Metal recyclers are in every major and many minor cities. EBay also has a thriving gold recycling community. Search "Gold scrap"
16 karma · joined December 9, 2017
Yes, there are lots of people who legally refine precious metals from electronics and make a living. There are also lots of people who are middlemen and sell it to others.
High value metals like gold are refined by LOTS of companies.
"Mining " gold from dumps could be very productive because the concentration is MUCH higher in electronics than in the most productive gold mine. Profitable Gold mines typically mine and process an average of more than 2000-4000 pound of ore to obtain one ounce of gold!
It is much more environmentally conscious (In some instances more profitable) to recycle electronics than to mine for precious metals.
Some people do a great job. Check out recraigslist.com and applianceschool.com (same person runs both) for examples of how to refurb/ flip large appliances at scale.
The blind center of lad Vegas is another successful organisation that refurbished at scale.
Computer repair and cell phone repair stores are another example of successful refurbishing at scale...
One of the biggest problems is that individuals and businesses hoard old electronics... Loss aversion (the fear of losing something perceived as valuable) is a big reason that more electronics aren't refurbished or recycled. Fear of data theft is another, smaller reason that more electronics aren't recycled.
In the end, there are a lot of pros and a lot of cons to this business... because it is difficult to be consistently successful, there is a lot of opportunity. There are a lot of ways to make money in the recycling industry. Finding and developing a niche that other people can't or don't want to do-- that has a high upside -- can be a great way to make a good living.
If you want to jump on, there is little risk --- mostly just a trip to the metals yard.
Refurbishing or selling for parts is MUCH more valuable than metals recycling. It's also MUCH MUCH more work.
Three first problem is getting valuable E-waste at a good price. (Free or cheap in large quantities) then comes separating out older parts (higher gold content), then identifying and testing newer parts for refurbishing or parts sales. Then advertising refurb or parts, then the sale, then support for the items you sold.
While there are a LOT of parts in closets, basements or other storage, it is difficult to obtain products that have a high resale value at the right price.
Then factor in that newer computers and phones are getting much faster and/or using less power.
Also, recycling does have risks-- including dust, toxic fires, and safe disposal.
It's not impossible to make money recycling/refurbishing, but it is difficult and usually requires scale.
You start with $25k, then bid on sabotages.... you take home what you keep. It's usually a few thousand, but once I saw someone take home $25k.
If I were an aspiring chef or successful chef -- I see the show as having more risk than possible reward. If you lose, you might be subject to criticism of your cooking, when it should be criticism of game theory.
The solution - buy the sabotages. Give the sabotages to the cook with the most money. Taking everything personal and retaliating hurts your chances of winning because it increases your chance of losing the round -- and if your retaliee loses, the remaining contestants have way more money than you. Caring about how much money is in your hand also hurts your chances of winning because you become less likely to buy the sabotage.
Bidding strategy is also interesting.
I have started to become an entrepreneur because there a billion different ways to make the world a better place (some are marketable) and in part because I want to be rewarded for the value i produce instead of the time I put in.