I'm Back, For My Vegas Scrapping Diary

Hello All,

Yes, I've been absent for a big. You know life changes sometimes.

I started out this diary awhile back and didn't get into it full-time, but that has changed. I got let go from my job Thursday because business is slow was the excuse? Ok!

So now I got plenty of free time and figured I would work on my YouTube channels, websites, and naturally get back into scrapping on my bike. For those that didn't see my rig check it out here in my original post https://www.scrapmetalforum.com/day-...ing-diary.html

This diary was mainly centered on how much money can you make a day scrapping with a bike? Most videos on YouTube are people scrapping with a vehicle, usually a pickup truck which makes things much easier and your ability to make more money easier. But what about those who don't have a vehicle. We poor people that need a way to make money scrapping and what can we do?

Well it's either going canning while walking? Not too good and time consumming. Using a shopping cart? A little better but still walking which means not able to cover a lot of ground in one day? So a bike and trailer is the best I could come up with that might give you a change to make something worth the time.

Also, even after the long period I was away, I still see not a lot of people on here from Vegas? Do you know how much competition is out there here in Vegas? Tons. Granted, most are homeless and don't get on the internet but still.

Anyway Hope I can contribute some valuable info on this threat and that it helps other out.

CyberScrapper

Originally Posted by HipoGear

I just read through your initial diary post. You didn't update it with any scrap adventures. Did it not work out that time?
I wish you the best this time around. Prices are just now going up a bit after being really bad for a long time.
Care to share your youtube channel?

Hello HipoGear

It's actually a longer story than I'll present here but I'll try and break it down the best I can. I have a number of things going usually at once. Most everything I do is about making money online, or from home.

Did it not work out that time?

A few weeks after making that post a situation came up with a friend of mine that owns two local 7-Elevens. He was needing some help and asked me so I said ok. That's pretty much turned out to be a full-time job, while at the same time all my other things are going on too. So some of them, the ones that I could, got put to the side for the time being and I worked the full-time job into my schedule.

But now, I have been relieved of that job and have nothing to fill the 40 hours a week time slot. The schedule I had with all the other projects I'm happy with except for a few things which I'm adding those back to the schedule too. One of those was my YouTube channels "which I will provide a link to. Along with my personal site/blog which has EVERYTHING I do with links to them too", and scrapping and this forum.

I was homeless for a couple years and that's where I initially got into scrapping "dumpster diving" but it was mostly cans and plastic at that time. That was done using a shopping cart which is time consuming. But now I'll be using my rig which I can get around faster. Also I want to help others who might be thinking about getting into scrapping and that I will do through one of my YouTube channels using a scrapping playlist.

Prices are just now going up a bit after being really bad for a long time

Yes that might be true but probably still lower here in Nevada than other places because everything has to be shipped out to California, etc. I'm sure the recycling yards hit was hard on the prices and volume might play into it too. I'll find out more when I get back into it next week and doing some research.

I have an OCD about documenting the things I do which I will share on my YouTube channel for you all to see here. It breaks down my time spent scrapping, how much I get of each metal, how many cans and what size "12oz, 25oz, etc". So you can see how that info could help someone when there starting out.

Again hopefully the info that I provide here will help others and that you can put up with me...LOL

CyberScrapper

Originally Posted by hobo finds

# to make a pound
32 - 12 oz.
32 - 16 oz. tall cans
16 - 24 oz. cans
18 - 16 oz. alum bottles with caps
12 - 32 oz. alum can

And at $.95 a pound for cans here it comes out to..
$.03 a can for 12 oz. and 16 oz. cans
$.05 a can for 16 oz. bottle with cap
$.06 a can for 24 oz.
$.08 a can for 32 oz.

hobo finds, that is about exactly the numbers I come up with. I also have the numbers for plastic. I did plastic for a bit here because prices was pretty good and there's a **** load of plastic that gets thrown away in Vegas.

What I did is purchased a scale off eBay that measures grams and collect about 50 pieces of each can, plastic bottle, etc and weight them and got an average. Then I made an excel sheet with all the measures and downloaded Excel for my mobile phone. So all I have to do is each time I pick up a can, plastic, etc I add it to the excel sheet and it keeps a running total of the weight I have for each item and my total weight.

So I know about exactly how much aluminum, plastic, etc I have when I go weight in at the recycler.

Yes, some of my friends say that's pretty much OCD...

Right now am getting $1/lb

Originally Posted by JJinLV

Right now am getting $1/lb

Yes we have buys driving around town buying cans off homeless canners for $1.15/lb and there's plenty of competition among them. It's only cans though. None of them buy metals, etc

Originally Posted by hobo finds

I wonder if Oregon is getting an influx of California cans now that they have raised there deposit to $.10 a can...

Yes, I mean if you're buying them for $1.15/lb and taking them someplace else and getting .10 a can that's pretty money right there.