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 Post subject: What to do with boards?
PostPosted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 1:36 pm 

Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2021 11:42 am
Posts: 19
I do not refine myself and don’t have intentions of starting. That being said, when processing boards is it generally considered more profitable to remove valuable components such as BGA’s, IC’s, gold pins, tantalum etc off of all boards and stockpile them to sell to BoardSort, and sell what’s left of the board as low grade to my yard, or shred if it doesn’t clear low grade? Or would it be better to sell complete boards? Kinda new to the ewaste thing but getting a pretty decent volume through the doors now…..at least for a hobby scrapper. Thanks for any help and advice.


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 3:07 pm 

Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2019 12:00 am
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As far as Boardsort sales go, this says it best, and with finality.

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Post subject: Partially Harvest Boards / Missing BGA/Flatpack/Corner TabsUnread postPosted: Thu Jan 30, 2020 12:29 pm
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We have noticed an increase in the number of customers who are pulling soldered BGA, flatpack and Gold Corner Tab cpus from their boards before selling them.

Be forewarned, doing so will automatically downgrade your material to midgrade.

There is a reason folks are pulling them, because they have a value to them by themselves. However, by doing so, you are destroying the value of the board they were taken from.

The reason we are able to pay top dollar for certain circuit boards is because we know the exact value of said board. By depopulating the board and removing these items you have essentially turned a board that we know the value of into a mystery. And when it comes to spending money, we do not like to gamble.

If you are pulling non-socketed chips from your boards, particularly the gold corner tabbed flatpacks do so knowing that the board will be severely downgraded.

I completely understand why folks do it but unfortunately we cannot pay a competitive price for what remains of the board afterwards.

If you have no idea what a gold corner tabbed flatpack or BGA is, then this warning probably does not apply to you and should not be of a concern.

However, if you are pulling them, you know what I am talking about and should from now on decide whether it is worth it for you to continue to do so knowing that buyers (not just us btw) will immediately downgrade that board.

This is not a new rule. This is standard practice in the business and I have given many warnings over the years. I am the fairest buyer you will ever do business with. however posted prices are for sorted UNPROCESSED material.

With the popularity in Facebook groups and Youtube channels, there are video hosts telling people to strip the boards clean. In that process they are destroying the value of the board. I can assure you the math does not work out in your favor.

In summary: Sweating, chiseling or otherwise pulling soldered chips from a board will result in an automatic downgrade to midgrade, or worse depending on the level of depopulation occurring.

Don't do it!


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 03, 2021 3:42 pm 
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The following is my opinion and experience. Generally the real world answer is it doesn’t make sense to strip peripheral or above. And if everyone started reaching for a few extra pennies all the time price and class changes will follow. It’s just the nature of scrap.

The general premise is leave the board whole and send it in. For the majority of boards that works out in your favour.

Since you asked directly:
The real world is a bit more complicated.

To start I suggest you find some key terms
(like soundblaster or 3dfx) to search for and flip to page two or higher.
I’ve tried to keep the ‘but what if’ reply’s off the most quickly readable of response.

As far as boardsort is concerned, each item they buy is classed as the average of the whole
So a single layer 1200point rim is worth the same as a a qlc flash chip. They’re ICs.
So figuring out that aspect is actually quite easy here.
Obviously stripping old boards that have the IC level for telco (commercial server switches) but don’t make it due to “junk” like 3 pounds of rj/45 sockets… your better stripping.

Things like SSDs are still too new and too inconsistent in design to get classes out alone so they go as hard drive boards.
But a 2tb Samsung 800series Sara drive is worth more stripped as ICs,
A WR or SanD 256GB… isn’t worth the HDD class price.

High end gaming motherboards can have over a pound of copper in the board alone. But they offset the millions more eNet uATX boards used by Dell and HP in bulk collection.


Here’s a recent breakdown for you. Got a board that got struck by a storm over voltage.
Take the F-NE eITX motherboards. They’re almost entirely solid ic design. CMCs rather than aluminium canister capacitors.
Silicon relays, switches. Step up transformers.
Pick it up and damn, it’s 3 pounds plus!
Totally surface stripped the board is 2lbs of dirty copper. $1.90/lb
Just over a pound of ICs. $8.00ish
And a few bucks for the rest of the metals and a pile of junk nickel and tin mix.

So yes. There are boards worth stripping to an individual.
Keep a few things in mind. Local metal prices are not averages. They are completely random in implementation by companies based on factors I can’t begin to explain I. Less than a few hundred pages.
AND
If boardsort suddenly stopped receiving the boards as part of mixed lots the prices over all would drop.

The falcon and SB boards… that type. Have at it. Strip away.
You are loosing money stripping a high end SSD. Not per board, but on the lowering averaged value. On the loss of over payment on lesser boards of the class.
If you send in 10 860s and 10 barracuda boards, the price is the same for both. And you make bank over what the price Would be on actual component value.
Send in 100 barracuda drive the next week and the rate is still the same average.

Now think, if no SSD drive came in anymore, the price for HDD goes down. This happened with telco not long ago.
Volume shippers playing with stripping can have major quick effect.
But 100 people and 100 boards can make 100 little dents in price.
Death by 1000 papercuts. Or Chinese water torture. Or the creation of the Grand Canyon.

So use some reasoning in your selection of what to strip.
If the board is worth $10 in parts and $2.50 whole, that’s logical.
If it’s worth $3 in parts and $2.5 whole, your ultimately hurting yourself for a one time bump.

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