Best ROI for Hard Disk Drive SATA type boards

Shark Scrapper looks at how to maximize his ROI scrapping Hard Disk Drives (HDD) with low-grade/SATA connector boards. Is it better to remove the boards or just leave them on?
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[@FollowMe2aMillion]

Boards on board, gotta love it!

[@sharkscrapper]

Only scrappers get it 🤣

[@boardsort]

I absolutely love these cost analysis videos! If I could muddy the water a bit (Shark pun). $1 shipping is a reasonable estimate when shipping motherboards and other larger size scrap. But when dealing with smaller, lighter items like Hard Drive Boards, RAM, CPUs it can be significantly reduced by using Flat Rate Boxes. You can ship 32 pounds of Gold RAM (nearly $700 worth) for $16 in a Medium Flat Rate. That brings the effective shipping cost to 50 cents per pound.

[@sharkscrapper]

A very good observation Chris, thank you. As you know, Bull sharks love to hunt in muddy waters 🦈

[@boardsort]

If I could mix in bit more mud. I love hourly breakdowns as much as the next guy, particularly when we are paying someone by the hour to perform the work. However it is important to add context. $4.37 additional to your bottom line per hour spent is only relevant to the alternative of $0 per hour by not doing it. I understand our time is valuable, but the context of that time is important. I know many scrappers who pull copper from motors for an extremely low ROI. If we were to compare apples to oranges it still all adds up. We have an overly used cliche' here that we say in situations like this...."What's in YOUR bucket?" :)

[@SilverScorpion]

Great points all the way around for you both. I don't worry so much about what I make an hr because I would be watching TV if I wasn't scrapping. So it's all money for me no matter the rate.

[@sharkscrapper]

@@SilverScorpion makes perfect sense

[@streetcopper1151]

Love you guys 👊🏻

[@ecoscrapper6186]

Great breakdown Shark. I'm reasonably new to e-waste scrapping and found this very informative!

[@sharkscrapper]

Glad to be of service Eco. Here's the link to my playlist of similar content, all ROI type videos: kzbin.info/aero/PLPCBlDcDB_dxYtK5Qe9HqFM05DsfJ--5M

[@TheUltimateRecycler]

Nice analysis Shark! I'm a big fan of knowing where my time is best spent! 👍😊

[@sharkscrapper]

Same here! I may not always use wisely, but at least I know when I'm wasting it 😂

[@jamessnyman2166]

Thanks for the numbers shark, nice to work out stuff like that and see what it pay

[@sharkscrapper]

You bet

[@andrewpowell6457]

Interesting indeed

[@josephcormier5974]

Unless you recover gold and silver it's not worth the time my yard does not take any ewaist so I scrap the hard drives all the way down sharky I thank you for sharing this information it will help a lot of people five stars my friend

[@sharkscrapper]

Thanks Joseph. Much harder if one's yard does not take ewaste.

[@streetcopper1151]

Love these videos when you do spreadsheets.. it’s still worth it to me to take off the low-grade boards… Just a simple fact that they don’t really give great prices for hard drives in my area to begin with👊🏻.. Great video shark

[@sharkscrapper]

Glad you like them! So much depends on what/how you can sell the components.

[@streetcopper1151]

@@sharkscrapper 100% truth right there .. I always listen to the prices you get .. it’s crazy to see the difference between yards and or states

[@Alrik.]

Very interesting comparison as always! :D

[@sharkscrapper]

Glad you think so!

[@SilverScorpion]

Great video. I tear them down completely. Just took a huge load of aluminum. Will be posting tomarow night I think. I don't think it is worth the time / money to do them that way but I want the gold off of them for myself.

[@sharkscrapper]

I like to say the only wrong way to scrap is if it breaks the law👮🏻‍♂️ , gets you or someone else injured (seriously)🚑 , OR you have no idea why you're doing it 😂 Other than those, there's a lot of right ways and reasons to do it however one does it.

[@billyb5057]

A very interesting comparison of what you can get *gave a like👍Au 👀full view*

[@sharkscrapper]

Thank you 👍

[@ScrappingIrish]

nice shark just strip the high grade great return on them

[@sharkscrapper]

Glad you like it Irish

[@adventureswithttfncachn3967]

My local buyer charges $5 pet HD or $1 per platter to recycle. They only way to make any money would be to sell them to my yard for shred locally. Luckily I will be camping near Boardsort in June so I am going make a stop.

[@sharkscrapper]

They charge you to recycle them?! Wow! Sounds like a good plan, taking them to Boardsort while camping near them.

[@scrappinge-wasteholland460]

nice job to do . and nice money

[@sharkscrapper]

Thank you

[@jwilson1415]

I still tear down my hard drives but also as a hobbyist I'm usually not doing more than a few at a time. If I got a large amount I'd probably sell them as is too (newer ones). I do sell my laptop sized drives with boards to my yard because the platter is usually glass and the aluminum is so thin I've cracked the shell trying to get the stubborn screws removed. My yard did 20 cents a pound last year for hard drives with boards so I'm afraid to ask them what it would be without a board but I completely open the 3.5 inch drives to separate everything, plus I'm saving the aluminum rings inside to sell as art/craft items on Ebay.

[@sharkscrapper]

A very good approach for you.

[@stuartstone6359]

Of course there is alternate way to look at this and that's to did punt the roi you calculated. Because if you just took the board off when dismantaling the pc/server then it's only actually taking you a few seconds and is well worth the extra value at the time. The amount you earn per hour is only realistically going to be edge to be of you stockpile them and do them in a big batch

[@sharkscrapper]

You bring up a good thought exercise. Should one batch the HDD's or do them as part of the PC break down? I usually do them as part of the PC break down flow. But sometimes, as in this load, I end up with a stack of HDD's all by themselves.

[@SollersScrappingandDiving]

Lol my video this week is doing the numbers and comparisons but with something different (and in Sollers style obviously🤣), but with good old pen and paper, Geekshark is very hightech with his spreadsheets and therefore his maths is probably a lot more accurate lol! This was very helpful for me to know what to do with mine, just need to compare the numbers for the different boards with my new refiners👍🙂

[@sharkscrapper]

LOL - I'm not smart enough to use pencil and paper 🤣

[@SollersScrappingandDiving]

@@sharkscrapper oh stop it!!🤪

[@cuscrapping]

I'm going to have to re-calculate my numbers. My newer buyer pays $9.00/lb for hard drive boards. They don't split them out. So IDE will still go to Boardsort, but I'm thinking it WILL be worth removing SATA for $9.00. Got to get some food in me to crunch the numbers, though! 👍

[@sharkscrapper]

Always important to run the numbers. Is that $9/lbs for the complete HDD or just the boards? I'm only getting $0.46/lbs for complete HDD's here.

[@cuscrapping]

@@sharkscrapper That's just the boards. So still going to separate IDE/SATA. Going to send IDE to Boardsort and SATA to local guys. Local guys are paying $0.60 for complete HDDs.

[@steverabchuk5401]

Wish you could of dropped in CD rom drive boards too. I have two large milk crates that I'm undecided what I will do with them!

[@sharkscrapper]

If it's any help here's what I do. First pull the board for sale to BOARDSORT.COM. They are paying $5.10/lb for CDROM boards and shipping costs me about $1/lbs. So I come out way ahead of what my local yard will pay. Next I pull the spindle if it is brass - you've likely seen me do this in some of my vids. There might be gold flashing on the ribbon wire that connects the read head to the board. If you're into refining, keep that. Lastly, for hobbyists, there are three copper bearing motors you can go after. They are not worth my time as a biz, but when I was doing it as a hobby, I went after them. The rest goes into shred. I'll add a CDROM ROI vid to the planning list. Hopefully this response will help you in the mean time. Sharky

[@steverabchuk5401]

@@sharkscrapper I think I may just sell the CD drives to my local yard. I will be pulling the boards off the 33 IDE HD's I have!

[@sharkscrapper]

@@steverabchuk5401 👍🏻 33 IDE's? awesome

[@jr-a-cat]

Can you do this with the old ones . Here are some numbers for you what if you loaded up the Shark Mobil with sides @ .58 a mile to come to Boardsort .

[@sharkscrapper]

The "old" ones are the high-grade or IDE pinned ones I mentioned near the end. Now as for driving them to BOARDSORT...that 879 miles @$0.58/mile = $509.82. At $14.25/lbs for High Grade Non-SATA HDD Board, I'd only need about 36 lbs to break even. But, that's about a 13 hour drive to we'd need to add in hotel and meals. Also not sure what/if there are tolls along the route. Could I make money driving them myself - yes. Do I want to park my butt in the Sharkmobile for a couple days? ?????🤣

[@dr.a006]

And who said high school math isn’t applicable in life??!! Work smarter AND harder not just harder😆 Time is money!

[@sharkscrapper]

I love it, smarter and harder 🤣

[@barrywest3758]

Unless you've got High volumes everyday and hire low low low wage earners, nothing makes it worth it. Enjoyed 👍👍

[@sharkscrapper]

LOL - and I'm the lowest cost employee one can ever have 🤣

[@cuscrapping]

Great video!! Of course my "local" ewaste yard is stilll a 3 hour drive for me. I am actually taking them my first shipment today. A whole Gaylord box of low grade boards. a bunch of laptops, and some other misc. stuff. Will be interesting to see what the payout will be. Stay tuned.....

[@sharkscrapper]

Looking forward to the payout. I've just staged my first gaylord for filling. I found a processor within reasonable driving distance. I now have three levels of buyers. High end material to BOARDSORT. Mid-grade stuff to the new processor. And bulky/heavy low grade material to local yard. This is coming together nicely.

[@cuscrapping]

@@sharkscrapper Very nice! Looking forward to hearing about your new business contact. 👍

[@dannysims2714]

I break my hdd down all the way and sell the aluminum, stainless steel and small motors to my local yard sell magnet on eBay looking for place to sell reader heads

[@sharkscrapper]

Yeah, reader heads can be a challenge. Let us know if you come up with something better than "breakage" for them.

[@urbanprospector3007]

I look at it from a different side. What is the recovery rate of copper and precious metals I can recover. Yes time is the enemy, but over time it may become your friend. So for now I stack my low grade HHD boards.

[@sharkscrapper]

Yes, PM recovery is a different story.

[@souldasherjoanie7517]

Math make head hurt 😂😂😂😂😂

[@sharkscrapper]

🤣 I keep telling geek shark the same thing but he loves his spread sheets.

[@ScrappingIrish]

First

[@sharkscrapper]

😅

[@philpate1844]

34th LOL 😆

[@SollersScrappingandDiving]

I see your 34th and raise you 39th😂😉

[@ScrappingIrish]

What took ye so long lol

[@SollersScrappingandDiving]

@@ScrappingIrish well I watched quite soon but was a snail in the comments clearly 😆

[@ScrappingIrish]

@@SollersScrappingandDiving you snooze you lose

[@trevorbedell4999]

Second

[@ScrappingIrish]

No prize for second oh wait no prize for first either

[@trevorbedell4999]

Looks like we both get no prize but just helping one another scrapper or refiners,cheers for now my friend

[@sharkscrapper]

🤣

[@sharkscrapper]

😆