Boards
18 components in this category. The highest-value item here is Cell phone boards at $25–40 per pound.
Cell phone boards
Au 0.09–0.50 g/lbAg 0.23–1.26 g/lbPd 0.025–0.07 g/lbCu 12–56%
A
Telecom / military boards
Au 0.3–4 g/lbAg 1–8 g/lbPd 0.02–0.3 g/lbCu 15–25%
A
Telecom backplanes
Au 1–3 g/lb wholeAg 0.5–2 g/lbCu 20–30%
A
Laptop motherboards
Au 0.20–0.50 g/lbAg 1–3 g/lbPd 0.02–0.08 g/lbCu 15–25%
B
Server motherboards
Au 0.05–0.3 g/lbAg 1–3 g/lbPd 0.02–0.10 g/lbCu 15–25%
B
Wire-wrap / pin boards
Au 0.6–1.5 g/lbAg 0.5–2 g/lbCu 20–30%
B
Arcade PCBs / JAMMA Boards
Au 0.05–0.20 g per board ≈ 0.09 g/lbCu ~45 g/lbAu ceramic gold-lid customs (FD1094
C
Desktop motherboards
Au 0.02–0.15 g/lbAg 0.6–2 g/lbPd 0.01–0.05 g/lbCu 15–20%
C
Enterprise Switches, Line Cards & Optics
Au 0.15–0.6 g per large line card ≈ 0.075 g/lbCu ~70 g/lbBase chassis backplane
C
Gold-fingered cards (untrimmed)
Au 0.2–0.5 g/lbAg 0.5–2 g/lbCu 15–25%
C
Graphics cards ⚠
Au 0.20–0.50 g/lbAg 0.5–2 g/lbCu 15–25%
C
Industrial Control Boards (PLC/DCS/SCADA)
Au 0.05–0.20 g/lb typical I/O; 0.25–0.60 g/lb CPU and backplanes; 0.6–1.5 g/lb 1970s–80s ceramic-DIP DCSAg 1–8 g per relay moduleCu ~113 g/lb
C
Peripheral & network cards
Au 0.20–0.50 g/lbAg 0.5–1.5 g/lbCu 15–25%
C
Console Game Cartridges
Au 0.003–0.015 g per cartridge ≈ 0.04 g/lb wholeAu 0.6–0.9 g/lb of trimmed fingersCu negligible
D
Laser Printer Boards, Fusers & Toner Chips
Au 0.01–0.04 g per formatter board ≈ 0.045 g/lbAu 0.0005–0.002 g per toner CRUM chip ≈ 0.3–0.8 g/lb of chipsBase Fuser: no precious metal whatsoever
D
Low-grade boards (PSU, TV, modem, appliance)
Au 0.005–0.05 g/lbAg 0.2–0.8 g/lbCu 8–15%
D
Set-top / cable boxes
Au 0.03–0.10 g/lbAg 0.3–1 g/lbCu 10–15%
D
Vintage Home Computers & Boards
Au 0.05–0.20 g per C64 board; 0.1–0.4 g per Apple II boardAu gold-lid ceramic DIPs at $150–400/lbCu ~40 g/lb
D
How this category is graded
Tier S is top material worth sorting out and keeping separate. Tier A is high value and worth the labour to harvest. Tier B is solid in volume. Tier C only pays at scale or as part of the board it sits on. Tier D is near zero — knowing what not to spend time on is half the skill.