How do people treat you knowing you are a "scrapper?" - Page 5

I have been met with nothing less than respect and gratitude as a scrapper
It is not given it is earned.

Most of my friends and family members support me and are actually quiet envious. When I have extra $$ to have fun with most people enjoy the fact I have free time and can actually go out and have a good time, as opposed to someone who is working 9-5 for barely a few hundred a week. But not every week is a great week, and sometimes I make nothing at all. If I pre-occupy my time off, there's no reason I need to feel like I'm not employed. Down time is just time to take care of deferred maintenance, strategy analysis, and R&D. Some people will play on the fact of the perceived notion that scrappers are dirty trash pickers & uneducated. This might be true for some of them, but they are smart enough to know that its $$ and easy enough work. Then they're are also very bright and intelligent people out there doing it! Both sides of the spectrum often have interesting stories and tips. Hard to say who really makes more $$ doing it. I know of a couple millionaires personally, that I never would have guessed it, whom live quite modest lives and don't want people to know they have anything at all! I'm envious of those individuals who don't fall trap to the dollar and consumerism. You don't need a college education to become a millionaire, and its cool to see many of those who have been in it for the long haul rise out of the dirt and have enjoyable lifestyles!

Side Story:

I used to drive for a uniform service, and one of the guy's who worked there caught wind of the fact I would scrap. He too was into it and we loved to talk shop and tell each other about recent payloads. I'll never forget about his story on how he started out. He has worked for the same company for 30 something years, and in 2007 the company had a plant shut down and demolished. Well this individual did a little bit of everything including maintenance tech for the washers and dryers. Well one day, after everyone was gone and moved into the new building, he was still in the old building cleaning up and doing some cataloging. He used to chit chat with all the plumbers and electricians that were there tearing the place down and transporting machinery. One guy asked him why he wasn't recycling anything (they were all doing it) and he told him he never thought it was worth anything, just trash. Well him and his cousin who also worked for the company stuffed their pick-up with everything they could find that was metal, and brought it to some dubs house who had an ad in the paper. The guy didn't have scales or anything, and told them the most he could do was $50 for a load. They both were ecstatic they had just made $50 worth of beer money from the metal and continued to bring the guy truck loads of copper pipe and wire and stainless and brass and everything else the could find! He said it took him almost 3 months of running metals to the guy before someone told him he could be getting a lot more across town. He took their advice and dropped of a load and got $800.00!!! He was shocked and super pissed since he had already brought tons of copper to the other guy for $50 a load! He said he must have made that guy $100,000 minimum before he realized how badly he was getting screwed over. By the time he realized it he had cashed in all of the copper and brass and was left mostly with light iron and stainless metals. He said it was quiet sickening when he realized he was dropping off metric tons of copper for $50.00. Some -probably uneducated- ding bat was taking him for quite the ride, and I'm sure he was loving it!

Haha, guy was a dope sort of, but extremely nice and always happy go lucky. Never a dull moment! But it goes to show you, its not always about intelligence, esteem, and net worth, who you know can play huge role in who is successful and who isn't. Don't judge a book by its cover =P

Like my business teacher always said, the perception of reality, is actually reality. What you think is true, actually becomes reality. This guy thought this dub buying junk was established and professional because he had an ad in the paper. He believed that for quite some time! The guy probably bought a front end loader and a roll back with the profits XD and is well on his way!