Last night had a poor start, but good ending.

I got a late start last night on my curb shopping route. As I predicted before I left, I was turning up with a whole bunch of nothing for almost the whole night.
My Tuesday route is often one of my better nights, but it is one of the most competitive, due to other scrap guys out there. There will literally be a parade of us at times, rolling through this one sweet neighborhood. As long as you're in the front of the pack, you can often fill up your truck/van. Very densely packed area with a lot of disposable income.

Anyways, I got held up on some work I was doing, and didn't get to hit the street until almost 2 hours past when I normally leave. I almost bagged it for the night. The only reason I still went out is because even though there are so many scrappers, many of them are very poorly educated in how to get every last dollar out of their scrap. I'll be right behind another guy, and he'll snip cords, but won't take vacuums, TVs, fans, microwaves, etc. I know some guys just don't like that kind of work, but you'd be amazed at how much un-broken-down stuff I see get thrown in the shred pile at my yard. So I figured I'd at least be getting scraps last night.

I have 3 neighborhoods that I hit on Tuesday. The first one was a total blank. Not even a beer can to be scrapped. The second one was good for a vacuum (with the cord snipped off, naturally) and a couple of aluminum broom handles. I was so close to calling it a night, but decided to blast through my last hood and hope for at least something interesting.

Right off the bat, I found a computer tower. A big 'un, too. (it had a big mobo, P4 processor, heavy aluminum cooler, power supply, floppy drive, and a million fans in it... tons of wire. The case itself was probably at least 20 pounds). This made me smile, for sure. Then, around the corner I found a garage-cleanout with a whole bunch of odds-and-ends. I got an all metal tricycle, some good buckets, and some shelving. Ended up leaving some ice skates and roller blades behind, that I'm regretting, now.
Further down the route, I saw what looked like a guitar handle sticking out of a can, so I checked it... turned out to be a crappy toy, BUT the can held a 50' extension cord that was mega-heavy duty (burnt end on it that I'll replace for, like, $3 and I'm going to keep this) probably worth at least $50, one of those really heavy-gauge RV extension cord adapters, a carpet shampooer, and a vacuum (all with cords!).
Finally, at the end of my route, the biggest find of the night: one of those salon hair-dryer chairs. It was immaculate, except for the d*mn missing cord. That bad boy weighed a ton, and I accidentally tore a hole in one of the arms when I was shoving it in my van. I'm going to see what kind of market there is for these things, and see if I can make it work. Hopefully I can catch some money for this thing. Otherwise, it's got a HEAVY metal base, and I'm assuming a heavy-duty motor and wire in there. Scrap alone wouldn't be too bad, it weighs as much as a washing machine, I'm thinking.

Good going. I see people cutting the cords off tv's and vacuumes without takeing the whole thing all the time, But they are not takeing the whole microwave? Weird

In the past week alone, I've gotten 3 of the really big microwaves, and a little one. If I had to guess, I'd say that microwaves and vacuums are tied for my #2 appliance, behind TVs.

2 of those big microwaves had cords on them, this past week. That's nice, because those are some fat cords.

In my area, there are probably more tweakers scrapping, than regular working guys/girls. That's probably why the scrap yards are full of unsorted shred, and bulky things get left at the curb. Cords and big metal are a quick buck for lazy dopers.

I'd pay just to see the parade of scrappers come through. Ive seen appliances just sit in neighborhoods around here till the garbage company collected them. 220 cords and all still attached. I now cover a small radius on the morning our is collected. And by small I mean no more than 3 miles. Went out this morning and as im pulling out of the driveway i see a Hispanic lady carrying 2 large plastic totes. She left 1 large and 3 med size ones behind so I grabbed them. Can get scrap all day long but cant get all the plastic totes. Go figure

Wolf I used to live on the west side of Cincinnati and I've seen those scrapper caravans. It's pretty wild to watch. I've since moved to clermont county and the competition is much more relaxed now.

Originally Posted by jdmead

Wolf I used to live on the west side of Cincinnati and I've seen those scrapper caravans. It's pretty wild to watch. I've since moved to clermont county and the competition is much more relaxed now.

I'm in Butler county. The competition can be pretty brutal some days. Like I said, it's mostly tweakers looking for a quick buck. On the plus side, they leave a lot behind... on the negative side, though, they give scrappers a bad name with the stealing and messiness.

Wolf the westsiders were always professional and polite. It's actually what got me into it. It seems like all the west side scrappers worked as a big team always helping each other out. Kind of like what all the forum members do.

Originally Posted by greytruck

Good going. I see people cutting the cords off tv's and vacuumes without takeing the whole thing all the time, But they are not takeing the whole microwave? Weird

I have also found that kind of stuff. I mean really? Take the cord off a microwave but leave the microwave?? lol, more for me!

Good going OP! I love those kinds of good endings!