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Hello everyone,

I'm new to e-scrap and scrapping in general. Via F.R.E.D., I have determined most all of the grades of things I am going to be shipping in. However, I have a question about a couple of boards that I pulled out of one of my old UPSes. F.R.E.D. identified them both as mid grade boards, which is labeled in the legend as potential cleaning. So, my assumption from that is that I'd be removing the numerous heat sinks and transformers from these two boards. At least, this is what I have seen in some other threads where cleaning is concerned. Also, I have since removed the cables from and dusted the larger board. Any idea whether removing things would actually improve the grade on these boards (and what the possible or likely new grade might be after that cleaning)? Any help is appreciated! [img][img][/img][/img]

I guess I could see the green board going low peripheral maybe but the brown board I'm just so used to them being either low or mid-grade boards any my local scrap yard pays $0.25/lb. for them here locally, so I just toss them all into that pile really...

could be wrong, possibly am, but that is where I'd put them at.

Good luck

The brown top board. That's Lowgrade. Cleaning isn't going to get anywhere. You can remove the IC chip. Won't affect grade. See the Low Grade video. And Midgrade video.
The larger second board. I would not attempt cleaning. Too much work to go for a "pie in the sky" upgrade to Low Peripheral. Review the Midgrade video. You may want to remove all IC chips.
Keep the junk weight on. Thats money in that grade.
You mentioned shipping. I ship exclusively. As a rule I am very wary on shipping Mid or Low grade
That kind of weight is hard to justify against post office rates that I use. And how much I ship at a time. I am a casual e-scrapper. Not full time like many members are.
But. There are many different shipping companies. And. An important consideration is. How much are you shipping?
There are many many good informative posts on this forum discussing shipping carriers. Shipping rates versus amount you are shipping.
Are you shipping 35,100,400,and so on pounds. Are you loading a gaylord? A large box?
https://boardsort.com/escrapforum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=23702#p49572
https://boardsort.com/escrapforum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=25035&p=54117&hilit=Fedex#p54117
I gave you two links concerning shipping since you are new. Do some research. Plenty more posts.
Another thing. It is good to post both front and back photos of a PCB. For example your brown board. Which is Low Grade. Could have a green back side. Then it is Mid Grade. See videos.
Also. F.R.E.D. is only an aid to evaluations. Boardsort has the final say. Many Boardsort forum members have years of experience. Thier input is extremely valuable.
Good luck on your e-scrapping interest.
Here to learn like everybody else.
My evaluations are my own opinion.

Thanks! The brown board is indeed green on the back, which must be why F.R.E.D. returned it as mid grade. As far as removing the IC chips, since they are through hole soldered on the bottom, I would need to get some tools, which is actually a bit out of scope for this. All of the things I am shipping are pretty much from computers that I have had in the past (or my parents had). When I look at things, I wish I had kept every computer and board that we ever had (like components from our old 386, etc.), but I digress. We're actually preparing to move out of the country (Japan), and after some more research, doing this in Japan would be legally difficult (and complex). In the run up to this move, I had taken half a ton of metal (of course, mostly ferrous) to a junk yard that pays for scrap and we made about $150 off of the non-ferrous stuff that we brought along (copper, brass, aluminum). We even made some money off an old printer and scanner, which got me into the mindset of looking for things that I could scrap (and yes, I have bundles of insulated copper wire in some 5-gallon buckets that my wife has been wondering when I will be stripping...). I just happened across Boardsort and realized that I had kept quite a lot of my old computer chasses, in most cases with most of their innards. So, I have been taking my time to look through messages on the boards and look at the listed scrap pricing for things.

In truth, most of what I will be shipping will probably fill one of the small flat rate boxes from USPS, or at most, one of the medium ones. It's really why I posted my message in the first place (though I found the research on the difficulties of continuing this as a side hobby in Japan just this morning). I was trying to determine if the jump in box size/rate would be worth adding in those two large boards. Otherwise, I have a nice, compact stack of gold finger RAM, a small stack of CPUs graded as no pin CPUs (although the Althon II looks like it does have short pins), a couple high peripherals, a few clean gold finger cards, a laptop wifi card and m.2 hard drive, a single ~2008 laptop mobo with the CPU firmly attached, and then the two large mid grade boards (the larger of the two is maybe a foot long). Without those big boards, my stuff -might- all fit within the small USPS box, but not with them.

If you stuck around until the end of this novel, you have my thanks. It is a bit frustrating to have found something that felt like an interesting hobby, only to discover that I won't realistically be able to continue it.