in the early 1990's, there were many mini computers which became obsolete here in the US but were shipped into Mexico and South America, and spare boards were shipped there too. the minis had a lot of intel, TI and IBM parts on those boards. and they all had gold contacts where daughter cards went into motherboards.
I've made it a habit when bringing stuff to my local e-waste place, to dig through their container of boards and pull stuff out that may have value when sold as parts. Feck those handful of dollars in gold, when there's chips on them that will fetch hundreds at auction from people who try to restore vintage electronics. Chop the fingers off if you want gold, but *please* don't destroy any more chips. There is so much of e.g. early arcade consoles going into e-waste because the chips needed to repair them are no longer available.
Yeah, we had no idea until a friend told us- that's why we made the video. So other ewaste professionals pause and recognize the value. Thanks for the tip on arcade consoles
4:50 these aren't striped capacitors, these are carbon film resistors, probably in the 1 Watt class judging from the size, and they follow the regular resistor color codes. 2:30 pulling these round chips (that look very much like early op-amps (operations amplifier) to me and selling them as a matched lot might actually fetch some nice money Same goes for many of those IBM chips which are a ceramic base with a thin aluminium cover, some of these are highly sought after and fetch good coin. 5:40 these aren't capacitors, these are transistors in the metal cans. some are cheap mass products, some are very rare and people pay well to refurbish their vintage devices. 7:20 same here, vintage power transistors as part of an amplifier or motor control, many of those are trading very highly, far beyond the milligrams of gold you can etch off them.
unfortunately it's very well documented here again.. like those Motorola power transistors.. you can get around 2$ of gold off them, but desoldering them and selling them (or even selling as-is, which shows better that they're a matched pair) would probably fetch somewhere in the 50-100$ range.
There is nothing sadder than scrap gorillas destroying rare vintage electronics, and selling them as scrap for pennies on the dollar. Except maybe said gorilla calling transistors and resistors caps.
As someone who used to rescue working vintage computers from scrapyards, this video was painful to watch. I had to find it before these people had time to strip it for gold.
Stop destroying the chips. They are worth more than the gold. 🤦♂️ You could at least look up what the board is so people have a chance to buy it before destroying it.
in the early 1990's, there were many mini computers which became obsolete here in the US but were shipped into Mexico and South America, and spare boards were shipped there too. the minis had a lot of intel, TI and IBM parts on those boards. and they all had gold contacts where daughter cards went into motherboards.
that's awesome insight! Thanks
I've made it a habit when bringing stuff to my local e-waste place, to dig through their container of boards and pull stuff out that may have value when sold as parts. Feck those handful of dollars in gold, when there's chips on them that will fetch hundreds at auction from people who try to restore vintage electronics.
Chop the fingers off if you want gold, but *please* don't destroy any more chips. There is so much of e.g. early arcade consoles going into e-waste because the chips needed to repair them are no longer available.
Yeah, we had no idea until a friend told us- that's why we made the video. So other ewaste professionals pause and recognize the value. Thanks for the tip on arcade consoles
4:50 these aren't striped capacitors, these are carbon film resistors, probably in the 1 Watt class judging from the size, and they follow the regular resistor color codes.
2:30 pulling these round chips (that look very much like early op-amps (operations amplifier) to me and selling them as a matched lot might actually fetch some nice money
Same goes for many of those IBM chips which are a ceramic base with a thin aluminium cover, some of these are highly sought after and fetch good coin.
5:40 these aren't capacitors, these are transistors in the metal cans. some are cheap mass products, some are very rare and people pay well to refurbish their vintage devices.
7:20 same here, vintage power transistors as part of an amplifier or motor control, many of those are trading very highly, far beyond the milligrams of gold you can etch off them.
bro dropping the absolute knowledge in the chat!! That's a huge help man, thank you!
what a score a 4004, its sad stupid scrappers know nothing and only want the $5 of gold from it
unfortunately it's very well documented here again.. like those Motorola power transistors.. you can get around 2$ of gold off them, but desoldering them and selling them (or even selling as-is, which shows better that they're a matched pair) would probably fetch somewhere in the 50-100$ range.
Wild right? Had no idea, but glad to set these aside for collectors. Rehoming items is the best kind of recycling
There is nothing sadder than scrap gorillas destroying rare vintage electronics, and selling them as scrap for pennies on the dollar.
Except maybe said gorilla calling transistors and resistors caps.
As someone who used to rescue working vintage computers from scrapyards, this video was painful to watch. I had to find it before these people had time to strip it for gold.
The whole point of this video was about educating ourselves more since they don't teach these things.
Stop destroying the chips. They are worth more than the gold. 🤦♂️ You could at least look up what the board is so people have a chance to buy it before destroying it.
Bro, did you watch the video? The whole point was how to educate yourself and save vintage chips for collectors.