I've made a few decisions with regards to my approach to scrapping in the past couple of weeks. Basically what it comes down to is the approach of garbage night runs, weekend cruises and appliance pickups aren't my best angle of attack. There are two reasons for this... 1) my small truck can't handle a worthwhile load of bulky items destined for the shred pile 2) waaaay to much competition, there are hundreds of guys hitting the streets on garbage night and offering to pick up appliances and other metal for free.
What there isn't though is someone actively advertising to pickup scrap and pay for it. I had a little bit of success with my ad offering to buy computer scrap so I figured I'd toss one up offering to buy nonferrous items. Put it up last Saturday, have had only one pickup but it was pretty solid.
Went and bought all of the copper and some brass from a guy who gutted the plumbing on a house. I payed $230, turned around headed to the scrap yard and sold it for $385. Factor in about $10 for gas and I'm up $145 in just over 2 hours. That's 3 times what I would have normally made in a week running around putting in many more hours picking up appliances and other goodies.
I know there is nothing revolutionary about what I'm doing but I think the main point that should be taken away from it is that you should never stop trying to improve. Always be critiquing your approaches and looking for ways to maximize your bottom line based on your local market conditions.
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