My brother has some old electronics around. Do you guys suppose that it is worth the time to strip the gold out of them?
If you know where to find it and can find a buyer willing to take the time to test it I suppose yes. I wouldn't sent to Cash 4 Gold etc.
Always worth it, just don't expect to harvest that much, even if you have a garage full of stuff. Avoid those cash-4-gold offers, not sure they will accept from electronics waste anyway. Also do the research to find a place that will take the stuff from you for the best return, loss of profit. The time spent doing this will be worth the effort of collecting the metals. I also suggest wearing gloves, even latex or nitrile gloves if you will be handling any amount of silver in consumer products. Just read up on metals and ewaste toxicity as you get into this stuff. There are EPA links and other info online about the topic if you are seriously getting into scrap.
It probably isn't worth the effort time-wise or monetarily, but might be a worthwhile experience to see if you can extract the gold and sell it for, well, anything.
I'm no expert but I would be very careful taking apart any old electronics due to the fact they can sometime hold charges of current that may discharge and hurt you! If you end up hurt how much was the gold worth? Nada ....Just recycle the unit and let the professionals handle the reclaim. a word to the wise....Paddy
You can refer to the book Electroincs Projects for Dummies or check out some online forums for safely digging around inside of computer towers to understand how to discharge built up charges held inside of unplugged computers and appliances, and what not to touch or how to test them for charges if you are getting into this stuff.
I know a PM forum that has discussions on various methods of retrieving PMs from things such as computer equipment as well as discussions on whether or not its worth the effort. http://www.goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/ It sorta forces you to become a member before you can look at anything and it seems alot of chemistry is involved in PM retrieval.
"old gold jewelry"? well now that all depends... if it's ancient-old, then maybe it's quite worth something to a museum or private collector. I doubt Lord Carnarvon felt bummed when his team pulled decorative jewelry type pieces out of the Tut tomb. =p Also, note that this thread has so far been on the topic of e-scrap. Jewelry is another thing altogether. It's value is much different than e-scrap for various reasons. The mark up on jewelry usually makes it a bad investment unless it's inherited or bought for very little leaving some room for profit. A lot of junk jewelry accumulated in metal detection or hoarded from garage sales, thrift stores, etc. might not be such a bad turnaround in profit.
Dan There is a place in Phoenix near my employer who does computer recovery....they suck out all the precious metals and discard the junk. It is on Curry near Miller in Scottsdale. See me at the Glendale show for details, I will have them by then. if you are dealing with small amounts tho, it might not be worth it, they prefer over an ounce of recoverable metal.
