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Or is everything so slow right now........Pickups are slow......Sales are slow........Prices are going down.......Am I the only one experiencing this......Around this time last year I was getting box trucks full of electronics and scrap metal........Now I'm lucky to get a few items in a pickup truck
BUYING ALL COMPUTER SCRAP WORKING OR NOT
CHECK OUT MY BUYERS THREAD http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...nic-scrap.html
https://getjunk.net/Knox-County-TN-0...Recycling.html
Thornton Scrapper
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Dude same here, Pick ups from the company's i work with are way down. my dumpster route has been a bust lately so i started hitting the streets a bit more and thats a waste of time now too pretty much. i want to expand my dumpster route but if nothing is out there and gas is at 5.49, i just cant go out looking for new places right now. I keep seeing all these pallet guys around so i may have to start up doing pallets again and i never really got into pallets like i did with scrap.
I did't mind the lower prices cause i can hoard up copper, brass, wire and coils but with the way gas is i dont think hoarding is the way to go now. lets say before shred would be at 115 like current prices and getting 40-50 a load wasn't bad, but then gas was like $2.50 and took $30 to fill the tank and run in 3-4 loads a week, but now its like $60 for gas and takes 2 loads to fill the tank for a week or so but no one's calling for pick-ups and there's no scrap out there to do anything with. Vacation time i guess or slow it down a bit.
Edit: ill add that a few months ago i was at my breaking point of where it was too much scrap for 1 person to handle and now i just kick my feet up at night on my tail gate and watch the owl sit on top of my dead pine tree.
Last edited by greytruck; 07-06-2022 at 12:01 PM.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I feel your pain. It is slow here too. Moving season (this time of the year) is generally good for some extra curbside shopping and excluding the usual useless stuff: mattresses and presswood furniture, it is good if I saw just a microwave oven and a plastic swimming pool ladder. Also, I am sitting in the middle of two road construction sites and I am like blocked on both sides too. It is a maze just to get away from home. The only good news is our shred press is still somewhat okay, but aluminum has lost like 25% of its last year value and copper is not much better. Gas price went a bit down this week and it is currently sold at 2.069 / litre, but everyone hears that it will be a 3.00 / litre by the winter or next year. Last night on the TV news, they were saying that the real price we should pay is not more than 1.93. In other words, they sell 14 cents per litre (53 cents per gallon) too high and it goes straight to their pocket. I guess that it is an opportunity to clean up some of the stuff we put aside before winter.
NEW TO SCRAPPING? READ THIS: Build up your horde of magnetic and non-magnetic metals in two piles until you have a better understanding of the business. Magnetic material has low value and is mostly always steel / shred / short iron. Read old threads about non-magnetic metals and ewaste (and how to sort them), but don't forget that they generally have absolutely no tolerance for contamination (screw / iron / foreign material).
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Also i have tons of lower grade ewaste to break down....printers monitors etc but temps are around 95 degrees and even though I have covered sheds and building there is no A/C....I want to get rid of all of it gonna have to start earlier and work later to run thru all that crap....have not had a "real" job in 13 years and at this point I'm contemplating a "real" job or just slowly go broke over the next several years
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Also I didn't mind lower prices when gas got down to $2/gallon.....but at $4.50/gallon makes it hard to justify even moving the trucks....I still start them and drive around the block at the least just to not let the batteries die
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Mike, about getting a "real" job, I see what you mean. I am at the same point, but I rather go for a part time job before a full time one. Just to get extra cash, just enough to cover the bills and expenses and that's it. Maybe I am jaded or disillusioned, but I am not really into getting a job and watching the clock all the time. Be there before the clock rings, watching it all day (how long before the break time, the lunch, the end of the day) and after it rings again, they won't let you out way after they stopped paying you. Always cheating to get some of your time for free. Not really willing to bend over backward for a never happy boss whose job is to always squeeze out more of you for the same lame paycheck (with half gone in taxes of all sort) and no other recognition whatever how much you saved the day. I am willing to make some concessions, but I rather see my efforts to be my own boss and generate added value and income for myself, not for someone else that give me some peanuts after I did all the work.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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It's chaotic here with all of our summer visitors. Population doubles or even triples this time of year. It's run,run,run everyday. Things are so busy that ten hours pass in the wink of an eye and it's quittin' time again.
Real estate is selling like hotcakes. The place next door to me sold for over a mil. and it was never even listed.
Lots of cleanouts as the properties sell over the last couple of months.
Not surprisingly ... very little in the way of e-waste. That's been slowly dropping off for the last three or four years. There's a certain amount of copper and a fair amount of brass coming in lately. Shred steel is plentiful but it would have to be moved in 30 ton loads to do it cost effectively here.
I'll be glad when Labor Day rolls around and things start to slow down again. A fulla can keep up the pace for a couple of months but getting up at 4:00am every morning starts to get old after awhile.
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I just have to do the math....slowly go broke over next several years or get out now....will be interesting....if I thought I had enuff to retire I would but I'm sure what $$$ I have will burn fast
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Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I can't read your last message. All I got is several question marks in diamonds. Missing font?
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Lately the scrappers (not the good ones) have been out in droves. The number of times I see people on the security climbing into my truck bed to steal something has increased significantly. You can tell the good scrappers that come through the warehouse complex as they check dumpsters, but leave everything else alone. I guess the best thing now is to bring EVERYTHING inside. I literally had someone steal a pile of screws out the other day. At this point, anything is valuable to a crackhead.
Based on what I'm seeing, the number of "scrappers" started to increase when gas hit $4.50/gallon here, don't even get me started on diesel. I die a little every time I have to fill my box truck up. I'm only 24 so I was too young to do much in scrapping the last time prices increased like this. I do remember a dramatic increase in metal thefts towards the end of the increases last time though. Based on what happened last time, I think we've entered the stage of scrapping where everyone is "scrapping" to make ends meet. While this may be the case in some situations, there are also people who just want money for drugs. Hopefully this recent drop in prices will cool things down a bit. Some competition is fun, but seeing drops in volume is not.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I completely understand where you're coming from on thinking about finding a "real" job. A lot of people got really tired of working their butts of just to break even at the end of the month. After all, nobody wants to feel like they're making no forward progress. I know several people who recently moved their business to a side thing instead of full time. While it's not the end of the world to do this, it does mean you have to be extremely good at time management.Originally Posted by mikeinreco
It is very frustrating having a ton of stuff to go through without having enough time to process everything. As Matador can attest, this happens to me on a weekly basis. I clear out a space and within a few days it's back to what it was before I started sorting materials. It would be nice to have more time to do the recycling, but a regular job is a guaranteed paycheck. It may suck for a while, but if everything scrapping goes to being worthless, at least I'll still have that guaranteed paycheck.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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I can relate Mike. Was going through the same thing about six or seven years ago. Do you stay the course as a self employed person -or- return to the workforce ? I agonized over it for a couple of years and gradually worked my way back into working for somebody else. It takes time to make the mental adjustment. It can be painful. Self employed and working for somebody else are two completely different mindsets.
It's even harder these days with the economy being what it is. It's not just gas. The cost of everything you buy is going up like crazy. I really liked my last job but i had to move on to a new job a couple of months ago. It's a lot more work and a lot more responsibility but .... it should double my yearly take home pay if it all turns out as planned. I think i'm gonna need that doubling of income just to stay even.
Even that may not be enough if the economy keeps going Southbound. We may get another economic crisis like we had back in the 1970's & early 80's.
I can remember gasoline being 25 cents a gallon back when i was a kid. There have been a lot of changes over the years. A dollar sure doesn't buy what it used to.
Last edited by hills; 07-07-2022 at 06:37 AM.
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Just glad I didn't have my money in crypto
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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If history repeats itself ... real estate and precious metals should be fairly sound investments over the next few years. Treasury bills and Treasury bonds might be paying double digit interest if you're living off the interest of your investments.
I really think i would try to distance myself from the cash economy.
The government has been doing things that are bound to weaken the dollar over the last few years. It's only a matter of time before we feel the full effect of it. As you can see ... it's already started. It's taking more dollars to buy that loaf of bread and gallon of gasoline. Most likely .... prices will go up even more until things even out again.
Thornton Scrapper
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Everytime gas goes up or scrap drops i try to figure out a new game plan to do this a make some profit or break even but once i get a idea the price for gas goes up or scrap drops again. im thinking of cleaning shop and selling everything cause if it gets worse (witch it most likely will), i dont want to lose my contacts and have room to store stuff. Ive worked too hard to lose the jim the car guy, the plumbers, and the hvac shop. But it seem the techs are keeping more of the copper and brass scrap and giving me the steel. But i figure they will stop once they see how bad prices are getting. But i can store the water heaters and hvac tin for a bit or just sell it at pretty much nothing and take a hit for a year or so and keep the good stuff. I really dont want to sell copper if its under $2/lb or brass under 1.00/lb. i dont know, its getting harder to stay motivated. Mabey ill do this more for fun and not be so professional about it.
I also thought of getting a real job too, but i was thinking of being a laborer for the plumbers or hvac company i get stuff from since i know both the owners. IDK
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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If we should consider taking a "real job", which job/niche should we look for? That's a good question. Nothing's perfect, but is there a close match to what we do, something to make an easier transition to a for someone else job? I know that my ferrous yard is looking for laborers, but retention seems quite low and I want to keep a distance with them (not to mix business and employment). There's also the ewaste thing, but not sure if the right time to start up another operation and ewaste is not what it used to be too. I guess that I would like OTR truck driving, but that's another domain that have high turnover rate.
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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Different kinds of jobs are right for different kinds of people. There's a shortage of tradesman and truck drivers right now. Those jobs pay pretty well. If you've been self employed for many years ... you probably have business management skills.
I'm getting on in years. I've had my commercial driver license for decades, ran my own business for almost 20 years, and am a master of the carpentry trade. It's not a terrible thing for a fulla that has made his mark to spend the last years of his adult working life in service to the community. It's a way of giving back to society. There's a certain satisfaction in that. Also ... it's the kind of thing where you are using your head and not your back after the body has worn out from many years of manual labor.
For a young guy in his 20's or early 30's: I would say learn a trade and develop a valuable skill set.
For an older guy past 40: You're getting a bit set in your ways. You can't teach an old dog new tricks so do what you know best.
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Lol....I'm 45 and into this scrapping/selling stuff almost 12 years 7 days a week....will be hard to re-adjust to any regular job and in this bussiness sometimes I can make as much in a day as some poor SOB would make in a week working for the man.....at this point the grind is killing me....money is slow to come in due to low volume of calls....I have probably handed out 1000's of bussiness cards....have a "website" that generates calls....do gov't auctions etc.....not much more I could do other than quit or go all in and open up my own scrap yard (I definitely don't want to do that).....for now I will continue to grind out the ewaste I have and take pickups that are easy or profitable
Metal Recycling Entrepreneur
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It's normal to have highs and lows anyway. Winter was the slow season for me. Sometimes i would go for two or three months with little or nothing coming in for money from my carpentry business. I would fill in by hiring on with the town as a snow plow truck driver. It all worked out nicely. I would jump in a truck when things slowed down around the first of November. The carpentry work would pick up just as the snow plowing was playing out in the early spring.
The main thing is don't let yourself get discouraged when things slow down. You just never know .... a week from now you may have more work than you know what to do with.
If you're going year after year and see yourself slowly losing ground .... that's the time to start thinking about doing something else. There's no sense in holding on for so long that you eventually go broke.
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