**** if scrap on craigslist where im at doesnt go fast

I like to checkout craigslist to get bigger items like water heaters and dryers and washers. Well lately on craigslist stuff has been going fast.
Seems like its on there only about thirty minutes and its gone.

haha sorry dood im a total newb. only scrapped maybe three times so far. But i keep making double the day i made before lol.

Up here in Montreal I've grown to love craigslist. Everyone seems to flock to kijiji with their better layout. I've scored on many dreaded curb alerts and first come first serve adds, more recently 9 computers+ laptop+ 2 motherboards in one haul and a set of pristine mags in another. Then the next day a furnace in someone's driveway. Oh and it's not like there's no competition here, it
seems everyone and their mother is a scrapper.
I guess my point is find another website... kijiji didnt work for me(30-50 adds looking for scrap at any given time) so i went to the site my neighbohrs to the south seem to dread and do quite well.
Best of luck!

Drozenki, You just made my day Lmao

99.9% of all the?'s you'll have starting out have already been answered on this forum. Search the archives to find your answers first and you will be amazed at what else you learn along the way. Don't cheat yourself of the full benefit of this forum. Knowledge equals power and profit. Research will tell you if you are really serious about this business. More time you spend on research the more profits you'll gain. That's true of any venture. Good luck!

thanks everybody.

Thanks miked,
You can only lead them to water brother can't make them drink. If they're not thirsty enuf they won't b around. Lots of valuable info here!

[QUOTE=olddude;129784]apparently when I say it I don't choose my words so carefully

i totally agree .. i have been lucky one time to get something off craigslist and thats cause it was a long drive for some but i didnt care .

well i went out today and got about $100 worth of appliance scrap...not counting all the copper i out of it. Though it took me two trips. The good part was that the majority of the scrap i got was all in one place. My wife stays home with my stepson so she sits on craigslist and watches the free section and I got about four washers today from that. ..also got a nice big chunk of brass lighting fixtures. when i was going out to get the stuff I got on craigslist i would still scour the streets and alleys on the way the best I could..found a few appliances that way on the way and a couple good places I can go back to. I've been keeping all the copper i can strip out of the washers and driers and I tore down a few air conditioners and a mini fridge for the copper tubing and wire too. I found a working air conditioner that I sold to a friend for $20 bucks today as well.

So i'm definately turning a profit. I figure out my gas mileage and have cut down on waste of gas as well as worked on maximizing my profit off the scrap material. I even got semi-free labor ..my room mates told me that they'd help me for beer and subway. All my basic bills are already covered even before i got out scrapping so i think i'm good.

I STILL missed out on like two tons of scrap that i could of got that was on craigslist though. seems like there is a bit of competition out there. When i went to a site where they were demo-ing a couple of house some dude already beat me to the scrap piping and appliances over there. Though i get to come back and get the fencing.

Originally Posted by freonjoe

509, if I remember right, you were talking about becoming a full time scrapper. If so, have you crunched the numbers to see how much scrap you are going to need to pick up to meet your goal? I don't think you are going to be able to meet your goals by focusing on CL free ads. With all the businesses in your valley have you been out beating on doors? If you get into the mindset that nothing is free out there and you're willing to pay a reasonable amount for scrap that will put you a leg up on the competion. A lot of time cash talks and everyone else walks.

Finding scrap is like fishing. You should have a tackle box full of lures you use to find scrap. CL is only one. As everyone else suggested if you plan on making a significant amount of money off free CL stuff you are going to have a tuff road.

It is very true what Joe said. Nothing is free.

You need to spend gas, wear n tear on the vehicle, time, ect. I often only use CL to buy scrap (or what I call scrap). While the knee-jerk reaction is that you would be far better off picking up your "free" items, I assure you that I can show more profit paying a few dollars for items. I can pick them up on my schedule and maximize my time instead of spending gas and time to pick up a 13.00 water heater that is gone 50% of the time.

This is why a large portion of what I scrap comes from auctions. I'd rather pay for scrap and know what I'm getting and what I'm going to make than curb shop for hours of chase things on CL.

Originally Posted by 509recycler

I like to checkout craigslist to get bigger items like water heaters and dryers and washers. Well lately on craigslist stuff has been going fast.
Seems like its on there only about thirty minutes and its gone.

I haven't done the free section on CL for a long time but, when I started out I did it often and got pretty good at it. I had a set of rules I followed that depended on the type of free post. Here are those rules I followed:
-If the free item is a curb alert with an address, I would give myself 30min to get there but, if I thought I would get there after 30min I would assume that the item(s) is(are) gone.
-If the free item is a curb alert with a phone number and no address, I would call and explain to them that I am on my way and ask them to hold the item for 30min. and many times they would agree to it. If they dont answer take that time to leave a detailed message about who you are and ALL the items that you pick up and other services you do. Dont give up if they dont answer the phone. Some people screen their phone calls and you might mention something in your message that they want hauled away that they didnt think of. I have had people call me weeks later after I left a message on their phone, and pickedup lots of stuff from them.
-If they have a free item posted with no phone number and no address. These are the best kind of posts and the ones that I had the most success with. Many scrappers give up when it comes to writing an email for a free items. Take the time to write a detailed email. Introduce yourself, explain to them all of the items that you pickup and other services (trash haul aways), that you can show up the same day, and always include your phone number. Most people that send emails responding to a free post on CL write something like "the scrap still available?" or "you still have it?". Set yourself apart from people that write messages like that and put some time into writing a quality email to make the person feel comfortable with you. People that just communicate through email with their free posts are really screening their messages so, be aware that you have their full attention.

I hope some of that helps