Connectors & pins · Tier C

Cables with Gold-Plated Connectors

Weigh it — a heavy cable is a copper cable. Featherweight HDMI leads are copper-clad aluminium or steel and worth nearly nothing; old thick VGA/DVI leads with thumbscrews are the dense ones.

Cu 150–250 g/lbAu 0.001–0.010 g/lbBase PVC jacket

eBay typical$8–25per lb

Refiner pays$1.8per lb

Metal in it$2.79per lb at 4 Aug 2026 spot

Confidencemedof the yield figures

How to spot it

HDMI, DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, USB, RCA, SCART and TOSLINK leads with yellow-flashed connector ends. Dense targets: DVI-D dual-link, VGA with ferrite chokes, thick RCA component sets, printer-era USB A-B, and anything from the 1990s. Light targets: flat HDMI, CCA everything post-2015.

Metal content

Metal	Quantity	Notes
Copper	150–250 g/lb	The conductor is 35–55% of cable mass — this is the actual value
Gold	0.001–0.010 g/lb	3–10 µin decorative flash on connector faces — calculated, generous
Base metal	PVC jacket, steel/zinc shells	Connector bodies are die-cast zinc or steel, not brass, on modern cables

At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $2.79 per lb of contained metal — Copper 200 g = $2.14, Gold 0.005 g = $0.65. A refiner paying $1.8 per lb returns about 64% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.

Safe removal

Working temperature: No heat — never burn insulation

No teardown — sort by weight into an insulated-copper-wire (ICW) stream. Snip connector ends into a separate bucket only if your yard pays a connector-ends grade; most pay one ICW price. Never burn or torch insulation.

Hazards

🧪 PVC and plastics

NEVER burn card plastic or cable jacket.

☠ Lead — dust more than fume

NEVER dry sweep or use compressed air on a scrapping bench. HEPA-vac or wet-wipe only.

Before you scrap it

Modest but real: certified HDMI 2.1 leads $8–15, long DisplayPort and active optical cables $15–40, SCART and component sets to retro gamers $10–25. Everything else is honest ICW at $1.20–2.60/lb.

The common trap

24K gold plated is the most successful marketing lie in consumer electronics — the flash on an HDMI end is worth a fraction of a cent, and people hoard cable ends expecting gold-pin money. The copper conductor is the entire value, and CCA cables fake even that: nick the jacket and look for silver-white strands.

Questions

How much gold is in cables with gold-plated connectors?

Copper: 150–250 g/lb. Gold: 0.001–0.010 g/lb. At current spot that is about $2.79 of contained metal per pound.

How do you identify cables with gold-plated connectors?

Weigh it — a heavy cable is a copper cable . Featherweight HDMI leads are copper-clad aluminium or steel and worth nearly nothing; old thick VGA/DVI leads with thumbscrews are the dense ones.

How do you remove cables with gold-plated connectors safely?

Is cables with gold-plated connectors worth more working than as scrap?

Related in Connectors & pins

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