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Merkman, I know what you mean. Why, when I wanted to learn my ABC's so Icould read, I expected to spend my life reading about Dick and Jane and Spot and seeing them Run.
But, it wasn't that simple. First they made me learn those other 23 letters and strange coded markings which altered each letter or word, sometimes changing it's purpose and use. It wasn't worth my time, because I could identify ABC already. Why did I need abc...wxyz? And per se, why would I ever need to know what an ampersand looks like? I didn't want to be an electrician. I just wanted to run in the yard with Spot.
It was hard but once I learned the difference between a 'w' and a 'u' I could walk instead of run. I could walk if I didn't need to run. I could walk different places, see different sights, and I could even skip as my ability to read increased. So I wanted to run with Spot. I ran with Spot. As Spot did different things, I learned more.
There are 645 precise meanings to our word "run" according to the Oxford dictionary. The same simple 3 letters can mean multiple actions and have different implied or express meanings in use,
I can run to the store for someone as a favor, and while I drive a vehicle and never actually run to the store, unless Spot and I are having a morning run, and may earn a "thank you" and then later in the day, "run" a billion dollar corporation and earn a million dollars. Same word, run, yet its value is in how it is used. Same with a computer chip. With the same packaging, with slight markings different, it can have different amounts of precious metal content and therefore a different value set by a buyer.
Right now, you are at the See Spot run stage of e-scrapping, but you are looking at a WAR AND PEACE array of boards and components and it seems an impossible task. But in a few days, it will become easier and clearer. You won't have to distinguish between all the car brands on the road, just be able to distinguish between an over the road tractor trailer and a pickup truck, between a Rolls Royce and a Yugo.
You will never get as good at recognizing the different boards as the graders at BOARDSORT, who can sort boards as fast as Billy Boys girlfriend can bake a cherry pie (as fast as a cat can wink its eye) but you will at a glance be able to recognize Mother Board and her many different broods by their j shaped latch pin, or their small socket, or large socket, or, or, or differences.
You say it is not worth it to go to so much trouble? I beg to differ. I had a strange "board" with wire wrapped long gold plated pins. I was new to e-scrap and since it looked like scrap metal,a local yard said they would buy it as brass if I would burn it and bring the "brass pins in clean." Since I had five of them, I burned one, and still have the unsorted mess. In the meantime I had discovered Boardsorts Wirewrapped pin board category, so I took one board with a load. That one board brought $140 (when the rate was much lower.
Another time I sold an art deco powder compact for $3, even though it was marked gold and platinum. Inside, the gold plate was shiny, but the outside gold was worn away, exposing dull brass with just a bit of gold in the design grooves. At the time platinum was really high, and gold was only about 300 or 600. I thought maybe the platinum was also in a worn off design element. Only later did I learn that when that item was made, platinum was used as a base metal as there wasn't much use for it otherwise But gold and silver don't like each other, non of this clinging til death do us part stuff, so in order to make them compatible, brass was a go between plating to make them compatible
I intended this lengthy run to be a simple rundown on why it would be worth your time to run thru the suggested ways to identify board classes and components that add value to a board or chip. But I have run my mouth so long that it is become an overrun of words, and overruns in business decrease profits. You may think a lot of what I said is Bull, but in parts of Virginia and West Virginia, Run is added to the name of a creek or area to indicate flowing water, and when you increase your knowledge of gold recovery from circuit boards, which you then sell for more money, why you are increasing your liquid assets .
On a cold day, when an old man is in no hurry to jump into the recycling game this early, I amuse myself with words. Doggone it, I forgot to take Spot out for a run in the snow. Speaking of spot, Spot silver dropped about 30 dollars over the weekend. Spot had a slow climb from the $2 an ounce when I first became a scrapbaby, but you may have noticed that he chased silver up a tall tree last week. But one economic lesson I learned in the first grade. Spot never learned to climb, so it is natural that he slipped a bit over the weekend. (In the time it has taken you to read this, you could have researched several boards or classified several chips)
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