26 Jan
2004
26 Jan
'04
11:26 a.m.
How can we know?
Get to know several scrappers and ask. Some of them are decent guys.
Others are not. IN time, it is easy to tell them apart.
Frnkly, don't listen to anyone else, unless directly connected with the
scrap industry. There is a tremendous amount of disinformation about
scrap out there (and on this list, although it is getting better).
I believe one scrapper told me that for a 6
foot rack with a 21MX cpu and a small QIC tape drive and small HPIB drive
(each of the later units is 19 inches wide, about 4 inches tall, 15 inches
deep, and weighs about 15 pounds so we're not talking lots of metal)... that
he could get $140 for the scrap metal from it. Is this about right or
off-base?
Sounds reasonable. HP gets a premium in the scrap market, due to the
excessive gold.
Also - and I know this is obvious, but some don't "get it" - the money a
scrapper gets for metal is not just pennies above what he is willing to
pay. Good aluminum alloy might fetch him a dollar a pound, although he
may pay only 20 cents a pound.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org