The lesson for real estate developers is to make sure to recover precious metals from appliances – or at the very least, to work out a deal with the scrap metal recycling company to share the value of precious metals.

How valuable are the precious metals in a single toaster? How about in a coffee maker or a toaster oven? In reality, you won’t find more than a few cents’ worth of precious metals in small appliances like those. But when the quantities of small appliances increase, things can get more interesting – and more profitable. Here are some interesting variables that can have a big impact on the potential value of quantities of smaller appliances . . .