Down side to living in the country

Scrapping in the country if kinda tough because everyone out here either scraps or holds onto their scrap. Unless you know someone its tough to consistency gets large amounts of scrap

But the upside of living in the country is that you have a place to dismantle and store your scrap without anyone bothering you about it. I always go to the city and suburbs to find scrap.

Lots of old dumps to pick through in my area. Also check along rivers, lakes, creeks, sometimes find stuff. Might want to look into ewaste. Living in the country no one complains too much what you have laying around.

That's what I'm trying to do. Get my name out and use word of mouth to try to get things going. Right now I'm looking into escrap too, if i can find a buyer for that stuff. Just have to know someone who has connections and go from there. Yes, having a place in the country to put things without it being bothered is a plus.

another downside to living in the country is that it takes $10-15 in gas to do anything

Originally Posted by Mick

You just have to adapt and work smarter. Things that work for a lot if guys on here don't work for us. BUT - some things that work for me don't work for them. Right now, I'm dealing with the shipping issue. When I look at shipping costs for e-scrap from central Maine to almost anywhere, it looks impossible. But I'm not going to let that stop me from getting into e-scrap. I'll just have to come up with something. One thing might be stockpiling till I've got bigger loads and haul it myself. I'm thinking that a side benefit might be better prices for the hundreds of pounds of copper and aluminum I've got at a place closer to a dock to help offset the cost of driving there. Just an example of thinking differently.

have you gotten fedex quotes from Ewasted's site? if you ship in boxes 65-70lbs you should stay at or below $0.50 lb but you need to use his shipping discount. There are other buyers with shipping accounts, but I have not gotten quotes from them. Relectrocycle in Florida offers lower prices but pays all shipping.
I am not endorsing either of these companies because that is reserved for thier threads, just an example of possible pricing. I hope this makes you some money

I am about as far removed as Mick, and can't imagine trying to scrap in the city.

I could think of hundreds of downsides to living in the country
1. Having to hear birds singing in the morning, instead of getting to hear a neighbor hammering on his truck, and trying to get it started
2. Not getting to hear the garbage truck driving around the neighborhood, and only hearing the sound of the wind
3 As mentioned above, no pizza delivery (the last one I ordered was 5 years ago, and it hasn't showed yet!)
4 Having to smell crisp fresh air in the morning, instead of the chemical plant and the truck and auto fumes
5 Not having traffic all around (front, back, and both sides) to hold me on the road while I'm waking up, and having to drive down the road all alone in the mornings

The list goes on ; )

I hear you with everyone else scrapping themselves or just holding on to it. If you do go around to the neighbors to buy scrap, present yourself as professionally as you can. I have been able to buy scrap off some of the old farmers around here where alot of other guys have been run off the property. Nothing against any of them as many of them are "friends" but showing up in a clean vehicle with clean clothes on and a shower can sometimes help. Alot of the old guys around here have a bad taste in their mouth for scrappers, at one time or another most have had people remove scrap that tore up the land and left a mess behind them. Professionalism and a good reputation of being respectfull of people and their property can go a long way.

I live in the middle of nowhere. 35 minutes to the closest scrap yard. I Get most of my scrap from customers at my work. Bring it home break it down and wait till i have a truck load then take it in. I use my little truck(nissan) to do all of my pick-ups to save on gas. With my ewaste im lucky enough to have a good buyer about 2 hours away so i just wait till i have a load big enough to fill my little pickup (usually about $1000 dollars worth) then drive it to him. Like has been said before the best part of living in the country is noone complains about my pile of scrap, well maybe my wife does a little.

I live on a farm in rural western Kentucky. I love it! Between all my work, it's nice to be able to relax and tinker. One of the big reasons I took up scrapping/salvaging is because I wanted to 'play.' It's just fun to take stuff apart. Nobody complains about my scrap because I have a 60x100 shop with a 20x100 lean-to on the side. It's all inside and out of view. Fifty-five gallon drums for brass, number one copper, number two copper, aluminum, small shred, etc. I pile the larger shred on pallets and put it up on pallet racks. It stays nice and tidy until it's the scrap yard's problem.

Originally Posted by Bear

I could think of hundreds of downsides to living in the country
1. Having to hear birds singing in the morning, instead of getting to hear a neighbor hammering on his truck, and trying to get it started
2. Not getting to hear the garbage truck driving around the neighborhood, and only hearing the sound of the wind
3 As mentioned above, no pizza delivery (the last one I ordered was 5 years ago, and it hasn't showed yet!)
4 Having to smell crisp fresh air in the morning, instead of the chemical plant and the truck and auto fumes
5 Not having traffic all around (front, back, and both sides) to hold me on the road while I'm waking up, and having to drive down the road all alone in the mornings

The list goes on ; )

If that pizza shows up, do no eat it!

I do have one close neighbor (1/2 mile). There is a hill between my place and his, so we don't have to see/hear each other. I am 15 miles from the nearest small town, and 1.5 miles to the nearest pavement. I have lived in metro areas in the past (LA, Denver, SLC). Aside from a few minor conveniences not available here, I don't remember an upside to living/working in the city.