High, medium or low-grade circuit boards: how to tell them apart
A circuit board is high grade when it carries plenty of gold contacts and components (gold-plated connectors, gold pins, many chips), and low grade when it is mostly made of large, low-value components and bare surface. The price gap is considerable: as at 14/11/2026, a gold-plated circuit board is bought at €15.90/kg and a low-grade circuit board at €0.68/kg. Knowing how to grade your boards lets you estimate your batch before sending it and avoid unpleasant surprises.
Why are not all boards worth the same?
A board's value comes from the metals it contains, above all precious metals: gold, silver and palladium. Their concentration varies enormously from one board to another. According to an article in the Annales des Mines (Christian Thomas, Responsabilité & Environnement, no. 99, July 2020), the gold content of circuit boards ranges from 10 to 1,000 g/t, whereas the richest underground gold mines reach about 10 g/t.
A scientific review published in RSC Advances (Rao et al., 2020) gives an order of magnitude for mobile phones: one tonne of phones contains on average 0.34 kg of gold, 3.5 kg of silver, 0.14 kg of palladium and 130 kg of copper.
The smelters that refine these metals pay according to the actual content. That is why buyback price lists distinguish around twenty board categories rather than a single price.
Which signs show that a board is high grade?
Look at the board flat, component side up, then from the side:
- Gold connectors and contacts: edge connectors on rack cards, backplane connectors, gold pins along the whole length.
- Gold-plated traces visible on the board surface.
- Component density: little bare surface, many small chips, soldered processors or memory.
- Ceramic chips or gold processors built into the board.
- Little "dead" weight: no massive heat sink, no metal frame, no transformer.
- Origin: telecoms and network equipment, servers, instrumentation, old mobile phone boards and hard drive boards.
Age matters too: older boards often carry more gold than recent ones, which is why mixed old motherboards (€4.50/kg) are worth more than twice as much as mixed recent motherboards (€2.08/kg) as at 14/11/2026.
Which boards are medium or low grade?
Medium-grade boards have a fair number of components but little gold plating: PC, laptop and server motherboards, flat-screen boards, optical drive boards, backplanes with gold connectors over only part of their surface.
Low-grade boards can be recognised by:
- large components: transformers, coils, large electrolytic capacitors, relays;
- wide areas of circuit with no components;
- aluminium heat sinks or screwed-on metal plates;
- a consumer origin: power supplies, household appliances, toys, old televisions, set-top boxes.
How much is each category worth per kilo?
To help you find your way, here are the public prices as at 14/11/2026 (base tier, before any uplift for your profile and volumes), grouped into three families. This grouping is indicative: the price applied is that of the exact category in the price list.
| Family | Example categories | Buyback price |
|---|---|---|
| High | Hard drive board | €26.00/kg |
| High | Old-generation mobile phone motherboard | €25.00/kg |
| High | Gold-plated circuit board | €15.90/kg |
| High | Circuit board with gold-plated traces | €14.63/kg |
| High | Rack card with gold-plated connectors | €10.00/kg |
| Medium | Backplane with multiple gold connectors | €9.98/kg |
| Medium | Server motherboard | €7.28/kg |
| Medium | Laptop motherboard | €5.70/kg |
| Medium | Medium-grade circuit board | €4.00/kg |
| Low | Consumer circuit board | €2.58/kg |
| Low | Mixed recent motherboards | €2.08/kg |
| Low | Low-grade circuit board | €0.68/kg |
The full list is on the circuit board buyback prices per kilo page.
Why does sorting change the value of a batch?
Take an illustrative example: a 100 kg batch made up of 10 kg of gold-plated boards, 30 kg of medium-grade boards and 60 kg of consumer boards. The proportions are an assumption.
| Share of the batch | Calculation as at 14/11/2026 | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 10 kg of gold-plated boards | 10 × €15.90 | €159.00 |
| 30 kg of medium-grade boards | 30 × €4.00 | €120.00 |
| 60 kg of consumer boards | 60 × €2.58 | €154.80 |
| Total | €433.80 |
High-grade boards make up only 10% of the batch's weight but more than a third of its value. Two practical consequences:
- Do not bury your high-grade boards in a big bag of power supply boards: flag them, or keep them separate.
- Remove metal that comes off easily. As at 14/11/2026, a daughterboard without heat sink or metal is bought at €11.63/kg, against €1.25/kg with heat sink and metal. The heat sink adds weight without adding precious metals.
You do not have to sort: RECYNEW accepts mixed loads and sorts by category on arrival, with a weight per category sent to you before payment. But a sorted batch is quoted faster and more precisely. For large volumes, see our page on bulk circuit board buyback.
How do you get your boards graded correctly?
- Take clear photos: an overview of the batch, then close-ups of the connectors and components.
- State where the boards come from (servers, telecoms, PCs, household appliances) and the estimated weight.
- Create your online buyback request: the quote is issued within 48 working hours, and the firm price is confirmed after weighing and inspection in Millonfosse (Nord, France), at our WEEELABEX-certified centre.
Photos are usually enough to identify the category. If there is any doubt between two categories, the inspection on arrival settles it, and you approve the offer online before any payment.
In short
- A high-grade board carries gold contacts and connectors and many components; a low-grade board carries large components, bare surface and metal.
- As at 14/11/2026, prices range from €0.68/kg (low-grade board) to €26.00/kg (hard drive board).
- According to the Annales des Mines (2020), the gold content of boards ranges from 10 to 1,000 g/t: that explains these gaps.
- Keep your high-grade boards separate and remove heat sinks that come off easily.
- Sorting is optional: the batch is sorted and weighed by category on arrival.