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gfs work is cleaning house again. throwing out a dozen or so old keyboards. modems

question for the forum

worth the time to try to take them apart?
or just cut off the cords and let them go.

flat screen monitor?

many misc cords.

Some people break them down for the keyboard mylar has some silver. Lately I have been just cutting cord and adding keyboards and mouse to shred pile

I cut the cord... the rest goes in the trash... I guess now I will start adding to the shred pile.

Remember boys, For every ass there is a saddle!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Crafts-/14339/i ... Complete=1

If they are old clicky keyboards they are worth allot more than scrap. I just sold one this week for 30 bucks. Ive sold some for over 100. They have to be very old however. Check ebay for prices.

Thogey wrote:Remember boys, For every ass there is a saddle!

http://www.ebay.com/sch/Crafts-/14339/i ... Complete=1

keyboard mylars are a great source for silver traces, we scrap all of them. Modems contain a good high grade board the we have always tossed in with the telecomm boards. Never do a half ass job recycling this stuff. If you don't have time to correctly scrap it now, save it for a rainy day. It all adds up!

Keyboards are basically junk (to me anyway - interesting info on the silver traces above that I didn't know) besides the cord but there are tons of goodies in the modem (I assume you mean a desktop tower?). Those things have gold finger boards, copper wires, "electric motors" (not really motors but it's a scrap term), hard drives, etc that pay out very well. Hard drives pay very well others may know more.

Flat screen Monitors have less copper parts than the old vacuum tube ones but there are still some tid bits.

External modems are what he was referring to.

If I remember correctly, the good mylars contain about a quarter gram of silver per sheet. When you scrap 1000's of keyboards a month, it really adds up!

For some reason I was thinking of desktop computer towers. I did scrap an external power supply backup once - the main battery was quite heavy and paid the same as car battery per lb from what I remember. They can be worth more on Ebay but the market is kind of flooded like with most electronics.

If you don't have time to correctly scrap it now, save it for a rainy day. It all adds up![/quote]


that is what I have been doing with all the electric motors. I need to find a good way of '' unwinding '' or cutting out the copper. I must have 300 lb of the tlhings

update.. no one will take the keyboards...

the modems and mice, flat screen monitor .... 12 lb. at .02 .... a whopping quarter.

I get $0.033/lb right now for keyboards with the wires cut off, and the same for computer mice, broken printers, broken LCD monitors. $0.52/lb for the mixed cords and cables with the plugs still attached. Hopefully the later has come up in the past week.

I remember a time when intact PS/2 keyboards were worth at least $0.30/lb. I'll have to check my records to verify.

I don't save mylars as I don't get enough keyboards and don't have access to cheap enough labor. I'm sure like everything else in the business, the newest keyboards contain very little or no precious metals.

As mentioned - save the really old and really new keyboards. Working USB keyboards are worth a few bucks a piece or more depending on quantity and brand, and the vintage ones can be worth a pretty penny.

cwgii wrote:update.. no one will take the keyboards...

the modems and mice, flat screen monitor .... 12 lb. at .02 .... a whopping quarter.

Next time you go over the scale with shred, toss a few in the pile...

too late, in the garbage and gone.

I hate it that the kids working at cfs will not speak or do not know English.

I agree with john wayne............ dial 1 for English.. like hell I will;

cwgii wrote:too late, in the garbage and gone.

I hate it that the kids working at cfs will not speak or do not know English.

I agree with john wayne............ dial 1 for English.. like hell I will;

They know it just don't want to use it, easier to not answer your scrap question!

If you find really old keyboards that make that satisfying "click clack" when you type, some people really like those because they are no longer made like that (otherwise office workers would go insane with 50 cubicles of people click-clacking). Its hard to think of computer stuff as "vintage", but if its from the 80s it is. Look at the lady who found an original Apple and sold it for 100k or something like that.