Hard drives can be a great income stream because they are so plentiful. But if you are not careful they can be more trouble than they are worth.
Hard drives are one of the heaviest materials that we purchase. One hard drive alone can weigh as much as 5 pounds or more. Because of the weight they can potentially result in a loss of profits when you consider the shipping expense.
Shipping typically ranges between $0.60 and $0.80 per pound (this excludes flat rate boxes). Considering a hard drive with the circuit board still attached only pays $0.80 per pound ($0.40 per lb if you remove the board) you could potentially lose money selling and shipping those drives.
Our more experienced sellers will instead only sell us the circuit board (paying $10 per pound at the time of this posting) and then offer what remains to their local scrap yard. Even if the yard only offers you $0.07 per pound for the board-less cores, you should still fare better than had you sold and shipped the entire unit to us.
Removing the board from the drive is simple. At first glance you will see several screws that need a funny looking driver bit in order to remove. This bit is called a Torx bit and is usually a size 6, 7 or 8.
Here is our tip for removing the board. It is far easier and faster to simply PRY the board from the drive instead of using the torx bit. You will likely damage the board in the process but that is ok because these boards will never see service again.
Take a heavy duty flat head screw driver and insert the head in between the board and the hard drive body right underneath the IDE port (where you plug the wide cable in). It will require a little effort and it helps to wiggle the driver as you are working your way under the board.
Once you have the driver inserted into about the middle of the board area, begin to pry upwards. After you practice on a few drives you will begin to develop a technique. Each model of hard drive has a sweet spot where you find the board is most vulnerable. Eventually you will get to a point where you can pop a board from a drive 4-5 times faster than any other method.
Once you have a pile of hard drive boards, you can place them into a USPS flat rate Priority Mail box and ship them out or pack them with the rest of your materials. You can fit quite a few boards into a small container. Your shipping costs will be less and your profit will be greater.