[HeyLaughingBoy]

> no ethical company will sell customers used silicon

Since when? My first EE job was in 1988 and back then "pulls" -- components pulled from circuit boards were an easy way to get cheap parts. We'd get mailers every week from various companies listing what they had available. The electronics recycling industry was/is huge.

[Joel_Mckay]

> Since when?

The moment people switched from socket based chips, and BGA over 1 square inch in size.

Let me fix that for you: "The electronics [3rd world counterfeiting] industry was/is huge."

You should already know the unmentioned reasons by now.

I am a sentient turnip... thus, my obligation to respond ends with the safety warning. =3

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Good point that I hadn't thought of. I figured that the reason I hadn't seen any pulls in recent memory was because I didn't work in the segment of industry that was so cost-sensitive any more.

While we only used DIPs at that time, most of the pulls that I remember weren't removed from sockets: they had clearly been desoldered.

[Joel_Mckay]

Surplus driven hobby projects are very different from commercial/industrial products.

There are also valid reasons aerospace companies often change chip pin plating.

https://nepp.nasa.gov/WHISKER/background/index.htm

Workmanship is important to some folks... =3

[HeyLaughingBoy]

Oh, this wasn't for hobby projects; I just worked for a cheapskate :-)