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Think I missed an oppertunity?

| A Day in the Life of a Scrapper
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    Gnraxlrose88 started this thread.
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    Think I missed an oppertunity?

    So, here I am, on a rainy Saturday, at my crappy minimum wage job (I'm an attendant at a full service gas station/repair show (yes full service like pump your gas, check your oil, air your tires, yes sir!)) and this newer Chevy Equinox pulls up to a pump with a trailer load of junk. Now, the business is on Main street...literally the busiest street, and theirs a junkyard/scrap yard right down the street, so I see all the "scrappers" go by...I've never seen this one before. The lady asks for $6 in gas, and jokes about "you take junk right?" I smile and say "Well I DO take junk"...to which I get "Thats nice, but I need to get paid for it. (blank) down the street is closed, are their any other places around I can sell to?"



    Which leads me to believe that this lady has never done this before. For one, her vehicle was pretty fancy, she wasn't "dressed" for it, and her trailer was very mixed...complete stove, alum screen door, couple bikes, couple buckets or small stuff, etc. Any true scrapper knows when their yard is open...well even the yards they don't normally use. Nothing, NOTHING was broken down or separated...the whole rig just didn't have the "scrapper" feel.

    I considered offering her $50 for the contents of the trailer. I figured I could make that back in the steel alone. Plus, she seemed like she needed cash...($6 in gas at $3.88/gal..yea). I didn't because, well, i'm "on the clock" and my truck is in my driveway. I still considered it, possibly offering her my number for a next day type of thing, but decided against it all in the end.

    I'm kicking myself in the ass, because off of what I could see alone, if she woulda taken the $50 I coulda doubled my money, and opened a door to future transactions.

    What would ya'll have done?


  2. #2
    Ecycle Atlanta's Avatar
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    Learn from this. What I mean is can you make plans now for an instance like this to come up again? Talk to the boss and see if he would let you use an area out back to put stuff while you are on the clock. Also, you can make up some business cards real cheap to hand out. I never go anywhere without a stack and I hand them out like candy on Halloween. Get your name out there and let people know what you are doing. As word gets out and you provide a great service, you can probably quit that job. Just be personable and offer the people a service that they dont want to do themselves. Good luck...the next opportunity is right around the corner!

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    Copper Head's Avatar
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    If your boss would not have minded that was the ticket .

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    i think next day, or after work woulda been good. Shame about stuff like that is, as the old saying goes, "opportunity only knocks once"

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    Buy business cards, put them in your pocket and hand them out. I would not do any buying while on someone else's clock but handing out your card seems resonable to me. Mike.
    "Profit begins when you buy NOT when you sell." {quote passed down to me from a wise man}

    Now go beat the copper out of something, Miked

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