Know what's actually in it before you scrap it
A field guide to the precious metals in electronic waste — 128 components with measured yields, real selling prices, identification tells, safe removal temperatures and the hazards that matter. Built to be argued with, not believed.
- 128components
- 140scale drawings
- 25hazards
- 8guides
Start here
Should you scrap it or sell it working?The single most expensive decision in e-waste, with real numbers.
Date a board in 30 secondsEra drives value more than anything. Three transitions do most of the work.
Twelve myths that cost moneyHard drive platinum, airbag gold, iridium plugs — wrong by an order of magnitude.
Board teardownsWhere the value sits on six board types, and the order to strip them.
Top-tier material
Sort these out first. Everything else can wait.
Ceramic CPU — gold lid + gold pins
Au 2.0–3.5 g/lbAg 0.5–2 g/lbBase Kovar
S
Ceramic IC — gold lid + gold legs
Au 3–8 g/lb wholeAg 0.5–3 g/lbBase Kovar
S
Gold fingers (trimmed)
Au 2.0–3.0 g/lbBase Cu
S
Gold flat packs (military / aerospace)
Au 3–10 g/lbAg 1–4 g/lb
S
Laboratory Platinum Ware
Pt ~454 g/lb — it is solid metalAu 5% in Pt-5%Au XRF fusion cruciblesBase Rh 5–10% in Pt-Rh crucibles
S
MLCC — palladium-bearing (PME, pre-2000)
Pd 2.3–9 g/lbAg 4.5–23 g/lbBase Ni
S
Noble Thermocouple Wire (Type R/S/B)
Pt ~410 g per lb of bare noble wireBase Rh 6–30% of one legBase Type K/J/T/E/N: zero PGM
S
Pentium Pro
Au 0.25–0.45 g eachAg trace
S
By metal
Three numbers worth knowing
~2010–2014Gold bond wire gave way to copper. A pre-2010 plastic chip holds ten times the gold of a post-2014 one that looks identical.
~1998–2005Ceramic capacitors moved from palladium to nickel electrodes. Same appearance, twenty times less metal.
0.025 g/lbThe gold in a board's surface plating. You would process 1,250 lb to get one troy ounce — which is why nobody should strip it.