Spence1015 wrote:
Exactly what marked141 said.
I used to pull pins out of anything and everything I sought was worth it or valuable. I wish I never started that. Pins get classed in multiple different areas. Full plating, half plating, spot plating, brass, Cu, unclean or lead/solder left on, etcetera etcetera. It depends on the thickness of plating as well; only determined by analytic radio guns or RF scanners; usually ** paying a little extra each test run to even view the elements and %. Thankfully BS has one.
It goes back to depopulating. If you're already pulling everything off PCBs and boards, go for it; but if not don't even start. Connector ends is far more efficient and better payout.
Some examples of pins that aren't worth the $5.00 lb would be like IDE/ATA pins, the pins you see here that are spot plated at the contact point, or PCIe slot pins, mostly made of manganese brass or a tin; very seldom gold plated on integrated units nowadays.
Wow, I am so glad I read through these comments finally! I have been wondering for quite sometime if it has been worth the tedious time to break apart all of these materials like connectors to get the gold pins. Hearing someone say "I wish I never started" clearly confirms my suspicion. I'm burning valuable time for practically no return. I've always said to myself "If boardsort.com doesn't take them, maybe I'll try to do my own recovery batch for fun".
But let's be real, I got 3 young kids and other responsibilities and way better income generating avenues than spending very tedious hours cutting connectors to fill up a pill bottle with gold plated material. Now if I happen to just easily get some of these, then I'll add it to my collection. But from now on I'm done spending all that time when I could be doing something wrong much more valuable. Thanks guys for all your input!
