You’re getting ready to recycle your old TV and trade it in for a newer model when it suddenly occurs to you that your old TV could be of some value.
You know there’s some gold inside your old TV, but how much? What other electronics have gold in them?
Recovering gold from a TV can be a lengthy process, but is it worth it?
By the end of this article, you’ll know if it’s a good idea to tear your old TV apart for gold or if you should just chuck it in the trash.
Let’s get started!
Quick Navigation
How Much Gold Is in a TV?
TVs contain very little gold.
It’s difficult to quantify exactly how much gold TVs contain because it varies depending on the type of TV.
For instance, CRT TVs have more gold than newer LED and OLED TVs.
On the other hand, plasma TVs are made with more silver than gold.
Generally, a TV will contain a fraction of a gram of gold which, when sold, would only make you a few cents richer.
Gold is typically found on a TV’s circuit board and is used to conduct electricity.
Although your TV’s internal hardware may look like a gold mine at a glance, any gold you find will only be a very thin plating.
How Much Gold Is in Other Electronics?
Other electronics also contain minimal amounts of gold.
TVs are the only electronics in your household hiding trace amounts of gold.
Let’s see how much gold other electronics contain.
Computer
A desktop computer contains a mere 0.2 grams of gold, mostly found in its CPU. Though this may seem like a lot, it’s only about the same weight as a raindrop.
Depending on the market, you’d only be able to earn a few dollars from selling it.
Laptop
Laptops contain even less gold than desktop computers at 0.006 grams. To put it in context, this is about as heavy as two sesame seeds.
Such a minimal amount of gold would be difficult to collect, handle, and sell.
Cellphone
Your cellphone’s integrated circuit boards have about 0.034 grams of gold in them. In other words, you’d need 30 cell phones to accumulate one gram of gold scraps.
Tablets
Tablets contain about the same amount of gold as cellphones do, at 0.03 grams per tablet.
Remotes
You may be surprised to find out that remotes also contain gold. Each remote has about 0.0003 grams of gold.
That’s only about a couple of cents worth of gold.
What Electronics Have the Most Gold?
Old electronics tend to have the most gold.
Although the newer high-tech gadgets in your home contain very little gold, older technology has a surprisingly large amount of precious metals.
VCRs, large CRT TVs, Sony Betamax players, and radios have quite a bit of gold in them. This is because they were much larger than their modern counterparts and had hefty CPUs to match.
In short, if you have a big, bulky piece of technology from the late eighties or early nineties, you are probably a few milligrams of gold richer.
However, before you start planning on how you’ll spend your riches, know that you’d probably only get a few dollars for the scrap gold.
Is Recovering Gold From Electronics Worth It?
Recovering gold from electronics is rarely worth it.
When you Google “Is my iPhone a goldmine?” you get bombarded with stories of people making a fortune from recovering gold from old electronics.
You may even stumble across a few “promising” business plans offering to teach you how to become a recovered gold miner, for a fee of course.
Let’s go over the reason why recovering gold from electronics isn’t worth it.
Electronics Contain Very Little Gold
The reality is that recovering gold from the dead electronics around your house is usually a dead end. Even the most gold-rich electronics contain very little of this precious metal that you’ll need to scrape off of the CPU or motherboard to collect.
A milligram of gold is so small that you may even find it difficult to handle. All those minuscule gold flakes will fly all over the room even if you lightly exhale onto your work table!
You May Need to Buy Additional Materials to Recover the Gold
Taking apart a computer, phone, or another electronic device may require some special tools. You may need to purchase small screwdrivers or plyers to detach the CPU and scrape off any gold remenants.
Unless you already have an electronic tool kit at home, you will need to purchase one. This cost alone will be a hundred times more expensive than the price of gold you’re planning on extracting.
Remember, you’re unlikely to get more than a few cents for your gold scraps. So even the cost of gas to drive to the pawn store will greatly outweigh the gold’s value.
It May Be Difficult to Sell the Scraps
Once you’ve collected the gold, you may find it difficult to actually sell it.
Very few pawn stores will accept such a tiny amount of gold, especially if it’s a few scraps in a plastic container.
In fact, it would be easier and more cost-effective, to just sell the computer parts to a used part dealer or online.
Wrapping Things Up
Mining gold from old electronics around your house may seem like an obvious get-rich-quick scheme, but it’s little more than an urban myth.
Household electronics do have gold in them, but only in trace amounts.
In fact, you’re likely to spend more money on gold-mining equipment and your transportation than what the gold is worth. That is if you can even find someone to buy it.
The most likely scenario is that you will spend hours scraping gold only to be unable to sell it.
Don’t go opening your TV expecting to strike gold, you will be sorely disappointed when you’re left will tiny, worthless gold flakes flying around your living room.
What’s your experience recovering gold from electronics? Let us know in the comments below!
Yesenia Achlim is a technical copywriter and editor with a focus on AV equipment. She aims to break down complicated topics and make technology accessible, no matter your technical expertise. When she’s not teaching you how to replace a projector lamp, you can find her reading and baking.