Unlock Maximum Profit from Gold Finger Cards

Shark Scrapper is responding to viewer requests to perform a Return on Investment (ROI) video for how much processing should be done to gold finger cards, also known as slot cards. The results may surprise you because the sure surprised us.
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[@sharkscrapper]

Here's where a lot of these boards came from: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bImyk3ymashsZ7c

[@RaspberryPi-u7j]

Love the Geek Shark segments, helps me focus on what to do first. Thanks very much.👍

[@sharkscrapper]

Our pleasure! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@BH_Nate]

Thank you for grinding the numbers on this. You do a great service. Always informative and fun.

[@sharkscrapper]

Glad you found it helpful. More to come.

[@Sophie.Lane.73]

Taking the brackets off is the way I do it. It help optimize the packing of the box. The more I can get in that shipping box makes my bottom line better

[@sharkscrapper]

That makes a lot of sense as the brackets would complicate tight packing. I checked the cost difference to ship by weight and still makes sense to leave the brackets on BUT I need to take a look at how the brackets impact the volume, or how many you can fit. Thinking through how to do that test.

[@thadofalltrades]

@@sharkscrapper you'd probably have to do two groups of comparable weight, one with brackets and one without, and then pick a smallish package and see how much more you can get in one vs the other.

[@MrTea1964ad]

Very thorough explanation, thanks!

[@sharkscrapper]

My pleasure. It's all about the numbers, right?

[@vinnienowhere1015]

Interesting vid. Will keep this in mind. Been wanting to calculate this for determining whether to strip #1 insulated wire or sell it as is.

[@sharkscrapper]

That is a very good question. I did a video like that a while back using my new Stripmeister wire stripper. As I'm sure you understand not all #1 ICW is the same. Some is easier than other to strip. And copper prices can vary a lot by location and time. But here's what I came up with: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rZirkqaPfZp8gLc

[@vinnienowhere1015]

12 gauge is about where I draw the line. Sometimes though I think some of the thhn is 14 gauge which makes it pretty tedious.

[@cuscrapping]

It's good to see Geek Shark again!! 😁🦈 That is VERY interesting and surprising!! I am still adjusting to leaving the SATA boards on the hard drive, now I'll have to take a look at this! 🤔

[@sharkscrapper]

The more we learn, the more we realize we don't know. Before you make any changes I realized that I didn't fully consider shipping cost impact. The additional cost to ship the brackets is about $1.45. But Geek Shark didn't look at if the brackets would require using a larger box for the same number of boards. There may be more to this story.

[@josephcormier5974]

This was very interesting also very informative thank you for sharing this six stars brother

[@sharkscrapper]

My pleasure - glad you found it helpful.

[@andrewpowellnz]

Great video both iterations of the shark. 🤗

[@sharkscrapper]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@christopherleubner6633]

Easiest, rig a foot switch to a wire brush with a small vacuum cleaner, brush the gold off and save the dust takes a few seconds per board and saves a lot in chemicals when you go for the gold later Older ISA boards might need better salvage because they may have chips and palladium bearing capacitors. ❤

[@sharkscrapper]

To be honest, I have no idea what you mean. If you're saying a wire brush will remove the gold fingers which the vac will collect, I don't believe that will work. I've seen videos of people trying to remove the gold fingers without chemicals and it's not very easy. And having used a wire brush with a vac to reduce dust, I've found there's still a lot of dust that doesn't get captured meaning a lot of lost gold. This would also require set up or a stand along work station with the rig in place taking either time or space. Maybe I'm misunderstanding you.

[@electronicscrapper4956]

Very interesting.Thanks Geek Shark

[@sharkscrapper]

My pleasure!

[@boduke455]

Is there a substantial difference in shipping costs for fully clean vs removing only heat sinks and motors? Interested to see if accounting for weight/volume -> shipping costs would make a difference?

[@sharkscrapper]

A very good question. I ran the numbers for the extra weight and the brackets add $1.35. So by weight leaving the brackets on is still the winner. Now here's what Geek Shark needs to work on. Volume. Do the brackets force you to sue a bigger box for the same number of boards? Could make for an interesting follow on vid.

[@dr.a006]

I guess one more variable between clean gold finger cards with bracket vs no bracket is how much will it cost to ship the extra iron and space it takes up? I know, this is sounding more like a high school story problem which we all dread😅

[@sharkscrapper]

LOL - well...I actually ran those numbers. Shipping the boards with the brackets on $6.76. Shipping the clean boards is $5.31. So you'd still make more money, about $2 in this case, selling the boards with the brackets on. But here's the excursion I haven't done yet. How much does the bracket impact the volume? Does leaving the bracket on require a larger box for the same number of boards and therefore add even more shipping cost? Geek Shark needs to spend some time looking at that.

[@dr.a006]

@ haha 😆 Keep it up 🤓🦈

[@homestead36]

Did you factor in shipping with the different weights

[@sharkscrapper]

Yes - I may do a follow up showing those numbers but the additional weight for shipping doesn’t change the outcome. What I need to take a harder look at is volume. Do the brackets significantly reduce how much can get packed in a typical size box for shipping.

[@billyb5057]

most interesting my friend thumbs up👍Au💯full view always

[@sharkscrapper]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@charlespaschal25]

You forgot to consider the extra space wasted by leaving the brackets in addition to the extra weight you will pay shipping on. This will affect your shipping cost a fare amount.

[@sharkscrapper]

This is a very good question. When I ran the numbers based just on weight I get a difference of $1.45. So leaving the brackets on is still better but not by as much. However, leaving the brackets on may require using a larger box to ship the same number of boards. I need to have Geek Shark dig a little deeper on this.

[@jr-a-cat]

What will be the extra shipping the bracket on there ? Will the Jenny lift raise the box to put in truck trailer save on lift gate fee .See what carrier is located in the area and take the box terminal yourself like ABF , R&L,Old Dominion , Now put those brackets back on

[@sharkscrapper]

In this case the brackets only add $1.35 so option 2 is still the winner. The issue might be if the brackets require a bigger box for the same number of boards. That Gaylord is over 1,000 lbs. Way more than my poor Genie lift can handle. Nope, I'll be paying for a lift gate for a while longer.

[@MerchantMetals]

great video shark! thankyou!

[@sharkscrapper]

My pleasure

[@John-jl3ky]

That's good to know.Because I always clean my gold finger cards all the way clean.I'm gonna start leaving the bracket on, Thanks for the math! Chris may not like that though it's more work for them LO.L There might be other categories that are worth not doing so much work. I'm wondering about the cell phones because I have a pile of them.And I was going to remove the boards which are a real pain in the butt. I'll have to do the math on that.

[@sharkscrapper]

I'll be changing what I do as well after this. I don't get enough cell phones to be able to do the math. But if that changes I'll be happy to run the numbers.

[@Plains_Scrapper]

When you were packing them in a small box the bracket removal allowed you to pack the boxes tighter. The difference in shipping costs may have played a bigger part in your business decision. With the gaylord box shipping maybe the comparative slop in your packing needs validates your results. That and board sort may need to adjust their values to incentivize taking the brackets off.

[@sharkscrapper]

Your shipping observation is a good one. In this case, small sample size, the brackets added $1.35 to shipping cost which doesn't change the decision. But what I need to look at is, do the brackets force one to use a larger box for the same number of boards? One viewer suggested just bending the brackets down flat. But you know Geek Shark, he's never happy until he sees the numbers 🤣 As for Boardsort changing their pricing...I did call Chris prior to publishing. I sure hope they don't adjust pricing because then I need to do another video and change everything ☹️

[@ScullyPop]

Hey Scrapper! Stop by if you ever get caught up!

[@sharkscrapper]

At this rate, I'll be caught up when I'm dead 🤣

[@leecampbell5736]

I multitask by watching tv while i deconstruct gold finger cards so not such a big deal... also, i just bite em off so i'm alot quicker than you! 🤡🤣... great roi video btw.... ❤

[@sharkscrapper]

Bite them off? A true "shark" scrapper 🤣

[@Deescrapsescraps]

It’s so hard coming by any e scrap anymore / I just think maximum value. Great video though

[@sharkscrapper]

Understandable

[@couragedoge8644]

Problem with the preadsheet. Delta value should be calculated from the previous cleaning step or no cleaning for the first cleaning step.The time spent should not take into account the time spent on any previous step. Each step should be evaluated separately for money lost/gained for time spent on that step. 150 USD/h is good. 60 USD/h is still good. Right now your spreadsheet isn't telling you whether each step is worth the time spent only that as a whole each subsequent step adds less value for time spent. It should be Base material price, no time spent. (First cleaning price - base price)/ time spent (Second cleaning price - first cleaning price)/time spent (Third cleaning price - second cleaning price)/Time spent. If board sort recommends taking off the brackets and customers are losing money then an adjustment needs to ba made. Because the boards can be bigger or smaller but the brackets remain the same I think bracketed cards need to be cheaper. It doesn't make sense to pay less for better material and you shouldn't put yourself in a position where customers optimize their cleaning and leave the brackets on small cards and clean bigger cards.

[@sharkscrapper]

A very good observation! I was comparing all levels of cleaning back to the do no cleaning price. Based on your comment I compared the final clean boards to the intermediate step, boards with brackets. In that case you actually lose about a dollar - all the more reason to leave the brackets on. Another thing I didn't show in the video is the impact on shipping. The extra weight of the brackets adds about $1.35 to the cost of shipping. Leaving the brackets on is still the better value just a little less. But what I haven't looked at is do the brackets force you to use a larger box for the same number of boards and therefore add even more shipping cost. This and your comment may warrant an updated video with more discusion. I did speak with Chris at Boardsort about my findings before I published the video. Yes they prefer the boards clean but he's hesitant to change the pricing for a number of reasons. Thank you for your attention to detail. Geek Shark really appreciates folks like you with a keen eye for numbers.

[@BH_Nate]

If you dont have to ship... Its a no brainer Dont take the bracket off especially with smaller cards.

[@sharkscrapper]

You know Geek Shark, he doesn't believe anything until he sees the numbers 😂

[@BH_Nate]

Please don't have chris downgrade the prices more!!!. I already figured out that most of the time its worth more to keep bracket on The only way you would take off the bracket is if the board itself is very large and would be worth the price upgrade. If you have a small modem or ethernet card and the bracket is half the weight of the entire card... Of course you wouldn't take it off.... If your worried about shipping ( i don't have to ship i drive just to let you know) just bend the brackets down you need to save room.. well it works on most of the boards anyway😅.

[@sharkscrapper]

I ran the numbers on shipping and the brackets add just over a dollar for the extra weight, which doesn't change the results. So the only other concern is do the brackets take up so much space the you need a bigger box and as you suggested, bending them down should resolve that. I may explore that further, but I'm sticking with leaving the brackets on.

[@firedogpotter]

The more you know...........!

[@sharkscrapper]

The more I learn, the more I know I DON'T know 🤣

[@adventureswithttfncachn3967]

Try checking your math again. If you take the fan's heat sinks and brackets off all at the same time, that board value will increase for just the board itself. Was you breaking it up in stages t's not as accurate

[@sharkscrapper]

You bring up an interesting question. If I understand your comment correctly, you're saying that by removing everything at the same time: heat sinks, fans, and brackets, I would get to the clean board faster. Which is very likely. But what doesn't change is the value of the boards even without considering the time spent. The boards with the brackets on are worth $33.12. The clean boards are worth $29.21. So even if you didn't spend any additional time between the two iterations, you'd still make more money selling the cards with the brackets on. What I really need to take a look at is how the brackets impact shipping. The cost difference by weight for postage does not change the result BUT how many one can fit in the same sized box could be a deciding factor that I haven't looked at. Could make for another fun Geek Shark exercise.

[@jwall6006]

It’s great unless you just told Chris that you’re make more money leaving the garbage on them. I doubt he wants to have to take it all off. What if you took the gold fingers off and then just sent the boards as whatever, what would that would pay. I’m surprised that geek shark didn’t want you to work that angle too. He’s so demanding of you.

[@sharkscrapper]

LOL - Geek Shark did call Chris while I was editing this video and warn him of my results 🤣 You bring up another interesting twist on how to run the numbers on this, removing the gold fingers. I think I'd need more than 10 lbs for the sample size because the grade of the board after removing the fingers will range from low to at least peripheral high. Plus, you'd need to have a lot of gold fingers to get any appreciable weight for analysis. 🤔

[@richardhulbert9480]

Wow you sure move fast in parts of that video. Not sure if you sped it up or did some cocaine. I am not one to judge

[@sharkscrapper]

LOL - if only we could put ourselves on 4x speed for real life. 🤣

[@FreekingAwwsome]

Great video BrUdDeR @Shark Scrapper