I am brand new to all of this and after searching the forums I have some grasp on things, albeit not much. I have taken apart all kinds of random electronics that were mine and other family members as a bit of a test to see what I can do since my area really doesn't have much for an outlet to recycle their electronics aside from computer towers. I have found that it looks more feasible for me to send in higher grade boards to Boardsort rather than take them to my nearest yards however there are obviously those items which are unprofitable to ship.

Question 1: If I were to remove the IC's from any of these boards to send in to boardsort, assuming I am correct that each board has one IC, would any of them still be classified as low grade? (low grade then going to more local yards, I realize their grading ultimately defines this but none are close enough to drive to, just to ask a couple of questions.)

Question 2: Just for clarification would board #7 be possibly considered mid grade, being green on both sides?

I know that some of you are in the business and/or have a knowledge of what makes things of value and hopefully you are able to help me not depopulate anything beyond recovery level and render a board useless as I'm not sure of an outlet at this time to get rid of blanks or depopulated boards(not interested in going this far, just considering the IC's only). Any help is much appreciated.

General rule of thumb.....
Brown both sides low grade
Green one side brown the other side mid grade or low grade.
Mid grade can be green both sides.

That being said there are exceptions to these rules.
3-1/2” floppy drive boards are brown both sides some mouse boards brown on both sides will make low peripheral.

Me personally everything there except 7 & 8 is low and mid grade, I would pull the IC’s. 7 & 8 I can tell for sure.

I appreciate the information rdw. I may pull the ic's then, I just don't want to end up with boards I can't dispose of so I was trying to be cautious about the idea.

Just wanted to make sure also what you meant about 7 & 8. You said you can tell for sure but it seems maybe you meant you can't tell for sure.( those are very small boards, maybe not even an inch or so across, so I understand if you meant you can't)

If anybody else has a different opinion I would like to hear it also, meaning about whether or not to pull IC's on such low populated boards and them still have some value for a buyer. I don't wish to waste a buyers time or pawn my junk off on anybody after getting the most value for myself. Again any help or opinions are much appreciated.

I concur with rdw.

7 & 8 I would put in midgrade; I don't know that there's enough there to get in low peripheral.

Lostinlodos explained blanks to me there are:
placeholders, absolutely 0 metal, but potentially some value on ebay if you know exactly what it's for, and;
blanks, which have metal.

Blanks should be able to go at least low grade, depending on a few factors possibly higher (i.e. Blank RAM)

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Here to learn more so I can recycle more
My grades are my own opinion and not an official grade from Boardsort

mark, I appreciate the confirmation. I will do a bit of a test run then with things. I appreciate all of the help. It's not easy understanding the basics even sometimes without just diving in and trying things out it seems, pretty much like all things though you just have to actually do it to get a deeper understanding.

Sorry my comment on 7&8 was a typo.....

I cant see the well enough to say one way or the other what grade they are.