Drawn to true relative scale — the variants above are directly size-comparable.
Console Game Cartridges
If the paper label is still legible, it is a game, not scrap — the cheapest NES cart on PriceCharting is $5.50 and the gold inside is forty cents.
How to spot it
Rectangular plastic shell, 8.5 × 13.5 cm for NES and 8 × 13 cm for SNES/Genesis, with a row of bright yellow fingers along one PCB edge. Real hard gold shows a faint plating-stub trace running off the centre of each finger to the board edge — the electroplating tie bar; ENIG or HASL boards show dull grey-silver fingers and no stub. Marked with Nintendo or Sega part numbers: NES-XX-USA, SNS-, MD-, NUS-, DMG-, CX26xx.
Metal content
| Metal | Quantity | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | 0.003–0.015 g per cartridge ≈ 0.04 g/lb whole | Hard gold 10–30 µin over 5–12 cm² of finger area. Geometric estimate — no public assay exists |
| Gold | 0.6–0.9 g/lb of trimmed fingers | Back-calculated from a single yard's $80/lb clean-fingers price; derived, not assayed |
| Copper | negligible | A few grams of traces per board |
At 4 Aug 2026 spot prices that works out to $5.22 per pound of contained metal — Gold 0.04 g = $5.22. A refiner paying $0.2 returns about 4% of that, which is normal: refining costs money and the buyer takes a margin.
Safe removal
Working temperature: Ambient AP foil-off; no burning
Gamebit security bits — 3.8 mm for cart shells, 4.5 mm for consoles; Genesis uses Phillips or Torx T10. Cut the finger strip with tin snips or a fine-tooth bandsaw about 3 mm above the finger tops, never through the fingers. Never burn — the FR4 is brominated. If stripping, use AP (HCl + 3% H2O2) foil-off at room temperature over 24–72 h in a ventilated space.
Hazards
NEVER dry sweep or use compressed air on a scrapping bench. HEPA-vac or wet-wipe only.
NEVER dry-cut boards indoors without extraction.
NEVER burn boards, wire insulation or plastic. Ever.
A standard ABC extinguisher will NOT stop a runaway lithium cell. Don't count on one.
Before you scrap it
The common trap
Questions
How much gold is in console game cartridges?
Gold: 0.003–0.015 g per cartridge ≈ 0.04 g/lb whole. Gold: 0.6–0.9 g/lb of trimmed fingers. Copper: negligible. At current spot that is about $5.22 of contained metal per pound.
How do you identify console game cartridges?
If the paper label is still legible, it is a game, not scrap — the cheapest NES cart on PriceCharting is $5.50 and the gold inside is forty cents.
How do you remove console game cartridges safely?
Gamebit security bits — 3.8 mm for cart shells, 4.5 mm for consoles; Genesis uses Phillips or Torx T10. Cut the finger strip with tin snips or a fine-tooth bandsaw about 3 mm above the finger tops, never through the fingers. Never burn — the FR4 is brominated. If stripping, use AP (HCl + 3% H2O2) foil-off at room temperature over 24–72 h in a ventilated space.
Is console game cartridges worth more working than as scrap?
This is the whole answer. Bulk unsorted retro carts run $2–5 each wholesale, 10–25× the $0.40 scrap value; sorted and tested the multiplier hits 25–75×. Working consoles beat any pile of carts. Never scrap a cartridge with a readable label.
Related in Boards
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