Sell Scrap From A Computer
Well here’s the good news, if you want to sell scrap from a computer there’s plenty of supply, computers only stay viable in their universe for about 18 months. At that point the IT staff, school principal or teenage son/daughter is complaining about an upgrade. With that, there is a never ending supply of computers to pick up for next to nothing, and I mean nothing. Go to any garage sale, and there’s a Compaq or Dell desktop or old laptop sitting on a table. I usually buy everything else for 5 bucks and ask them to throw it in, because they can’t remember any of the passwords, and it runs on Window’s 98.
Now the the other side of that good news, you’ve gotta dig deep to get the nuggets on a lot of computers.
Ram, aka DIMMS or SIMMS, are a valuable form of computer scrap. The value of scrap RAM comes from the small percentage of precious metal used to make it’s compacted components. Precious metals include palladium, gold, and silver.
(If the RAM is fully functioning, then it is worth much more as used, not scrap)
Scrap RAM has either Gold Fingers or Tin Fingers. (The grey-colored tin fingers are not made of silver; despite this, people still call them silver fingers.)
Never cut the gold fingers off of your scrap RAM. Unless you plan on refining the whole RAM stick yourself, you will be doing yourself a disservice. The value of the memory gold will drop significantly once you remove the fingers, as potentials buyers can not easily identify what type of electronic scrap you are selling.
There are several online vendors, and possibly vendors in your area, that specialize in buying scrap memory. Larger precious metal smelters/refiners will show interest in buying your material if you happen to have a few dozen pounds.
If you have a smaller quantity of computer RAM scrap (between 0-30 lbs) then your best chanced for getting a fair market price will be selling on eBay.
Scrap RAM can be subdivided into three main types: Gold Fingered RAM, Tin/Silver Fingered RAM, and RAMBUS/Metal Covered RAM. When selling on eBay, you should weigh these three types of memory separately. (It’s ok to list them in the same auction, but it is crucial to separate and weigh each type of scrap memory separately.) Correctly sorting and weighing you scrap RAM is KEY in getting a great price on eBay.
When listing your scrap ram, always include the total weight in pounds, along with the words “Scrap Memory RAM Gold PM Recovery” to insure it will show up on a number of auction searches. The weights of your individual lots should be measured to at least once decimal point.