PC Tower scrapping a waste of time?

Shark Scrapper is seeking to understand if scrapping PC towers is worth his time. We scrap 10 similar PC towers and compare the value of selling as whole PC's vs the scrap elements.
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[@dr.a006]

Thanks for the spreadsheet. Showing dollar per hour: “That makes a lot of cents” you said. Dollars and cents!

[@sharkscrapper]

OMG, I crack myself up sometimes 🤣

[@metaldragonbraveheart]

Glad I get all my PC and laptops free , Took me years to establish the connections though.

[@cuscrapping]

Great video. Now that I have established a local e-waste yard, I am going to be stepping up my e-waste game!! BTW...tell Chris all those unidentified packages are mine!! 😜😂🤣

[@sharkscrapper]

🤣 love your sense of humor Roger. Should Chris send individual checks or just roll them all up into one 😆

[@davegdm954]

I'm not 100%sure but there's a chance one of my packages made it into the esoup pics on the website. oops

[@Man-in-da-shed]

An interesting time versus return project. Although time is not as important to the hobbyist, what can be gained is in estimating return value should the opportunity to buy a bunch of PC’s come along

[@sharkscrapper]

Agreed - but geek shark just loves doing this kind of stuff 🤣

[@ryanstruble5381]

Excellent informative video Shark. Solidified my idea of buying from the scrap yard like you do. Thanks

[@sharkscrapper]

Very cool - keep us posted on your success with that.

[@julianalcorso5703]

Love your analysis of the real values in E-waste. There are so many myths out there that need busting. As well it gives an excellent perspective on the grossly inflated prices asked for E-waste components of platforms like eBay. Thank you and keep up the good work!!

[@sharkscrapper]

Thank you Julian. If my vids help one person make a more informed decision I’ll have succeeded in my goal.

[@jackmclane1826]

I only take the RAM, cards, processor, HDDs (for the boards) and leave the rest in the mixed ewaste bins. If there is a gold corner chip on the board (rare today on consumer stuff) I desolder it with a little gas powered heat gun. Servers sometimes have massive CU coolers.

[@sharkscrapper]

I love learning all the different approaches people take with scrapping PC's. Thanks for sharing.

[@YouCoontsSeeMe]

Very cool video Shark. Awesome on the I- series.

[@sharkscrapper]

Glad you enjoyed

[@jamessnyman5515]

Great info, thanks Shark

[@sharkscrapper]

Any time!

[@mikeahl5123]

I hope you also clip the ends of the wires off those plugs are pins are gold plated good for gold scrapping.

[@sharkscrapper]

Hey Mike - no I don't remover the connector ends. I don't do gold recovery myself but could sell them to Boardsort for $1.25/lbs. With shipping at around $1/lbs I'd only get $0.25/lbs BUT one of my local yards buys my #2 ICW at $1.02/lbs with ends still on. So for me it's faster, easier and more money to just leave them on. I suppose I could try to sell them on eBay for some inflated price as "Gold Recovery Material," but it doesn't feel right to me.

[@barrywest3758]

One thing you didn't mention in the video was your cost per unit. Cost ÷ Number of Units. But still an excellent return and informative exercise. Really enjoyed 👍👍

[@sharkscrapper]

Barry - I didn't consider cost per unit because I buy and sell by weight. However, since we have ten units in this sample we could divide the $64.08 scrap value by ten to get $6.41/unit.

[@Grandassets]

I am a scraper in N.Y sometimes we charge to remove computers, sometimes from smaller shops we may give $1 a unit, it all depends on the situation and the quality of the equipment .... I average 50 to 100 computers a week, last week we turned in 1080 Lbs of mother boards, I still have 800 unsorted CPUs and 40 Lbs of ram we also have done upwards of 400 laptops this year, whats sad is almost everything comes to us working pulled from service clean from companies we also do other metals .... and Cats :)

[@sharkscrapper]

@@Grandassets Nice to meet you Robert

[@ScrapFatherScrapSon]

@@GrandassetsI’ve got 4 bmw cats and one is a wire mesh only offered 10$ the other 3 are ceramic. They offered 35$. I politely rejected the offer and going to hold them. I’ve been told prices are way down on converters but damn only 35$?

[@dr.a006]

I save up all the boards that aren’t cost effective to ship to Boardsort and luckily I have a yard about 30 mins away that takes them for up to $1.50/lb. I think they have to be in the $4-ish and up per pound at boardsort to make the cost of shipping worth it. Working CPUs are definitely a bonus!

[@sharkscrapper]

I get it. Shipping to Boardsort for me averages about $1/lbs. So Boardsort needs to offer more than what my local yard is offering plus a $1/lbs ot make it worth it. That works for the higher end boards but not small socket MB and less.

[@steve.roadcap]

I realize this is a year old but let me help Geek Shark. To figure out how much you make per hour you would divide your total of 64.08 by the number of minutes (1 hour 23 minutes is 83 minutes) to figure out how much you made per minute then multiply that 60 to find your hourly rate. Respectively you earned 0.7720481928 per minute and that works out to 46.32289157 per hour. Thanks for the videos about scrapping.

[@sharkscrapper]

Steve - you're missing a critical point. My work only produced an additional $33.48, not $64.08. Yes I got $64.08 by scrapping the PC's but I if I had done nothing I would have been paid $30.60. So my work, approximately 1.5 hours, only got me an extra $33.48. I based what I earned per hour on the increased value my time yielded. Geek Shark is also a believer in significant figures, so we only need to express the value out to two significant digits. Hopefully that helps/makes sense.

[@jwilson1415]

Good time to get those i series taken apart too before they sit and get old, I got some of those i5-3xxx & 4xxx to tear apart still and my goal is to have them apart by June. The longer I wait, the older the CPU and ram get the less valuable they tend to sell for. I usually sell them on Ebay but boardsort is a nice way to avoid the testing, listing and fees involved there. The memory that would have been in those has already seen a drop in price on Ebay from last year but it can fluctuate in price so hard to say if it'll stay that low or go up a bit later in the year.

[@sharkscrapper]

Agreed - CPU tech is changing so rapidly you don't want to wait long before getting older i-series out on the market.

[@arkansasscrapper]

Can we download the spreadsheet that you use. Shipmates, your doing a hell of a job teaching how thing work in the scrap world.

[@sharkscrapper]

Happy to send it to you Daryl. Drop me an email at [e-mail]

[@tammyreeves168]

Bless you

[@sharkscrapper]

Thank you Tammy 🤣

[@joek511]

The last time I dealt with Board Sort was about 6 years ago. Just recieved about 240 tower units. Yes I break them down by style (brand). I was surprised when I saw the working CPU price list. Not sure yet how many are I series but I have 240 0f them to look at. All the units were 100%, 4 ram, HDD, CDD and even floppy drives. Took me about 16 working hours. (9lbs of ram) woth $13 an hour. Given it's just something to do when I have nothing better to do, it's more then doing nothing, for nothing.

[@sharkscrapper]

It's a great hobby and fun biz. Enjoy

[@audreymeriscal3247]

Awesome video!!! Very informative. I hope you received and enjoyed the small box of e-waste goodies. Have a great weekend Anthony and Audrey Meriscal

[@sharkscrapper]

Sorry I haven't responded sooner - YT was hiding this one for some reason. Yes, I did get your package, thank you very much. A little something headed your way in tomorrow's mail.

[@Dav3Campb3ll]

Mountain of computers Awesome video 💥 👍

[@sharkscrapper]

Thank you 👍

[@firedogpotter]

Sorry Shark! Those PCs must have come from my office. LOL! At my work all the old computers "must" go through our surplus system because they all have ID tags. But.... Shhhh.. My office manager lets me pull the hard drives and ram before they go off to recycle.

[@sharkscrapper]

🤣 mums the word, I won't tell anyone 😂

[@scottdunn4506]

Do you ever try some of the computers to see if they work like the laptops

[@sharkscrapper]

Sometimes yes. Most of what I get is in pretty rough shape but I do test some things.

[@justinpatterson5291]

I'd be looking for hidden hardware legends and seeking out the cases with the most unique or useful features/ most moddable cases for sff builds.

[@sharkscrapper]

I have a couple set aside for ghost or vintage sales. Always looking for what's good enough to sell for reuse instead of scrap.

[@bigredbullion3883]

Great video

[@sharkscrapper]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@SilverScorpion]

That was a great video. Hiw do you know the I-0000 series chips work to sell them at that price?

[@sharkscrapper]

I don't. Boardsort tests them at their end. If they pass, we get the "Tested CPU" price. If they fail, we get the scrap value.

[@SilverScorpion]

@@sharkscrapper o ok. Thank you

[@nachostuff]

Congrats on 6K! Love the new scale. No RAM in the computers? Based on numbers - could you sell the whole computer less the mother board for the same 18 cents a pound? If so wouldn't it make sense to pull the motherboard and sell the units as whole computers? That would be serious cherry picking. What is your % of workable units with the i series CPUs?

[@sharkscrapper]

No RAM was very odd indeed. I wouldn't feel right selling the shell and no MB at PC price. Most buyers emphasis that all components must be in place to get the "whole PC" price. If I take the MB, all that's left is the shred shell, PSU and CDROM. So nothing of value beyond shred price. My pass rate on i-series CPU's is right around 98%.

[@Grandassets]

agreed, I have started to leave PSU and CD drives in and shoot it all to shred, pull MB, ram and CPU time is money!

[@sharkscrapper]

@@Grandassets you know it

[@ScrapFatherScrapSon]

What percentage of CPU’s would you say pass the working test when you send in to board sort. I know this would be different for everyone. What’s the best way to package then to make sure they aren’t damaged??

[@sharkscrapper]

My success rate has been in the high 90% range. Easily better than 95%. I noticed you watched my video on selling i-series, hopefully that answered your question about packaging. If not, feel free to send me an email for follow up.

[@ScrapFatherScrapSon]

@@sharkscrapper that’s perfect thanks!

[@sixtee5cuda98]

Thank you for the great video. With those CPU prices, an argument could be made for just pulling the CPU out of the computer, and finding someone who will take the remains for a small $/lb amount. How quickly would you have been done, if you were just pulling heatsinks, wiping off thermal paste, and setting aside the processors? There is the downside of "leaving money on the table", but you might see a large increase in the $/Hr results. (Thank you for showing your spreadsheet techniques. I've never seen "copy and paste a function in a single cell to a range of destination cells" before. Very useful.)

[@ChrisD__]

I haven't watched the video only from the thumbnail and skimming the comments. A lot of those PC's probably have decent parts in them if anything in them work, and the CPU and RAM problem do. I sure as hell hope they're not turning all that into scrap metal.

[@sharkscrapper]

Let me know what you think after you've watched the video.

[@sharkscrapper]

It's a good discussion point Sixtee5 Cuda. Since there's no guarantee that the CPU's will pass functional test I have to assume I'll only get scrap value for them. Therefore, I need to scrap the entire PC tower to derive maximum value. It is my normal work flow with towers - unless they appear good enough to set aside for sale as towers. These were also unusual in all having pretty good i-series CPU's. Also strange that none of them had RAM or HDD's.

[@realSamAndrew]

Hey cuda, not to be snarky, but that copy/paste function is literally the most basic feature of a spreadsheet. If not for this, it would be little more than a calculator or even a text formatter. If you've ever taken a primer or intro to spreadsheets I find it hard to believe that wasn't covered. Cheers.

[@sixtee5cuda98]

@@realSamAndrew Pasting a function from one cell into multiple target locations is not "the most basic feature of a spreadsheet". Or maybe my first spreadsheet program wasn't Lotus 1-2-3. And maybe I didn't teach my first Excel class in 1988.

[@marthashipman9010]

I know nothing about computers but whatever i have picked up from watching you. However i find i really enjoy watching these videos of you breaking these down. 😊

[@sharkscrapper]

Thank you Martha. I'm glad you like them!

[@jr-a-cat]

I like to wipe CPU the off before taking them out of the holder less chance of damage . It seems like they are picking the bones before you are getting them lucky for you they are leaving the CPU's👍

[@sharkscrapper]

It was very odd that these had been picked over but the CPU's were still inside. I can only guess the thought was to remove the HDD and RAM to protect data. Not that the RAM made a difference. But I can understand removing the HDD's.

[@SollersScrappingandDiving]

I love a comparison video, I wish I was better at spreadsheets for them to do the maths for me 😂 Let's hope they all work 😉 (the CPUs)

[@sharkscrapper]

Glad you're enjoying the comp videos. Yes, I am - unfortunately - better at excel than I ever thought I would become.

[@andrewpowell6457]

Jeepers someone really didn't like some of those pc cases, great breakdown

[@sharkscrapper]

They were in rough condition for sure.

[@CanadianTreasureHunter]

No Ram Sticks in that load?

[@sharkscrapper]

No very odd

[@Alrik.]

At first i thought you'd forgot to mention how much you buy the PCs for, but then I realised that isn't important for this calculation. I like the nerdy Shark because he talks about money, but nothing bests greasy hard working normal Shark! 😜

[@sharkscrapper]

Trust me, there's nothing NORMAL about dirty shark 🤣 Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@greghawkins229]

Could you take out ram and cpu before selling computer

[@sharkscrapper]

It all depends on your buyer. Some buyers are very strict and demand all the basic components: MB, CPU, HDD, PSU, RAM be in place. Others are more flexible. Obviously the guy I'm buying these from is very flexible 🤣

[@souldasherjoanie7517]

How do you know if a CPU works?

[@sharkscrapper]

I don't. Boardsort tests them at their end. If they pass, we get the "Tested CPU" price. If they fail, we get the scrap value.

[@julianalcorso5703]

Just another quick comment..... Why not just take out the CPUs and sell the rest as whole computers?

[@sharkscrapper]

The local yards don’t pay much for whole PCs

[@tonymauldenjr2722]

What if you break a board?

[@sharkscrapper]

I break boards all the time. In fact, sometimes I break/cut boards to upgrade part of it. You must be careful doing that and understand if it will gain you more money.

[@tims8603]

Some of those are better than any of my computers. Linux runs fine on older computers.

[@sharkscrapper]

That's rough Tim, some of these were in very bad condition.

[@tims8603]

@@sharkscrapper I was talking more about the CPU. My best one is an i5. It's plenty fast running Linux for what I do.

[@sharkscrapper]

@@tims8603 👍🏻

[@josephcormier5974]

Excellent video sharky I have always thought that it was better to scrap them all the way much better value five stars my friend thank you

[@sharkscrapper]

Now you know for sure. And the numbers would have been even better if there had been RAM and HDD's. Thanks for the 5 ⭐s

[@vermasean]

Obligatory Liked and Sub’d! 👍▶️♻️

[@sharkscrapper]

Please don't feel obligated. Thank you for subscribing. I hope you'll continue to enjoy my videos.

[@Drewsroofingandhomerepair]

I’ll be back

[@sharkscrapper]

🤣

[@Drewsroofingandhomerepair]

Computers bring good money

[@sharkscrapper]

Yes they do

[@XM202LadyTrucker]

FYI geek scrappa us Ladys L💖VE our Shark scrappas' D I R T Y! Just like we prefer our men from Santa's NAUGHTY LIST! 😚

[@sharkscrapper]

😝😜

[@billyb5057]

an interesting test of best time spent versus what you can get $$$ *🥸watch it all🥸Au👍 leaving a like👍*

[@sharkscrapper]

glad you like it