6 Oct
2013
6 Oct
'13
8:52 p.m.
On Oct 6, 2013, at 3:54 PM, "Mark J. Blair" <nf6x at nf6x.net> wrote:
What's with all of the sellers on eBay in the
Vintage Computing section selling ICs and boards for "gold recovery"? Are they
just scamming ignorant folks, or do they actually believe they're selling something of
value? Do people believe that if they buy some PCB for $25 shipped, there will be more
than $25 worth of gold on it after they manage to etch away everything but the gold with
acid? Am I missing something, or are those sales about as honest as the typical 419 email
scam? TANSTAAFL...
Sorry, but I just had to rant there for a moment.
I feel like there's a little ignorance on both sides... lots of idiots thinking
they can recover $25 worth of gold from a PCB (not impossible, but unlikely),
and lots of folks thinking, "This board looks like it's got some gold on it, I
bet I can sell it!" I find it appalling... in a lot of cases, it's a lot like
grinding up a Ming vase just to get a few milligrams of, say, uranium or other
precious metals from the clay.
I'm told that's one of the reasons it's hard to get hold of a VAX-11/780
these
days... there's enough gold in those (about 2 oz) that at today's prices, they
could yield about $2500 or so. Very sad.
- Dave