full time

First I agree with everything said. There are two philosophies about risk. First, when you are young you can risk everything because you have time to make up for it. The second view is that when you are older you can afford more risk because you have a safety cushion to fall back on if you make a mistake. Each individual has to make their own path and live with the results. The second view worked for me and I scrap fulltime now. Good luck.

Then there are those of us who don't absolutely HAVE to do scrapping to survive. I'm one who has many interests and I know it' true with others.....that our interests and hobbies change over a lifetime. For me, I had farm machinery that I wanted to get GONE while I was still able so I began to disassemble my self propelled combines out of necessity and realized a profit. One thing led to another and then a neighbor wanted to give me a combine so I accepted. Then another and another asked me to haul something and I realized it had business potential. Then a river flood drowned our farm and more of my "good" machinery became junk so I hauled it off. Now I've acquired the reputation of one of those junkmen who frequent our highways and byways with a load of "junk". It's PRODUCT to me and I enjoy the game. When it becomes known that you're in the business, conversations always lead to "What you hauling today"..? ...and the game continues. At that point, it's easy to put in a plug for yourself and therefore increase your business potential. Scrap is an eternal product...it's always there in some form or another.

Honesty is the name of the game. The reputation you form for yourself will either flaunt you or haunt you. People learn real fast how you operate and it happens without your knowing. Oh it's fun though. I lay awake at night planning my next load.