New Scrapper: Balancing the start up budget. tools, gas, etc

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 41haikuwarriors

To the OP I have to say, I think you did it a little backwards.

Unless the tools were absolutely needed it would have been better to go to the yard first, then buy the tools after your payout.

If you continuously buy tools and such and "hope" to get your investment back, the road you are traveling could turn out to be the loongest road you have ever been on.

And as far as buying scrap goes, it is a really good way to make more money.

I could spend $200 on 50 towers and double my money in a few days, or i could spend $200 driving all over town for a week, looking in dumpsters and find maybe 20 towers.

Buying scrap is a really good way to make a quick easy flip on your investment.

Of course i started with only "free" stuff and put back 50% of my profits for tools and such, which led to having enough cash to start purchasing auctions. I still put 50% of my monthly profits back into my account for buying power and it has allowed me to buy more and more. Now i dont necessarily have to flip one auction to be able to buy another. I can do 3 or4 a week if the price is good enough.

---

I kinda thought about that, but then figured these were tools i should probably eventually buy anyway, but all have been truly helpful in getting started, only thing i think i could have done without was the security bit set, and maybe the pry bar. Everything else I use practically everytime i go out. I really dont plan on buying any other tools for a while unless something breaks, or gets lost. I just needed those basics to get started so i dont have to bash everything with a hammer to get the goodies out.

I WOULD LOVE to just buy scrap like computer towers and other items i could flip, or scrap out. I just havent gotten that far as far as finding auctions etc, PLEASE POINT ME IN THE right direction. I really want purchase cars and scrap them, but that definitely requires a truck which i am trying to build up to getting.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by auminer

I must respectfully disagree with the steadfast rule of never paying for scrap.

I get the appeal of having zero investment in your product, but the truest truism of all truisms is "It takes money to make money". If you are able to keep yourself as profitably busy as you desire to be and still follow your rule of never buying inventory, then by all means carry on smartly!! But if you're ever having downtime, or find yourself doing dubiously profitable things like unwinding miles of yellow tape to recover tiny thin strands of copper from a miniscule transformer, then perhaps a re-thinking of the 'no buying' policy is in order.

Last month I won an auction for $95.27. It's virtually impossible to separate out every last dime of income from those items... random unstripped wire went in the tub with wire from other sources, small heatsinks from servers went in the 6063 tub, etc, etc. but I do know of right at 900 bucks worth of income that was solely attributed to the items I got in that auction. I'll take a 900% markup any day of the week!

Unless, of course, your intent is more to purely be a RECYCLER, as your name implies... if the money is your secondary motive, coming in after the satisfaction of having salvaged those items from entering the wastestream, I get that, too.

---

If you pay for scrap, more power to you. However, I have defined and coined my effort on not paying. Will I one day, if the price is right and the opportunity presents itself, maybe. You see, I'm not just your average Joe Scrapper. I'm a scrapper with a bit of intellect, not that you're not, but I incorporate human psychology, temperaments, networking, communication, and an effective process to avoid buying scrap. Don't get me wrong, one can truly turn a good profit from buying scrap, however, from my profit calculation, I'm turning an exceptionally high return ALL the time. It works for me and I'm happy with that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by 99problems

I kinda thought about that, but then figured these were tools i should probably eventually buy anyway, but all have been truly helpful in getting started, only thing i think i could have done without was the security bit set, and maybe the pry bar. Everything else I use practically everytime i go out. I really dont plan on buying any other tools for a while unless something breaks, or gets lost. I just needed those basics to get started so i dont have to bash everything with a hammer to get the goodies out.


I WOULD LOVE to just buy scrap like computer towers and other items i could flip, or scrap out. I just havent gotten that far as far as finding auctions etc, PLEASE POINT ME IN THE right direction. I really want purchase cars and scrap them, but that definitely requires a truck which i am trying to build up to getting.

---

Another thing you can do is frequent all sort of thrift stores. You will be surprise the amount of tools you can accumulate for practically nothing. I purchased a 6 hammer set for $4.99 from the Salvation Army.

Just keep those HF receipts!! I have made do with their stuff and done alright, they have always made a return right as long as there was a receipt (even if it was past date at times..doesn't hurt to try). A good mileage car can actually do better than a truck when your hunting for stuff, I kept %20 aside for repair/insurance etc. That worked out about right. Good hunting

harbor freight is great for tools .but in my opinion the angle grinders you get what you pay for .I went thru three of them in 6 months they burn up .my dewalt has been running perfect for 2 years.