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 Post subject: price of gold
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 3:55 pm 

Joined: Thu Nov 12, 2015 2:43 pm
Posts: 36
How much weight in gold plated pins, gold embossed boards and pins in plastic, to get an ounce approximately?


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 Post subject: Re: price of gold
PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2018 7:52 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 6:57 pm
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Despite any number someone claims the fact is that unless you give someone (me included) an exact order number and records of it, the answer is nobody knows.
Most of the pins orders I’ve sent to Boardsort, being sorted out beyond what most people would do, have averaged from a few dollars per lb in value up to the mid-high $30s
That’s generally about 1-2% below what the refiner I use pays, but the refiner requires much more bulk in an order than I normally have to send (or value, eg jewellery or “pure” gold switches) They have no interest in a $30 order. Or $300 for that matter.

Every pin’s use will make for different weights in the plating. Usb pins are worth far more per pound than vga pins. Old IDE pins are worth $50 or more per pound for gold scrap and ZT pins can be up to a quarter ounce gold per pound of pins.

But each manufacturer is different from another, and sometimes in the same company.
Take Monster cable and Apple, who’s cable pins are far more valuable than a Tandy or Go cable

Tascam and Ion are the same company but the former has pins in the $40-$50 per pound value where the latter branding is in the $1-$3 range per lb.
Onkyo’s highest line of branded interconnection cables are over $200 per pound in gold recovery but the cables cost $500 per 3 or 5 foot lengths.

If you’re into micro sorting for $$s on internal Computer cables and USB/Lightning/thunderbolt/1394 the ground pins are always thicker plating than any data or dead pins, from any company other than the lowest ends. It’s a general IEE/ISO recommendation. Compact Flash reader pins are also usually thicker plating.

I usually keep monster and ROG connectors, and old IDE pins, and send those to the refinery when I have a few dozen+ pounds.

But the most direct and accurate answer is past the first few days at the pin manufacturer nobody knows.

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 Post subject: Re: price of gold
PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 6:31 am 

Joined: Tue Jun 19, 2018 4:52 pm
Posts: 129
Another informative explanation from the guys who know on here.
That is a question I have wondered, since so many ebay sellers claim high yield and get insanely high prices for what appears to me to be ordinary pins. The subject is of interest to me, as I have several telephone boards from the pre-80s that have pins as much as 2 inches long and have the silvered wire wound on the post rather than soldered. When I say boards, I don't mean the standard printed circuit boards in computers, but either fiberglass or aluminum with the slots on one side and the pins sticking out the back. I am (occasionally) working on stripping and sorting out the pins, as previous to reading Boardsort, I assumed all pins were created equal and they all got dumped into one container.
Should I get a RFX? reading done at a local metal recycling business to get an approximation of gold content, or send a sample to Chris (or the delivery site location).


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 Post subject: Re: price of gold
PostPosted: Thu Aug 09, 2018 2:27 pm 
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Joined: Tue Feb 03, 2015 6:57 pm
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Getting an X-ray analysis done will tell you what you have before sending them in. A good way to judge your payout.
On the flip side it could make you mid-judge as well. So keep that in mind. 50 lbs of 1oz recovery on steel is worth considerably less than 50lbs on nickel, is worth less than 50 on silveride. @$0.02, $4.25, and $80.00 per lb base metal value. Respectively.
Along with that is that the gold over silver plated heavy-aluminium nickel on old 50s-60s era switch board pins is worth considerably more than gold plated silveride that became popular in the 80s despite having nearly the same pre gold materials makeup because the former can be refined easier.

I’ve learned to find someone you believe is honest and stick with them. I trust Boardsort and MWR.
And here we’re back to; nobody knows. You look at the “market rate” and gold is sitting at $1200 but the consumer and commercial spreads have it at $1000-$1300 per ounce.
It’s all very confusing. :(
So alas trust your instincts on who you sell to and what they give you based on how they treat you and your materials.

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