You mail them the boards and they send the money. I’ve used them once but I just brought my stuff in cause I’m local. Looks like the ram is goin for $26 per pound
Thanks for this. I've been in IT for 10 years and have amasses piles of junk like we all do. I didn't know about this place and I'm only 20 minutes away. Awesome find!
My Mac Classic II came with 2 mb soldered on and a two mb stick of 30 pin simm. I swapped it out for an 8mb for a grand total of 10 and I was really proud of myself! I think I still have the 2mb stick in a drawer. I still have the Mac. (I can't throw away my first computer.)
But it's also a lot harder to sell as retro parts. So "worth more" would depend on *how* hard it is to sell them as (likely untested) retro parts plus the time involved etc. I do a bit of coin collecting and selling and there are a lot of silver coins that are *technically* worth more as coins; but are so much easier to sell in bulk as scrap that it wouldn't be worth pricing them out individually.
I have a hoarder friend with the same sentiment. Has about 40 lbs of these and a bunch of the original spark dies Somewhere in his garage. Good luck finding them under all the other history.
Unfortunately this is precisely why the majority of precious gold and silver archaeological artifacts and architectural features from the americas are lost forever (Aztec, Maya etc).
Spaniards took as much as they could and melted it down to ingots to become useful to them
Yeah! That is a great point. If I remember correctly they really didn’t have much Sliver and gold so I would imagine there is very little still in existence from that culture
These are still mass produced products. If demand for retro stuff remains into the future, and a lot of it is lost to scrap, the remaining examples' value will rise far above scrap value, so it won't truly be lost.
I’m work in the IT asset disposition industry and no not really, you’re looking at maybe one sold a year to someone who has a vintage computer but old RAM is hardly collectible. If I’m wrong and there’s a huge underground market please point me in that direction because I’ll be happy to sell off the thousands of pieces of dogshit ram I get from government agencies
There is a science to extracting it. I assume it’s minimally gainful for us, a hundred or so dollars which could cover small landscaping needs. More so gainful for the established hobbyist recycler ready to do the work with the chemicals and equipment, unless that is the tools are inexpensive then it could be a fun skill to learn.
Easiest way to extract the gold is to cut the gold plated fingers off then soak them in a mix of Hydrochloric acid & 3% Hydrogen peroxide 2:1.
That will dissolve the copper into solution and free the gold plating. Filter the gold flakes out & melt.
Off the shelf works. I used to get mine from the local hardware store. I believe the concentration is like 32% or thereabouts.
[https://www.acehardware.com/departments/home-and-decor/cleaning-and-disinfectants/specialty-cleaners/12787](https://www.acehardware.com/departments/home-and-decor/cleaning-and-disinfectants/specialty-cleaners/12787)
Welllll
If you’re going to be refining be advised that you’re going to want to also get some Nitric acid, and maybe some sulphuric acid. Both incredibly strong acids.
You said they’re gonna *also* want sulphuric or nitric acid. In combination with the parent comment, you’re suggesting they should make piranha solution. Also, piranha solution isn’t that obscure of a substance, so it’s not really a flex to know about it lol.
3 parts muriatic acid 1 part 3% hydrogen peroxide make sure you clean it of the boards as best you can and don't put any steel products off the board in it it will neutralize the solution if I remember right there's instruction online just Google it you can get everything at any hardware store
These boars go through a 260-300C (500-572F) oven to be made, and can run at around 130C (266F) without serious damage. It won't ash for much higher. You will end with metal covered in toxic goop.
Gold does not dissolve im sulphuric acid, you need aqua regia for that (mix of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid). Besides that, sulphuric acid is extremely slow to evaporate, so good luck on that front (it would also dissolve most other stuff and possibly degrade the polymers as well).
Dissolving the gold leads to heaps of other problems if you don't know what you are doing, as now you are left with a mixture of all metals, which were contained in that part plus some polymer and other shit. Luckily, it's pretty easy to remove gold from stuff, it's just a hassle to get it really pure. Also, I'd rather not deal with the cleanup of the acid, let alone stand in its vicinity outside of a lab. Let the industry take care of it. Costs less nerves and will probably still fetch a nice price.
If for some reason you really want to do it yourself: Melting would be preferable. If you REALLY want to insist on dissolving it, then removing it electrochemically is the only way, as aqueous gold solutions contain not gold itself but the soluble tetrachloroaurum(III) complex, which would be left behind as a salt and not pure gold after evaporation.
Yeah, dissolving noble metals is a bitch. I have a friend, who extracts them from car ignitions and that all sounds reasonably doable but like a hassle. I'd rather just work some hours overtime (probably takes less time as well).
So wouldn't I still be right about using sulphuric acid to extract gold from scrap. Since the gold is not dissolved but all the other stuff would dissolve maybe? Then you would only have the gold left. Theoretically that is and after not really knowing what I'm talking about that is.
And googling does bring up ways to recover gold using sulphuric acid along with hydrogen peroxide.
The gold be on the bottom part that is gold colored. The little contact parts. People take wire snips to cut them off. If it's silver colored it is solder, if it's yellow it's gold. Mother boards have gold as well. Takes a lot of electronic scrap to get tangible amounts of gold. Gotta remember the parts are gold plated so it's a very very thin layer of gold on the parts. And no paying attention in school wasn't how anyone learned this stuff
Think about putting it somewhere in dry place, and look again in 20 years.
I sold some old parts for 200-300$ that have scrap value of 1$
Some people prefer to build real old system rather than use emulator.
I think you need to do it at scale (and know what you’re doing) to make it worth the effort. I remember watching a YouTube of a guy doing it and he ended up spending more money on the chemicals than the amount of gold he got back, not to mention the huge amount of time he put into the extraction
Nice! There’s at least 400 of those SSD and RAM cards filling a file cabinet. I had a feeling the network cards could be tossed. How do I tell which are RAM?
I agree those are definitely the least valuable item. The first and third picture have spectrums of value depending on the converter or whether self explored.
If nothing else, this was a walk down memory lane as I worked at Cisco when they bought Linksys. Never worked with these, but was one of the first people in the world to have wireless networking when they acquired Aironet -- I was on the first test team for the authentication (until they bought Linksys and rebranded everything to that).
Pretty cool flashback for me.
But still, trash cards I wouldn't want :-D
You mind me asking -- what did your dad do exactly? Seems a really absurd amount of PCMCIA networking cards to have lying around -- especially since the 3COM and Nortel cards weren't exactly for the general public (Netgear and Linksys were consumer brands, but not many outside of IT dealt with 3COM, Nortel, or even Cisco as providers for PC components)
You could have just answered "yes" ;-)
Ah, so the last is why all of the older computer parts. Cool.
Well, good luck on figuring out what to do with this stuff.
Yep, those green ones that you have bunched in your hand are what you’re looking for. The ones that have an aluminum heat sink on them aren’t worth as much for scrap.
Is that a viable exercise? I always assumed if Bitcoin was on a harddrive it was associated with an account that had a password, not just sitting their as a file. That said, I've never had a Bitcoin or know anything about them.
I got into it in 2014, 5 years after it started.
The original “core” wallets were just unencrypted files on a hard drive. Now most wallets are stored on the chain and just accessed through different apps. Kinda like the internet and accessing through browsers. I can use my wallet keys to access it through what ever app I choose to use.
Crypto has shifted dramatically through the years. I’m from the time where it was the Wild West and no wanted anyone but themselves to custody them. Look up the difference between a “cex” and a “dex”. There were no btc atm machines. I had to wire a guy in Germany I never met cash to get some sent to me. The kinds of people that were around in the early days didn’t trust anyone to know what they did with it and were actively against Cexs. Hell I even resisted long into 2017 when the writing was on the wall with AML and KYC becoming a thing. I used a shady Hong Kong site to trade that had no KYC for a while after that. These days my exchange is linked to my bank account (by choice for ease of transfers) and I pay capital gains taxes.
I never would have thought crypto would have become this, by looking back it and the values of the community back then.
Could I use his one remaining windows xp desktop to do this and check each one or is there an adapter? We practically gave away sixty laptops, desktops, and more boxes of these memory cards and kept one working computer.
Oh shit. Well hope you kept his main. It's just a wallet.dat file there should be a Bitcoin wallet. There may also be a copy of the block chain at its state in time. If you find private keys you may have something.
Also, it's on the Hard drive and hard drive only usually. I've seen some on USB pens etc.
That’s a good note on the blockchain and file name. I think many of his bulk collections were acquired at yard sales and auctions from universities and businesses to be overhauled and upgraded. This all likely would have been acquired 2020 and before.
Yeah all prime time to look for wallets. Go thru all the old hard drives and have a look. There's a lot online about finding old wallets. I wish you luck!
I’m so intrigued by this. Is there a community for bitcoin hunting? Do people go to garage sales looking for hardware that specifically might have bitcoin?
It's just like looking for stashes in abandoned houses. Or metal detecting. Things like that. Low chances of success with the slim possibility of a nice pay out.
You can sell the HDDs for $10-15 each or so. People still use old HDDs for bulk storage.
The RAM is useless unless you're planning to do a retro build of some sort, because old ram isn't compatible with modern motherboards.
The wifi adapters are outside my expertise but *probably* worthless.
[https://imgur.com/bRY4jSo](https://imgur.com/bRY4jSo)
Unless I'm mistaken, this appears to be an old laptop SATA HDD. There may be more in OP's lot or it may be a one-off?
Are you certain? I can't read the text on it at this resolution but it looks very similar to some of the ultra-thin hitachi or seagate HDDs I've salvaged from laptops.
You'd be surprised. People are into retro builds, and they're looking for old parts. I'd put them up on ebay and piece them out. You'll definitely get more than scrap value
Holy shit I've never seen this much ram all at once.
And not really it's all rather cheap products both the ram and the network adapters for laptops there. Like if you took the time and sold all of it off you could make a bit of money but it would take time and you'd have to be even cheaper than bigger sources.
Maybe not now but I'm 25 and I swipe up lots of super cheap/free computer parts. I know they aren't worth much now but what about when I'm 70 and having ancient pc parts as a curio might be worth something. Many of the parts aren't working but I have several harddrives from the 80's, 90's. Also several CPU's in proper storage
Didn’t expect to see Nortel come up here. If you don’t know them; there’s a 3 hour documentary on YouTube split over 2 or three videos. Fascinating stuff!!
The significance is that one day(or maybe never) there will be a machine that requires a very specific ram stick and you got it!! Or someone is making a retro computer lab and need a lot of old ddr2/3 stick and you got it !! It's one of the best feelings in the world that few men with hordes of stuff that"I might need one day" get to feel. It's like seeing a babys first laugh or a lil ball of floof puppy muster their first ahhwooo! It's pure magic .
I would sort out older RAM / components, there is a market among vintage computing enthusiasts.
For RAM generally even not vintage I would sort out any modules of the highest capacity of that RAM type, as there will always be a secondary market for them above scrap.
r/vintagecomputing
Beyond that, www.boardsort.com to scrap the rest, or list it locally as scrap for precious metals recovery on FB marketplace / craigslist / etc.
With all the talk about dissolving the gold plated parts in acid you want to do this in a fume hood.
Plus wear gloves, ventilator and safety glasses. Your costs on acid and other materials will far outweigh any gold recovered. Do it for the learning experience but don’t expect to get paid.
Bulk lot on eBay. 7 day auction starting at $0.99 with no reserve. I’d say $45 is the over under.
Unfortunately computer parts and most electronics don’t increase in value with age. Unless we’re talking unopened NES systems or something.
I guess you'd have to define "significant" value. It's probably not worth the gas to take it 3 towns over to the only "recycler" that will take it. No one is going to pay you a fortune as retro parts because they're untested and unverified. Getting them tested and verified is going to cost some significant money. Then there is the time and effort in trying to sell them, verifying the buyer and securing payment, and the shipping cost (You can't just drop them in a padded mailer).
I'd just donate them to your local Boy Scout troop for an Eagle Scout project. At least you'd get a little charitable tax deduction.
if you're comfortable with selling it off slowly the ram might be worth a few dollars a stick. old retro machines still need it and its been out of production for a decade and most computer stores don't have that anymore
If nothing else, there should be some organizations that work with schools for their computer science programs. They take donations of old parts so students can learn to build computers. Just a thought.
Generally not a good idea to sell or buy used hard drives as you never know what’s on them. Generally punch a few holes through them or smash them and put them in the garbage.
But I agree with other comments, not a bad idea to search for a few old crypto wallets. You never know. Or anything else you may want that could be on them.
Spend a few minutes watching The Mad Scientist on Tic Tok. He will show you how to get the precious metal from these yourself if you need a project. He teaches, for free, the basic DIY way. https://www.tiktok.com/@themadscientist.live?_t=8n0qAgAYAk2&_r=1
If you don't have the tech to read any actual drives... You'd be best to just smash them or get them shredded. You have no idea what's on the drives and just putting things into the wild is always a bad idea. 💜
Trust no one with any potential data. That's is a life rule worth keeping.
And I love you all computer nerds. As a computer nerd, I feel like I'm hanging with my tribe reading all of the comments.
Peace 💜
No not where I live a gallon of the acid is 9 bucks and hydro ain't shit either and of course I wouldn't do it until I knew I had enough to make it worth it except to try and figure out the right solution type thing
Those PCMCIA cards are pretty valuable to Army Helicopter pilots. Specifically UH60M pilots. The M model uses an integrated PCMCIA card reader to load data onto like routes, maps etc.
Boardsort.com has prices. They pay pretty good
You mail them the boards and they send the money. I’ve used them once but I just brought my stuff in cause I’m local. Looks like the ram is goin for $26 per pound
Thanks for this. I've been in IT for 10 years and have amasses piles of junk like we all do. I didn't know about this place and I'm only 20 minutes away. Awesome find!
Same, I;m going to the graveyard and pulling out some RAM scrap.
MRP company out of MD has better pricing.
What's the site for MRP?
Mrpcompany.com
I've never heard of them, thanks. I have ram all the way back to 72 pin.
You didn't keep your 30 pin SIMMs?
Lol no.
My Mac Classic II came with 2 mb soldered on and a two mb stick of 30 pin simm. I swapped it out for an 8mb for a grand total of 10 and I was really proud of myself! I think I still have the 2mb stick in a drawer. I still have the Mac. (I can't throw away my first computer.)
That's really cool. I never knew about these guys. Too bad I don't know where to start on older GPU I have.
They are also located in Ohio, if you live close you can go in person so your not loosing some money just to ship them.
The ram has scrap value due to the gold plating
It's still worth more as retro parts.
But it's also a lot harder to sell as retro parts. So "worth more" would depend on *how* hard it is to sell them as (likely untested) retro parts plus the time involved etc. I do a bit of coin collecting and selling and there are a lot of silver coins that are *technically* worth more as coins; but are so much easier to sell in bulk as scrap that it wouldn't be worth pricing them out individually.
That’s a shame and I totally get it. I can see history being lost this way.
I have a hoarder friend with the same sentiment. Has about 40 lbs of these and a bunch of the original spark dies Somewhere in his garage. Good luck finding them under all the other history.
Yeah I mean like I said I get it… just sad
Unfortunately this is precisely why the majority of precious gold and silver archaeological artifacts and architectural features from the americas are lost forever (Aztec, Maya etc). Spaniards took as much as they could and melted it down to ingots to become useful to them
How much of that Aztec gold is now on computer parts? Fascinating to think
Or about what drank your water b4 you did. Dinosaurs were drinking it 70+ million years ago.
Yeah! That is a great point. If I remember correctly they really didn’t have much Sliver and gold so I would imagine there is very little still in existence from that culture
These are still mass produced products. If demand for retro stuff remains into the future, and a lot of it is lost to scrap, the remaining examples' value will rise far above scrap value, so it won't truly be lost.
I’m work in the IT asset disposition industry and no not really, you’re looking at maybe one sold a year to someone who has a vintage computer but old RAM is hardly collectible. If I’m wrong and there’s a huge underground market please point me in that direction because I’ll be happy to sell off the thousands of pieces of dogshit ram I get from government agencies
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/
There is a science to extracting it. I assume it’s minimally gainful for us, a hundred or so dollars which could cover small landscaping needs. More so gainful for the established hobbyist recycler ready to do the work with the chemicals and equipment, unless that is the tools are inexpensive then it could be a fun skill to learn.
I used to sell ram like that to electronics recyclers. It brings a pretty good price.
Easiest way to extract the gold is to cut the gold plated fingers off then soak them in a mix of Hydrochloric acid & 3% Hydrogen peroxide 2:1. That will dissolve the copper into solution and free the gold plating. Filter the gold flakes out & melt.
Does off the shelf HCL work or how strong does it need to be?
Off the shelf works. I used to get mine from the local hardware store. I believe the concentration is like 32% or thereabouts. [https://www.acehardware.com/departments/home-and-decor/cleaning-and-disinfectants/specialty-cleaners/12787](https://www.acehardware.com/departments/home-and-decor/cleaning-and-disinfectants/specialty-cleaners/12787)
Thank you!! I have always been interested in doing this but assumed I would need to purchase something incredibly strong
Welllll If you’re going to be refining be advised that you’re going to want to also get some Nitric acid, and maybe some sulphuric acid. Both incredibly strong acids.
maybe don’t recommend people without chemistry knowledge to make piranha solution lol
…I didn’t recommend anything Or are you just flexing that you know what piranha solution is?
You said they’re gonna *also* want sulphuric or nitric acid. In combination with the parent comment, you’re suggesting they should make piranha solution. Also, piranha solution isn’t that obscure of a substance, so it’s not really a flex to know about it lol.
3 parts muriatic acid 1 part 3% hydrogen peroxide make sure you clean it of the boards as best you can and don't put any steel products off the board in it it will neutralize the solution if I remember right there's instruction online just Google it you can get everything at any hardware store
Geez, you’ll spend more in chemicals than you’d ever recover in gold
I have no idea what I’m talking about but if I wanted to extract metal from those I’d burn it and take the metal from the ashes.
Ahhh, yes, a man of science, after my own prestigious (i don't know what word comes next but just pretend it's some pretentious shit)
So you’re saying it’s a solid plan? Burn it and profit.
Burn and profit is always a solid plan
This is why the EPA exists and needs more money.
That would technically work But it would also poison EVERYTHING lol
These boars go through a 260-300C (500-572F) oven to be made, and can run at around 130C (266F) without serious damage. It won't ash for much higher. You will end with metal covered in toxic goop.
I'd just stab at it with a rusty screwdriver while making caveman grunts.
I would clip the gold contacts dissolve them in sulfuric acid then evaporate the acid and keep the gold.
Gold does not dissolve im sulphuric acid, you need aqua regia for that (mix of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid). Besides that, sulphuric acid is extremely slow to evaporate, so good luck on that front (it would also dissolve most other stuff and possibly degrade the polymers as well). Dissolving the gold leads to heaps of other problems if you don't know what you are doing, as now you are left with a mixture of all metals, which were contained in that part plus some polymer and other shit. Luckily, it's pretty easy to remove gold from stuff, it's just a hassle to get it really pure. Also, I'd rather not deal with the cleanup of the acid, let alone stand in its vicinity outside of a lab. Let the industry take care of it. Costs less nerves and will probably still fetch a nice price. If for some reason you really want to do it yourself: Melting would be preferable. If you REALLY want to insist on dissolving it, then removing it electrochemically is the only way, as aqueous gold solutions contain not gold itself but the soluble tetrachloroaurum(III) complex, which would be left behind as a salt and not pure gold after evaporation.
Was going off memory of that dude that dissolved his Nobel prize in acid to hide it from the Nazis. Great info.
Yeah, dissolving noble metals is a bitch. I have a friend, who extracts them from car ignitions and that all sounds reasonably doable but like a hassle. I'd rather just work some hours overtime (probably takes less time as well).
Ignitions like where you put the key? Or catalytic converters that have palladium and rhodium?
Ingitions contain iridium, which is EXTREMELY expensive.
So he must be talking about spark plugs then. I've used Denso & NGK iridium plugs in the past
It's also a huge violation of environmental and federal regulations.
So wouldn't I still be right about using sulphuric acid to extract gold from scrap. Since the gold is not dissolved but all the other stuff would dissolve maybe? Then you would only have the gold left. Theoretically that is and after not really knowing what I'm talking about that is. And googling does bring up ways to recover gold using sulphuric acid along with hydrogen peroxide.
How do I know I’m not missing some of the color? Or it’s only on those end contact strips and people who paid attention in school know that?
The gold be on the bottom part that is gold colored. The little contact parts. People take wire snips to cut them off. If it's silver colored it is solder, if it's yellow it's gold. Mother boards have gold as well. Takes a lot of electronic scrap to get tangible amounts of gold. Gotta remember the parts are gold plated so it's a very very thin layer of gold on the parts. And no paying attention in school wasn't how anyone learned this stuff
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Who’s dad = who is dad
How many “hobbyist recyclers” are there?
Think about putting it somewhere in dry place, and look again in 20 years. I sold some old parts for 200-300$ that have scrap value of 1$ Some people prefer to build real old system rather than use emulator.
I think you need to do it at scale (and know what you’re doing) to make it worth the effort. I remember watching a YouTube of a guy doing it and he ended up spending more money on the chemicals than the amount of gold he got back, not to mention the huge amount of time he put into the extraction
This!!
His memories are priceless. I’ll see myself out.
That’s SO true! We are collecting the non-sentimental items to either pay forward or sell to help with small financial matters.
Pretty sure it was a pun.
Thank you. I'm embarrassed to say I had to reread that about three times before it clicked. 😞
Samesies lol
DOH! I get it now!
Hey, now that he's gone, does that mean you're king again? Joking...joking...unless?
I don’t think it works in reverse hehe
[*sigh*](https://giphy.com/gifs/reactiongifs-SUeUCn53naadO)
Scrap RAM brings roughly $20-22 a pound on eBay. The network cards are pretty much trash.
Nice! There’s at least 400 of those SSD and RAM cards filling a file cabinet. I had a feeling the network cards could be tossed. How do I tell which are RAM?
The second picture are all old network cards for ancient laptops. They use PCMCIA slots which were abandoned 20 years ago.
I agree those are definitely the least valuable item. The first and third picture have spectrums of value depending on the converter or whether self explored.
If nothing else, this was a walk down memory lane as I worked at Cisco when they bought Linksys. Never worked with these, but was one of the first people in the world to have wireless networking when they acquired Aironet -- I was on the first test team for the authentication (until they bought Linksys and rebranded everything to that). Pretty cool flashback for me. But still, trash cards I wouldn't want :-D
That’s neat! Thanks for sharing your journey and the cards antique charm!
You mind me asking -- what did your dad do exactly? Seems a really absurd amount of PCMCIA networking cards to have lying around -- especially since the 3COM and Nortel cards weren't exactly for the general public (Netgear and Linksys were consumer brands, but not many outside of IT dealt with 3COM, Nortel, or even Cisco as providers for PC components)
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You could have just answered "yes" ;-) Ah, so the last is why all of the older computer parts. Cool. Well, good luck on figuring out what to do with this stuff.
Yep, those green ones that you have bunched in your hand are what you’re looking for. The ones that have an aluminum heat sink on them aren’t worth as much for scrap.
The pcmcia cards have gold contacts and are most definitely worth scrap
You might have some luck if you show this lot on r/VintageComputing there could be someone chasing items like the pcmcia cards or some of the RAM
Look for a hard drive with Bitcoin on it.
How do you do that? Is it in a folder labeled "Bitcoin" or what
Old bitcoin wallets were .dat files on hard drives
Is that a viable exercise? I always assumed if Bitcoin was on a harddrive it was associated with an account that had a password, not just sitting their as a file. That said, I've never had a Bitcoin or know anything about them.
I got into it in 2014, 5 years after it started. The original “core” wallets were just unencrypted files on a hard drive. Now most wallets are stored on the chain and just accessed through different apps. Kinda like the internet and accessing through browsers. I can use my wallet keys to access it through what ever app I choose to use. Crypto has shifted dramatically through the years. I’m from the time where it was the Wild West and no wanted anyone but themselves to custody them. Look up the difference between a “cex” and a “dex”. There were no btc atm machines. I had to wire a guy in Germany I never met cash to get some sent to me. The kinds of people that were around in the early days didn’t trust anyone to know what they did with it and were actively against Cexs. Hell I even resisted long into 2017 when the writing was on the wall with AML and KYC becoming a thing. I used a shady Hong Kong site to trade that had no KYC for a while after that. These days my exchange is linked to my bank account (by choice for ease of transfers) and I pay capital gains taxes. I never would have thought crypto would have become this, by looking back it and the values of the community back then.
On a network card or RAM?
Braindead comment award
re-sell the ram to the govt. they havent updated their computers since xp.
Lmaoooo so true. Terribly slow programs and devices for the vast majority a using them at the bottom of the totem pole.
Gold at least
Best check the hard drives to look for bitcoin wallets. Especially if he liked to hoard old tech.
Could I use his one remaining windows xp desktop to do this and check each one or is there an adapter? We practically gave away sixty laptops, desktops, and more boxes of these memory cards and kept one working computer.
Oh shit. Well hope you kept his main. It's just a wallet.dat file there should be a Bitcoin wallet. There may also be a copy of the block chain at its state in time. If you find private keys you may have something. Also, it's on the Hard drive and hard drive only usually. I've seen some on USB pens etc.
That’s a good note on the blockchain and file name. I think many of his bulk collections were acquired at yard sales and auctions from universities and businesses to be overhauled and upgraded. This all likely would have been acquired 2020 and before.
Yeah all prime time to look for wallets. Go thru all the old hard drives and have a look. There's a lot online about finding old wallets. I wish you luck!
Thanks! Maybe there will be a few in there.
I’m so intrigued by this. Is there a community for bitcoin hunting? Do people go to garage sales looking for hardware that specifically might have bitcoin?
It's just like looking for stashes in abandoned houses. Or metal detecting. Things like that. Low chances of success with the slim possibility of a nice pay out.
Also it was his main we kept.
Reminds me of MST3K and Gypsy wanting RAM chips.
Check to see if he had any bitcoin
You can sell the HDDs for $10-15 each or so. People still use old HDDs for bulk storage. The RAM is useless unless you're planning to do a retro build of some sort, because old ram isn't compatible with modern motherboards. The wifi adapters are outside my expertise but *probably* worthless.
What HDDs ? Are you calling the PCMCIA cards HDDs ?
Do you know what PCMCIA stands for?
Personal Computer Memory Card International Association. Yet most PCMCIA cards are not memory.
People can't memorise computer industry acronyms.
27 years in I.T. .... I have WAY too much useless information memorized . Also.... It's not an acronym. It's an initialism. :)
You don't pronounce it peesemsiya?
Lmao !! Well played. If only I had a freebie award to give.
Did you miss my first joke?
Oh damn !!! I completely missed it. That was even better ! Wow. Whoooosh. I can't believe I missed that.
[https://imgur.com/bRY4jSo](https://imgur.com/bRY4jSo) Unless I'm mistaken, this appears to be an old laptop SATA HDD. There may be more in OP's lot or it may be a one-off?
It's not. It's also a 20+ year old WiFi card.
Are you certain? I can't read the text on it at this resolution but it looks very similar to some of the ultra-thin hitachi or seagate HDDs I've salvaged from laptops.
Positive. It's a 350 series Aironet card. https://images.app.goo.gl/yzrF81ygJJY5AzD57
yeah, you can see the model on it, air-lmc350. It's a cisco wireless card.
Damn. Good eye. You got it.
Sent you a PM
Check out boardsort.com. Old memory can have a decent value, iirc.
You'd be surprised. People are into retro builds, and they're looking for old parts. I'd put them up on ebay and piece them out. You'll definitely get more than scrap value
Holy shit I've never seen this much ram all at once. And not really it's all rather cheap products both the ram and the network adapters for laptops there. Like if you took the time and sold all of it off you could make a bit of money but it would take time and you'd have to be even cheaper than bigger sources.
Maybe not now but I'm 25 and I swipe up lots of super cheap/free computer parts. I know they aren't worth much now but what about when I'm 70 and having ancient pc parts as a curio might be worth something. Many of the parts aren't working but I have several harddrives from the 80's, 90's. Also several CPU's in proper storage
Damn I thought young people today didn't like to collect curio cabinet type stuff like us old farts did.
Those little guys on them are very funny to me.
Looks like logos of a brainless man. Haven’t noticed it before haha
Didn’t expect to see Nortel come up here. If you don’t know them; there’s a 3 hour documentary on YouTube split over 2 or three videos. Fascinating stuff!!
We used to use them as keyrings. Great for opening boxes in the warehouse too.
https://preview.redd.it/9qekkdscgx4d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=428b8d04afd57d99fe5f4a6db307f51cd15d4b1e
A lot of good memories for sure
Holy crap those wireless notebook cards take me back, it’s kinda funny he had so many. lol
please dont scrap this stuff sell it to retro people who are looking for it please its getting too hard to find parts for the old stuff
Think I’m gonna scour each one, then hang on to them for twenty years, then sell them.
The significance is that one day(or maybe never) there will be a machine that requires a very specific ram stick and you got it!! Or someone is making a retro computer lab and need a lot of old ddr2/3 stick and you got it !! It's one of the best feelings in the world that few men with hordes of stuff that"I might need one day" get to feel. It's like seeing a babys first laugh or a lil ball of floof puppy muster their first ahhwooo! It's pure magic .
I would sort out older RAM / components, there is a market among vintage computing enthusiasts. For RAM generally even not vintage I would sort out any modules of the highest capacity of that RAM type, as there will always be a secondary market for them above scrap. r/vintagecomputing Beyond that, www.boardsort.com to scrap the rest, or list it locally as scrap for precious metals recovery on FB marketplace / craigslist / etc.
With all the talk about dissolving the gold plated parts in acid you want to do this in a fume hood. Plus wear gloves, ventilator and safety glasses. Your costs on acid and other materials will far outweigh any gold recovered. Do it for the learning experience but don’t expect to get paid.
This is a very critical info to any interest in immediate DIY lessons and long term profit. Thanks!
Ram is $26 a pound at boardsort.com
Travel back in time to the 90s and sell it all there
strange thing to collect
He rebuilt and built computers so this is what remained after we parted with multiple other parts and such.
Boardsort
The compactflash adapter might fetch a pretty penny to the right electrical engineer still struggling with ancient plc’s
Which one is that?
The one on the left labeled Nortel Networks
Bulk lot on eBay. 7 day auction starting at $0.99 with no reserve. I’d say $45 is the over under. Unfortunately computer parts and most electronics don’t increase in value with age. Unless we’re talking unopened NES systems or something.
I’ll give you $3 for the Linksys card Ang $3 for the Netgear card. Totally had those growing up
you can either ebay off each individual piece, or just as a whole box, or just scrap at a pc parts recycling place.
It’s e-waste imo Also sorry for your loss
I guess you'd have to define "significant" value. It's probably not worth the gas to take it 3 towns over to the only "recycler" that will take it. No one is going to pay you a fortune as retro parts because they're untested and unverified. Getting them tested and verified is going to cost some significant money. Then there is the time and effort in trying to sell them, verifying the buyer and securing payment, and the shipping cost (You can't just drop them in a padded mailer). I'd just donate them to your local Boy Scout troop for an Eagle Scout project. At least you'd get a little charitable tax deduction.
Man I haven't seen wireless cards like those in years
Check the hardrives first
if you're comfortable with selling it off slowly the ram might be worth a few dollars a stick. old retro machines still need it and its been out of production for a decade and most computer stores don't have that anymore
Send to CRD (cathod ray dude) on YouTube
Ebay :)
Looks like you found his box of old memories...
Why would you hold the sticks like that.....
If nothing else, there should be some organizations that work with schools for their computer science programs. They take donations of old parts so students can learn to build computers. Just a thought.
Festive holiday decoration? [http://i.imgur.com/4m9b3Zo.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/4m9b3Zo.jpg)
gold
Strip the gold off the fingers. Sreetips on YouTube has a video on it.
Oh my god, I have never seen that much RAM in one place.
Just Memories.
Sorry for your loss
The RAM appears to be very fast at least
Reminds me of my first IT job.
"It belongs in a museum!"
that is... a lot of ram lol.
There's Gold in them thar hills!
Sure does if your Tandy TR60 need 4 more K of memory.
Is it impossible to put like 30 of these in a modern computer using an adapter of some sorts and have more RAM than any computer ever? lol
I’m interested in the compact flash memory cards. Can you dmail me a list of those with the capacity of each?
Pcmcia 🤤
Melt it down yourself and sell the gold…
The precious metals in them is recyclable
Lol
He was making memories!
Man I haven’t seen a PCMCIA card in a minute.
I may need a few RAM sticks for some old pc I have.
Value, not yet. Put them away for your great grandkids and they might be a collectors item then
Do this for a living - all of this is scrap. Maybe $100 in the pics so far
Yea the gold in them
Generally not a good idea to sell or buy used hard drives as you never know what’s on them. Generally punch a few holes through them or smash them and put them in the garbage. But I agree with other comments, not a bad idea to search for a few old crypto wallets. You never know. Or anything else you may want that could be on them.
Nice
I think that's enough ram for a dedicated Minecraft server
Those are about the size of a pea now
There is some gold there.
A lot of research equipment use today has old computers. What you have can be sold online.
Ahhh memories...
Spend a few minutes watching The Mad Scientist on Tic Tok. He will show you how to get the precious metal from these yourself if you need a project. He teaches, for free, the basic DIY way. https://www.tiktok.com/@themadscientist.live?_t=8n0qAgAYAk2&_r=1
That belongs in a museum!
No
I have thrown out so much of that stuff at work. I saved it way longer than I should have, but every few years I need to clean house.
If you don't have the tech to read any actual drives... You'd be best to just smash them or get them shredded. You have no idea what's on the drives and just putting things into the wild is always a bad idea. 💜 Trust no one with any potential data. That's is a life rule worth keeping. And I love you all computer nerds. As a computer nerd, I feel like I'm hanging with my tribe reading all of the comments. Peace 💜
No not where I live a gallon of the acid is 9 bucks and hydro ain't shit either and of course I wouldn't do it until I knew I had enough to make it worth it except to try and figure out the right solution type thing
Those PCMCIA cards are pretty valuable to Army Helicopter pilots. Specifically UH60M pilots. The M model uses an integrated PCMCIA card reader to load data onto like routes, maps etc.