Calculator
Board & Component Value Estimator
Grade your boards, count your chips and RAM, weigh your gold fingers — see a conservative estimate before you decide who to sell to.
Your lot
Boards (by weight)
Indicative default — enter your yard's price. Saved for next time.
Components (by count)
Indicative default. Saved for next time.
Gold fingers (trimmed, by weight)
Indicative default — enter your yard's price. Saved for next time.
Board grades, plainly
A board's grade comes down to how much of it is chips and gold-plated connectors versus plain copper traces and big, cheap components. Low grade boards — appliance controllers, power supplies — have few or no ICs. High grade and telecom boards are dense with chips and gold. Grading your own lot before selling it, rather than handing over a mixed box, is the single highest-leverage thing you can do here.
| Grade | Typical price | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Low grade (brown, few ICs — appliance/PSU boards) | ~$0.30/lb | $0.15–$0.60/lb |
| Mid grade (more ICs, general electronics mainboards) | ~$0.60/lb | $0.40–$1.00/lb |
| High grade (computer/server motherboards) | ~$1.50/lb | $1.00–$3.00/lb |
| Telecom / high-density (server, telecom, dense gold connectors) | ~$3.00/lb | $2.00–$8.00/lb |
CPUs and RAM: age and material matter more than count
A handful of the right ceramic chips can be worth more than a shoebox of modern ones. Ceramic, gold-pinned CPUs from the 386/486/Pentium Pro era carry far more recoverable gold than the plastic-package chips that followed — sort by era and package before you count, and price them separately.
| Component | Typical price | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Ceramic CPU (gold pins — 386/486, Pentium Pro, older AMD/Intel) | ~$2.50/chip | $1.00–$8.00/chip |
| Modern CPU (plastic/fiber, no visible gold pins) | ~$0.50/chip | $0.10–$2.00/chip |
| RAM sticks (mixed, unsorted) | ~$0.15/stick | $0.05–$0.50/stick |
| RAM sticks (gold-fingered, vintage) | ~$1.00/stick | $0.50–$3.00/stick |
Why "it depends on the refiner" is the honest answer
Circuit board and component pricing varies more by buyer than any other scrap category on this site. A general scrap yard, a local e-waste recycler, and a specialist refiner can offer wildly different prices for the exact same lot — sometimes several times apart — because they're selling into different markets with different minimums and processing. Treat every number here as a conservative starting point for comparing offers, not a guaranteed payout.
Board & component questions
Why are the defaults lower than prices I've seen quoted online?
Most published e-scrap price lists come from specialist buyers who pay a premium for well-sorted, verified lots — often several times what a general scrap yard offers a walk-in seller. These defaults are conservative on purpose; treat the ranges as what's realistic to expect, not a guaranteed floor.
How do I tell a ceramic CPU from a modern one?
Ceramic chips (386/486-era, Pentium Pro, older AMD) are grey or tan, noticeably heavier, and often have visible gold pins. Modern chips (roughly post-2010) are lighter fiber/plastic packages, usually green or black, with little to no visible gold.
Is it worth sorting boards by grade instead of selling them mixed?
Almost always — mixed boards get priced at the lowest grade in the pile, since a buyer has to assume the worst. Ten minutes of sorting a mixed lot into low/mid/high grade routinely pays for itself many times over.
Should I try to recover gold myself with chemicals?
No. DIY gold recovery chemistry (aqua regia and similar) is dangerous and often illegal for individuals to handle or dispose of. Component harvesting and selling to a refiner is the sane path — see the Microscrapping guide.
Harvesting components, not just scrapping boards?
The Microscrapping guide covers where the gold actually is and how to harvest it without chemistry.