sellers are idiots and have an audience of idiots, all with 'gold fever' - it's shiny, must be worth heaps! Thus often pricing it out of the range of historical collectors.
Gyro's posted two fine examples of completely irrational pricing.
OK, it's a free market, but a very irrational one, because 'gold recovery' is such a cult of amateurs who have little idea what they are doing. Of course there are some who DO know what they are doing - some interesting youtube channels about gold recovery. Though I never saw one that added up their costs of chemicals, time, etc and worked out an actual operating margin.
In general irrational pricing in a market is no big deal - just a bunch of extortionists and suckers interacting. Except that in this case quite often there are real historical treasures being destroyed. With the sellers having no clue or care. Antistatic handling? What's that?
But hey, it's the same with everything isn't it? Ignorant bozos getting their hands on treasures they don't understand, and destroying them carelessly.
Also... every time I look in that area of ebay, I end up blowing cash. This time... 304188959597 Gold Plated Can and Transistor Legs Scrap Electronics 7.2 Oz Price US$50!
For some metal can ICs with gold plated legs. Appear to be socket pulls. But I notice they are Burr Brown, and at least some of them seem to be INA-1xx series. Looking them up, seem interesting.
I got them for $42, which is still way too much for a collection whim.
Anyone care to make an estimate on how much (little) actual gold is there? Not that I really care.
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Anyone care to make an estimate on how much (little) actual gold is there? Not that I really care.
Plucking some figures out of the air for lead diameter (0.5mm), length (10mm), number of ICs (150), and assuming 3µm gold plating, I'd guesstimate around 3g of gold.
No, I haven't checked my arithmetic :)
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I'd guesstimate around 3g of gold.
https://www.bullionvault.com/silver-price-chart.do# (https://www.bullionvault.com/silver-price-chart.do#)
Current USD gold spot price: $57,176/kg or $57.18 / gram. So maybe $172-ish worth of gold.
That's surprising. I think I'd better check that math. Later...
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I'd guesstimate around 3g of gold.
https://www.bullionvault.com/silver-price-chart.do# (https://www.bullionvault.com/silver-price-chart.do#)
Current USD gold spot price: $57,176/kg or $57.18 / gram. So maybe $172-ish worth of gold.
That's surprising. I think I'd better check that math. Later...
Assuming a pin is a single cylinder then:
Circumference @ 0.5mm diameter is: c = pi*0.5 = 1.57mm
Surface area of cylinder excluding top and bottom sides @ 10mm length is: S = 10 * 1.57 = 15.7mm^2
Assuming 8 pins per device, surface are of pins per device will be: St = 15.7 * 8 = 126mm^2
Assuming 150 devices, the total surface are of the pins is: Stt = 150 * 126 = 18900mm^2 = 0.0189m^2
@3um plating that's a total volume of: Vt = 0.0189 * 0.000003 = 0.0000000567m^3
Density of gold is 19,300 kg/m3, so weight of Vt is: mt = 0.0000000567 * 19300 = 0.00109431 kg = 1.09g
This is for the pins alone. The casing also seems to be gilded, could have a more area than pins together on the inside, not sure of construction. Wide bonding was done in gold as well, would assume that to be the case here. Assuming a 100% efficient process and not accounting for time and materials, then you are well in the plus.
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Today has been a funny day. Maybe I have 2 or 3 grams of effectively unrecoverable gold. Whoopee. (Oh and btw another cost I never see any scrap recovery zealots mentioning, is the cost of purity assay.)
But thanks to ebay as of today I also own several tons of paper. In the form of thousands of equipment manuals. All in CA not Sydney Australia, which means the very expensive fun is just begining. Teaser photos:
(I can't believe they just stacked them right on the concrete. Sheesh.)
Edit to add: Update: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/urgent-request-for-us-west-coast-shipping-contacts/ (https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/urgent-request-for-us-west-coast-shipping-contacts/)
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Would importation of that kind of material even be possible without fumigating it?
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Wow, looks like a storage locker. Wonder who the heck would have that many manuals and why.
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Wonder who the heck would have that many manuals
Let me think... TerraHertz?
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Offer them to Google on the condition that they scan them all and make 'm accessible online?
Wilko
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For the microwave diode connoisseur: https://www.ebay.com/itm/284658931801?hash=item4246fe9859:g:FaAAAOSwLehiD3wZ (https://www.ebay.com/itm/284658931801?hash=item4246fe9859:g:FaAAAOSwLehiD3wZ)
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Recently suggested videos from this Australian scrap guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww1ZO0zVFlc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww1ZO0zVFlc)
He gets roasted in the comments occasionally for scrapping tons of valuable ICs. He's tossed pallets full of LGA CPUs.
I don't blame him, he doesn't have the time or knowledge to sort through all of this stuff or test it, most of it is really only worth scrap value.
On the other hand, it might be worthwhile to hire someone with technical knowledge that could sort through, test, and sell off some of the valuable parts or equipment.
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For the microwave diode connoisseur: https://www.ebay.com/itm/284658931801?hash=item4246fe9859:g:FaAAAOSwLehiD3wZ (https://www.ebay.com/itm/284658931801?hash=item4246fe9859:g:FaAAAOSwLehiD3wZ)
Well shit.
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/goodies-on-ebay-disguised-as-scrap/?action=dlattach;attach=1424278;image)
That's the first time I ever saw Bidnapper fail to register a snipe bid. Would have won easily I think.
Hopefully someone here got those. Quite an assortment of types. Perhaps they are all dead... but most likely not.
That seller thought they were 'contacts.' Good grief. This is exactly the kind of ignorant scrapping I hate.
(https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/goodies-on-ebay-disguised-as-scrap/?action=dlattach;attach=1424296;image)
Update: I'd guessed it was something like eBay chosing to pull that "are you human? Please click on all the images of boats" rubbish just then.
Digging into why my bid failed, the reason is even more stupid. Extract from the eBay automated bid response: "Failure eBay Trust & Safety Error Filter Id: In certain categories, including the Bullion category, selling internationally isn't allowed. ... "
I had my delivery address set to my reshipper in LA. But eBay has a bug... sometimes it gets confused about delivery address and you have to reset your current address in the listing when buying, before it 'remembers' your currently set address. Just one more reason to hate eBay.
No, TWO reasons. Their considering this item 'bullion'... bah. And why would that be a problem anyway?
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No, TWO reasons. Their considering this item 'bullion'... bah. And why would that be a problem anyway?
The category the seller chose to list under is "Coins and paper money > Bullion > Gold > Scrap and recovered gold". So that is why. As to why that category would be restricted, I'm sure you already know.
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I'm slightly confused by this PCB gold recovery business. I've ordered edge connectors with gold plating, and calculated that the gold was worth something like 10 cents for a dozen PCB. So how is this even worthwhile to ship somewhere by post. Someone is asking 20 USD for a kg of PCB, that has to be a scam, or bad valuation, right?
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Someone is asking 20 USD for a kg of PCB, that has to be a scam, or bad valuation, right?
There are various plating thicknesses - the older the better. You can have some really thick plating on the older high end stuff. For instance you have almost a gram of gold on a Pentium Pro. Also, there's bonding wires on ICs made from gold, not only PCB fingers, connector plating... For the new stuff the yield is very small IIRC though.
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Not gold, but a whole lot of seemingly new parts such as trimpots:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/115272971967?hash=item1ad6cdf6bf:g:wjMAAOSw6RFiHV2j (https://www.ebay.com/itm/115272971967?hash=item1ad6cdf6bf:g:wjMAAOSw6RFiHV2j)
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It didn't sell at $0.99 so it got relisted for $280.00 :-DD
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Looks like its back to 99c.
If they are genuine Bourns trimpots, probably worth it to someone, but I can't make out the value. 105?
Through hole GSPs in there as well.
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i wonder who buys that 'for gold' stuff. there is no way you can recover that much gold from the scrap ...
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Non-working GPUs, sell on ebay, for just about the price of the working unit. And currently, the average GPU sells for around maybe +2x it's paper value.
Broken GPU's are basically not worth fixing at this point, why bother to save 100$, for something thats probably already 2-3 yrs old
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i wonder who buys that 'for gold' stuff. there is no way you can recover that much gold from the scrap ...
Idiots who watched gold recovery videos on YouTube too much. Even if they can recover that gold to cover the cost of the scrap, chemicals which are requires will eat up any possible profit and lot of time is needed to be spent.
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Let alone correctly disposing of waste chemicals.. :palm:
Wilko
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i wonder who buys that 'for gold' stuff. there is no way you can recover that much gold from the scrap ...
Idiots who watched gold recovery videos on YouTube too much. Even if they can recover that gold to cover the cost of the scrap, chemicals which are requires will eat up any possible profit and lot of time is needed to be spent.
Let alone correctly disposing of waste chemicals.. :palm:
All of what you guys said is exactly what I’ve asked myself. There’s just no way it makes sense!!
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Broken GPU's sell for about 80-90% of the price of working GPU's. There must be next to no profit these days, in trying to buy broken GPU's, and fix them and sell them. The market is that screwed up. Between scalpers, miners, the supply chain shutdowns, the duopoly of Nvidia and AMD, and some big retailers, they have made GPU's largely unavailable, and unaffordable, to the average poor working person, let alone kids/teens that might want to save up for a GPU.
Wow I thought about this yesterday ?
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Tektronix ASICs (the interesting kind for the new high end oscilloscopes), a chunky FPGA:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/115556000019?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11001.m43.l2648&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=549dab5b85ef4ef68d35c2bc89960095&bu=43889533236&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20221013182138&segname=11001 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/115556000019?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11001.m43.l2648&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=549dab5b85ef4ef68d35c2bc89960095&bu=43889533236&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20221013182138&segname=11001)
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Tektronix ASICs (the interesting kind for the new high end oscilloscopes), a chunky FPGA:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/115556000019?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11001.m43.l2648&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=549dab5b85ef4ef68d35c2bc89960095&bu=43889533236&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20221013182138&segname=11001 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/115556000019?mkevt=1&mkpid=0&emsid=e11001.m43.l2648&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=549dab5b85ef4ef68d35c2bc89960095&bu=43889533236&osub=-1%7E1&crd=20221013182138&segname=11001)
Wonder what this means: "These are rejects from the assembly line."
Were they desoldered or just not picked up by the pick and place? odd.
Who is buying this crap, worthless PCBs: https://www.ebay.com/itm/384790513173 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/384790513173)
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:-DD
Should we tell the guys that buy these PCBs for "gold" that you can get 25 100x100mm ENIG PCBs at JLCPCB for less?
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There’s one
doofus scammer on there selling 100g of assorted MLCC capacitors (https://www.ebay.com/itm/144609953055) — ostensibly full of silver, palladium, etc. — for $100 plus shipping.
Equally sad, at least 4 people actually paid for that crap.
You can buy a 100g bar of silver bullion for $95 right now…
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He has 100% feedback, too.
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:-DD
Should we tell the guys that buy these PCBs for "gold" that you can get 25 100x100mm ENIG PCBs at JLCPCB for less?
If I had zero morals: make some "antique" looking PCB layouts, and just dropship to buyers.
Now you make me think though, how much gold is would be on a 100% plated JLC board:
ENIG plating thickness of each layer should be between 0.05 to 0.23 µm for the immersion gold layer and 2.5 to 5.0 µm for the electroless nickel.
So 100x100mm x 2 of 0.05um thickness is what 0.000000001m2? 0.5mm3
That should be 10mg of gold if true (50c worth), more than I was expecting. JLC charges ~60-80c per board.
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A bunch of what look like Teradyne tester boards, chock full of special relays: https://www.ebay.com/itm/155603446399 (https://www.ebay.com/itm/155603446399)
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Well I think I might have a way to make e-waste into a profit centre!
Got a whole pile of BER boards from various things, who would have thought you can shift that junk on ebay and get paid for it?
Hell, play it right and you might be able to make money drop shipping random connectors and tat to these folks from a convenient disty.
I wonder how many boxes of junk that market can absorb?
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Box full of what I believe to be thermal camera PCBs:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/364553986210?hash=item54e11c60a2:g:QtAAAOSwYTllP91-&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4C%2F74bj08QhxvbcHd8ft1TB3VUntdByaRVYCZaiQ4Xd2lRXK8UteoZpi7VQy0RN6ZLOwU9cW%2FGJMm5PHwA3Ez2ZftpvF5QvA5FtBU%2Fb8xS7Fz0rZ0ShzYp54I0SUGHFOBzx%2F9R24rHX6OTwDM38hRaH8zqDTKQ%2BeQ6dcWX1HuW7gb%2FuyasvmHXkXkuVmIYP4dJW90M3aybQLtHRSU8UiFz236NO8%2BtUyeYloI7xXIz6e2YARymdWc5y6efuI3EhXStzZ1kyqh%2FZsGExFwWypBmg0gj7zVdN0cJ0xO5VQ7EhM%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_rvhKDwYg (https://www.ebay.com/itm/364553986210?hash=item54e11c60a2:g:QtAAAOSwYTllP91-&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA4C%2F74bj08QhxvbcHd8ft1TB3VUntdByaRVYCZaiQ4Xd2lRXK8UteoZpi7VQy0RN6ZLOwU9cW%2FGJMm5PHwA3Ez2ZftpvF5QvA5FtBU%2Fb8xS7Fz0rZ0ShzYp54I0SUGHFOBzx%2F9R24rHX6OTwDM38hRaH8zqDTKQ%2BeQ6dcWX1HuW7gb%2FuyasvmHXkXkuVmIYP4dJW90M3aybQLtHRSU8UiFz236NO8%2BtUyeYloI7xXIz6e2YARymdWc5y6efuI3EhXStzZ1kyqh%2FZsGExFwWypBmg0gj7zVdN0cJ0xO5VQ7EhM%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_rvhKDwYg)
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Microwave diodes!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/235438042156?itmmeta=01HQ0W3C7BMCDFBK8T94JBB8XZ&hash=item36d1336c2c:g:8oYAAOSwF1Rl0ryW&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwMLPBysb3zxYMJq%2B5C%2BFe3uE7UmTpKQlTThQ5k%2FCGDlf4M48tvDjgPoo2WzA1t7WcDTbITxGwBpm4FkidteQ%2FIJOB6MnG7ryp0F07mynXfdIh90OCuGcVpVla1WxLY9U47kFOEMLPwLLkNG19kK3xSwodOttUfRsvHTcheymdKIoj0RpyWqIisa789sgHDCUicgTjvhQtTZaOCvOD8XcA19h3MUcpyx%2FhZ8YLj3NuUSa7ngD4KSbME%2Bh%2BT9TBeVXUw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-DDjZy4Yw (https://www.ebay.com/itm/235438042156?itmmeta=01HQ0W3C7BMCDFBK8T94JBB8XZ&hash=item36d1336c2c:g:8oYAAOSwF1Rl0ryW&itmprp=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwMLPBysb3zxYMJq%2B5C%2BFe3uE7UmTpKQlTThQ5k%2FCGDlf4M48tvDjgPoo2WzA1t7WcDTbITxGwBpm4FkidteQ%2FIJOB6MnG7ryp0F07mynXfdIh90OCuGcVpVla1WxLY9U47kFOEMLPwLLkNG19kK3xSwodOttUfRsvHTcheymdKIoj0RpyWqIisa789sgHDCUicgTjvhQtTZaOCvOD8XcA19h3MUcpyx%2FhZ8YLj3NuUSa7ngD4KSbME%2Bh%2BT9TBeVXUw%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR-DDjZy4Yw)