dumpster diving could get crowded tomarrow.

somebody needs to do a story where they expose this idiot for the liar he is

and make it clear to anyone who watches that scrapping is hard work & even though we sometimes find good stuff, nobody actually makes that kind of money

I'm an open-minded person so let's attempt to analize the situation. This guy spends nights driving across Austin diving. It's entirely possible he's kept tabs on which dumpsters yield the most and only go after those. If the content is high end gear, it's entirely possible he's pulling $2500 a night. The only bad thing I see about the whole thing was that he shared it with the world so now scrappers in Austin will be paying attention to him and getting his high yield instead of him so his profits go down.

publicity... the root of all evil

Originally Posted by newattitude

Here's my take - if the city I lived in and surrounding cites DON"T let hard up people dumpster dive for old food items, I'm supposed to believe these store actually throw out this kind of stuff? And someone can profit? Pfft.. something smells fishy here. And WTH would he ADVERTISE this???????

Read the Wired article, it explains everything he's doing and what he's finding and what he's doing with it.

It seems like a lot of the stuff he grabs your run of the mill dumpster diver would give a second glance at.

And as someone in the comments thread of the article responded, while yeah, it might motivate others to start digging through dumpsters, the upside is there's then less waste going to the dump.

I suppose $2,500 is possible. My single largest net was just over $600 from one dumpster. Lot of times it's $0. Sometimes it's $200 to $300.

As for more competition. Maybe, for a period. But if they're anything like the people that sign up and want to be spoon fed info, they won't last long. What, are we gonna go diving for them?

Originally Posted by miked

I think its most likely he just wanted the attention and made up the story or stretched the truth. Mike

Who knows...

I read the wired article--missed the reference to it when reading the first article.

Still not sure what this dude is doing that the SMF crew AREN'T doing to make the big money. Someone suggested that he's pulling stuff that us great unwashed wouldn't look at twice. I wouldn't be so sure on that...didn't read any examples in the article of stuff that the collective "WE" wouldn't think to grab.

I cringed at the veiled implications behind the assertion that most scrappers are working class people "who carry a ton of personal baggage". The example was a guy who screwed up his life to the point where he had to scrap to live and did meth for a bit. So they set the tone at who your scrapper competition is. Hmmm... we've got all kinds on SMF...guys like the star of the article (in the IT game) and others that cut across all walks of life.

So I don't think we are all joe lunchkit with PTSD and worried about aliens landing as the article implies. I resent that implication that I'm a f*ckup because I like to chase scrap.

The other thing I noticed is that it seemed that he didn't seem to care about permissions to get into dumpsters. Just dived in. He DID chase the store dumpsters and the occasional industrial dumpster, and watched out for large roll-offs appearing at stores. (watching for large roll-offs appearing is probably a good hint for us.)

Didn't sound like he dismantled much for maximizing scrap returns, instead, looking to resell for better than scrap. Do many of our guys use Amazon for reselling?

I suppose another hint from this is that driving a "nice" vehicle (I assume his avalanche was also a late model) and probably dressed decently helped keep the security and cops from hassling him much.

The major takeaway I got from this is that retail store dumpsters have a lot of new stuff in them that is ripe for the taking. It sounded like all you have to do is cruise the malls.

I'm still not sure that it all adds up. If cherry picking mall retail dumpsters is so lucrative, we all would be doing it right across North America...wouldn't we?

I'm not in an area where I can check this out for myself. Would anyone who does have experience chasing these dumpsters care to comment?

Jon.

Dumpsters for scrap is one thing , But major stores seem to have sealed compressor dumpsters , wall-mart - Target - Cole's - Sam's

I see a book in the making

"How to make $2,500 a day from trash"

That's my thinking, he's factoring in the amount he's going to make on his future fiction book "Dumpster Diving for Dollars", one of those "Self help Books", that help some, but mostly help the authors. I will say, I have made some money from dumpsters, none of them from retail stores.

Funny I check dumpsters every single day, retail, apartment complexes, commercial, repair shops, and have yet to make 2500.00 in one day. A lot of the stuff i find gets used by me or my family. There is a lot of good stuff that gets thrown out and i do ok selling things at the local weekend flea market that i do find and can't use but wow. I must be doing something completely wrong. Every single dumpster I check I have asked permission and been given the ok after i explain to them how it saves them money by not having to have their dumpster emptied as often and offer to sign something stating that if I am hurt it is my responsibility not theirs. If i am told no i leave my number with them and tell them that if they need anything hauled off in the future to give me a call. Usually within a month or so they end up calling me for a pick up. This method has worked great for me but not 2500.00 a day great

Originally Posted by Copper Head

Dumpsters for scrap is one thing , But major stores seem to have sealed compressor dumpsters , wall-mart - Target - Cole's - Sam's

I expect something like that to become more common, either sealed or gated and locked. Lost revenue won't be ignored forever by businesses with shrinking profits.

I've looked in a few, but climbing in is easier than climbing out. A scrap pool ladder would be a useful tool.