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 Post subject: Easy Hard Drive Sales
PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 1:29 pm 
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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.

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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.


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PostPosted: Mon Feb 03, 2014 9:07 pm 

Joined: Mon Feb 03, 2014 12:11 am
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I am impressed. Looking out of the seller,I like it. Most yard here with metal scrap try to find a way to give you the lowest rate possible. nd of me mailing will be am concern.


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PostPosted: Wed Feb 05, 2014 11:04 pm 
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What would you recommend doing with the neodymium magnets? I've seen them go up on ebay, but I don't know if there's a market out there for these magnets since they really can't be reused other than as a cool toy for magnet enthusiasts.

As for the drive motors, the yard I sell my metal to buys those as copper bearing motors. The attendant asked me about them and I mentioned that if you go through the trouble of breaking the spindle off, you will find small copper windings wrapped around a ferrous core.

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PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 1:40 pm 
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bowlbug wrote:
I am impressed. Looking out of the seller,I like it. Most yard here with metal scrap try to find a way to give you the lowest rate possible. nd of me mailing will be am concern.


Thank you!

Yes, I am absolutely looking out for the seller. It just makes sense. If you are a seller and are not making money with me then you wont continue selling to me.


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PostPosted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 3:08 pm 
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kgryczan wrote:
What would you recommend doing with the neodymium magnets? I've seen them go up on ebay, but I don't know if there's a market out there for these magnets since they really can't be reused other than as a cool toy for magnet enthusiasts.

As for the drive motors, the yard I sell my metal to buys those as copper bearing motors. The attendant asked me about them and I mentioned that if you go through the trouble of breaking the spindle off, you will find small copper windings wrapped around a ferrous core.


We do not buy the magnets as we do not have an outlet for them. I have read where there are eBay buyers for them but every time I look I see plenty of sellers and no buyers. If there were money in them, they would be bought.

It seems that most of the parts inside a hard drive (excluding the circuit board) pay as much as or less than the entire core itself (minus the board) so it never made much sense to me to remove the parts, including the platters.

We do list a price for the platters, only because we see so many of them but they are usually brought to us by our drop off customers as they cost more to ship than they pay.


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PostPosted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 11:32 am 

Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2014 11:07 am
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Quote:
kgryczan wrote:
What would you recommend doing with the neodymium magnets? I've seen them go up on ebay, but I don't know if there's a market out there for these magnets since they really can't be reused other than as a cool toy for magnet enthusiasts.

As for the drive motors, the yard I sell my metal to buys those as copper bearing motors. The attendant asked me about them and I mentioned that if you go through the trouble of breaking the spindle off, you will find small copper windings wrapped around a ferrous core.



Hi there, I have been making money wth hard drives for quite some time. I have found the best way to make the most money with these is to sell the logic board to Boardsort, then take just a couple minutes to pull the hard drive apart. You will need some torx bits. I sell the platters and the magnets on ebay quite easily, typically I get about $1 per magnet. The platters will sell for about $2 per lb, the motors that turn the platters, if taken out carefully can be sold for $3-$6 each to robotics hobbyists. What you are left with will be the reader arm, which I throw in the copper bearing motor bucket, a cast aluminum case, and the lid will either be aluminum or non magnetic stainless steel. Both go to the scrap yard for upwards of 40 cents per lb. I actually have a YouTube video on just that. Best of luck to you!


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PostPosted: Fri Mar 28, 2014 11:55 am 
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moosescrapper wrote:
I actually have a YouTube video on just that. Best of luck to you!



Feel free to post a link to your Youtube video, I along with the other members would enjoy watching it.

Thanks for sharing!


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PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 6:49 pm 

Joined: Fri May 05, 2017 9:21 pm
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Do they buy hard drive boards that are broken or do they have to be whole. I have some broken in half but still together and some that have two to three pieces. will they buy those?


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PostPosted: Mon May 14, 2018 8:50 pm 
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As long as all the pieces are together and a whole board is easily recognisable; yes.
Boards in 6, 8, 20 pieces, no, they go as peripheral and mid grade depending on the pieces’ population.

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