Given the market, why are the newest scrappers even bothering?

**Area67** · 01-24-2016, 08:43 PM

I always saw low prices as the easy time to get into this trade! Very little competition and the material just starts building up all over. Back in the late 90's I was the only scrapper willing to pick up in a county of 50,000 people. 3 trucks ,7days a week on a route. I had a small charge to cover fuel. I shipped the ferrous and saved the high grade for years. Then pay-day hit and big. Opportunity is oft disguised as hard work, that is why few recognize it (Ann Landers!).

**Mechanic688** · 01-24-2016, 09:12 PM

A lot of people just don't know what the "good old days" of good prices were. They may be doing the only thing they know to help their selves or their families for one reason or another.
I can't believe anyone can see easy money in what we're doing at the moment. It will turn around, just gonna take time.

**unknownk** · 01-25-2016, 11:46 PM

Originally Posted by Area67

I always saw low prices as the easy time to get into this trade! Very little competition and the material just starts building up all over. Back in the late 90's I was the only scrapper willing to pick up in a county of 50,000 people. 3 trucks ,7days a week on a route. I had a small charge to cover fuel. I shipped the ferrous and saved the high grade for years. Then pay-day hit and big. Opportunity is oft disguised as hard work, that is why few recognize it (Ann Landers!).

Lots of people made money when escrap and metals abnormally went high, but it is much harder to make decent money with normal low prices for a decade or more. The middle to late 90's was a great time to make money in a number of fields, but that bubble popped.