Lately I've been focusing most of my salvage and recycling business on building materials and parts for alternative energy systems. I use a lot of this at my own home and sell some to earn a living. But, given the soaring prices of gold, silver, platinum and other non-precious metals, I've recently gotten back into electronics and computer salvage and recycling.
Here's what I'm doing
I live in a rural area so I'm:
- Running ads on Craigslist telling folks that I'll pickup used computers, monitors, printers, electronic games, cell phones -- anything electronic for free. People are more than willing to give these things away in most regions of the country because they usually have to transport these things to recycling centers and then PAY to recycle them. Since I'm in a rural area, I've setup scheduled pickup days so I don't burn too much gas. I have a small Nissan pickup that normally does the job and if I luck into more, I have a small 8 foot trailer that I build from a Harbor Freight kit.
- I've also negotiated relationships with recycling centers in most of the towns and where there are no recycling centers, I've made a deal with a local market to allow folks to drop off their electronic stuff there so I can pickup.
- Recently I stopped at my local thrift store and there were two old 60s vintage IBM workstations and a mini-computer. These early computers have many times the thickness of gold plate on fingers and backplanes compared to newer computers. These were dumped at their back door when they were closed. They figured, rightly, that they had little chance of selling them and were very happy that I would take them away right then. So, I stop at all the thrift stores and leave them a flyer and cards so they know who to call when they get too many computers and the like - and they get a lot.
- I also post flyers on any bulletin board I can find and leave a few at each yard sale I visit.
- Freecycle works out quite well. I post wanted ads frequently and always get a good response. I also place ads in my local free giveaway classified newspapers. they're cheap and a lot of people read them from end to end.
- Magnetic signs on the doors of your truck or van help as well.
How I Make Money With All This Electronic Stuff I've found that a lot of the computers are fairly new and have been replaced because they've gotten slow, crashed or just don't run right. Frequently the problem can be fixed by simply running a chkdsk and defragging the hard drive. Next step is to check for viruses, spyware and malware. I did find it difficult to get really good software and information about viruses, spyware, malware and their removal until I found a really good manual that explains it all plus provides the software to do it right. It's saved me a lot of money and precious time.
Doing these two things to the recent computers gets them running good again. Good enough to sell easily for $100 to $300 depending on what it is. I usually charge around 20% of what stores charge for a comparable computer. I also mix and match, taking parts from two to make one good computer and the like.
The older computers and ones that aren't reusable I scrap out for precious metals and parts. It's been awhile since I've dealt with a refiner so I'm still checking around. I used to get a very good deal from Cascade Refining in Salt Lake City, Utah, but before I use them again, I'll send a small test quantity of boards and connectors and see how it comes out. Some folks also sell this stuff on eBay, but for now, I'll stay away from that. It is an option though if you are so inclined. I've learned from previous experience that it does not pay me to refine myself - too dangerous and time consuming.
As I find out more about legitimate buyers of parts, details of amounts of precious and other metals in various computers and components and refiners, I'll post here so you can learn about them as well.
Complimentary Money Maker
I had trouble finding really good software that would really help getting a slow, virus infected computer going again. I finally found a really good manual about it and good software as well. Actually it is an entire business plan for making a good living just removing viruses and malware for people. I'm doing this on the side for the people who haven't yet bought a new computer and are trying to keep their old one going. Check out this spyware and virus removal manual and software for yourself. I found that it is well worth the money.
Check here, if you'd like to learn more about my decades in the home based salvage and recycling business.
Best of Luck
