Negativity

Does anyone come across negative comments about scrapping. I never really had pre conceived notions about scrapping before I became serious about it. I had an unabated attack today from a coworker of 16 years. I've never really even talked to him about scrapping. I'm guessing he has just seen scrap in the back of my truck.



Today at work I asked about some heavy iron skids used to transport machines. I've taken them before and they pay well. The problem is a warehousemen usually snags them. Long story short I asked a fellow driver to save them if he was hauling them tommorow. I offered to buy lunch sometime if he did. He said " if I needed extra money that bad I would go out buy a pickup truck and go through peoples garbage and and scrounge for metal". This was directed at me of course.

I actually got a kick out of it considering he needed to borrow 30$ the other day for an extension ladder he got if a job the other day, I also hauled home for him.
The irony of all of it is we make the same Chicago truck drivers wage. Yet, he is constantly complaining about money and its quite tiring. He called in 30 times last year and forgoes overtime when its available.

Do any of you have negative stories/ comments?

Yea a woman the other day as im grabbing some metal crates from the curb. She stops and says here honey take this dollar, Come on fast befor my neighbers see me giving a bum money. I opened my wallet and handed her a 20 told her to leave fast befor I steal her BMW.

this is typical. most people today dont have the cajonies to say to your face what they are thinking behind your back. On the other hand if you have thin skin this aint the business to be in. it takes a whole lot more to be a real scrapper then a strong back, however a hard head is some times handy.

Even my parents think I'm a bum..kinda sad..saving all my tickets from the yard to show em how much extra cash I made for their soon to be grandson..

My parents were both proud that I the youngest son have made an HONEST living by scrapping. Made it into a buisness and done well. Some people look at me like dirt, sorta like the lady and her dollar. But when the wife and I break out the weekend cruiser and cruise and have on our nice cloths the same people look at us differently. Anyone ever wonder why our society looks at what the person drives or wears and judges them from that? To me it doesnt matter what a person does as long as it is honest and they care for thier families to the best of thier ability. That said cheers to all the HONEST scrappers. Cheers to all the people caring for thier wife/husband/children.

Cheers joebob..amen brother

I can say i have always judged the person who I have dealt with as an individual not lumped into a whole and stereotyped. I sold an old car a few years ago that had blown a head gasket and the timing chain and broken in it. This was before I started looking into scrap. I put it on craigslist and a guy came by who cussed like a sailor, dipped chewing tobacco(which I do also at times) and spit on my driveway, and told me I was crazy and stupid for asking so much money for that car. Him I didn't negotiate with. The next day a guy pulls up in a truck with a trailer, hands me a business card, talks kindly to me, and leaves in 45 minutes with my car on the back on his trailer for $150 less than I was asking for the car and extra scrap metal I had around the house. I even helped him load it up.

I work a white collar job full time and there will always be those people who look down on blue collar people making a living because they have dirty hands. Then their will be those people who admire those blue collar workers for being smart enough to maximize what they are doing and provide for their family. I've said this before but I might be a while collar guy who wears a polo shirt to work most days but I would love to ride around in a truck with Gus while he scraps cars. I have realized that there are lot of people on this forum who have a better work ethic, focus, dedication, intelligence, and drive than some of the people I work with on a daily basis.

When you encounter these kinds of people just realize that it has nothing to do with your profession or theirs just some people make themselves feel better by putting other people down. They also don't take the time to get to know a man and judge him by stereotypes.

I had a couple ads up on craigslist, usually they got flagged as they do, but one time a guy emailed me and started chewing me out, telling me I was a bum and a POS and I should go get a real job. I emailed him back and told him I was going to school, paying my rent, feeding myself, etc all without ANY government assistance, and all I was trying to do was support myself. He emailed me back and told me he didn't care, I was still a POS, and I should die.

It's amazing how if you ask for a couple broken stereos or printers people get all huffy and call you a POS and throw it in your face, however they have no problem giving it away to places like Best Buy or Goodwill, large corporations who have billions of dollars, and do the same thing with their broken junk we do.

If you are making an honest living and helping the environment while working for yourself, you are already doing better than 99% of the people out there. I will treat my customers with the same respect they show me whether they are a grungy curbside scrapper or a tie wearing CEO. I agree you will have to have thick skin in this industry, and not let people's preconceived notions get the best of you. Me...I get the best of both worlds: I get to sit in an air-conditioned office everyday and buy scrap. However, I know that if I ever need some extra $$ I can roll up my sleeves and go out and find all the dollars that these ignoramuses put out with the trash.

I say let the haters hate and laugh all the way to the bank!

Some call me Sanford and Son's at work, doing this makes me an easy target.... I don't mind as long as they keep filling my truck with stuff.

There are plenty of stories in the news about crack heads taking manhole covers and ripping out copper pipes from homes in the middle of the night. You also see nice "clean" pictures of workers at large corperate recycling centers doing their business to clean up the environment and lessen the need for strip mining. Compulsive hoarding is also kind of big on TV lately (TV shows about it) so some people might think you have a screw loose. There isn't too much in the news about anything in between, so people lump you into one extreme or the other.

A few weeks back somebody helped themselves to the aluminum cans in the plastic recycler bin we put out front for pickup (since my mom has a dozen cats who eat food in aluminum cans and the household here is into pop we have quite a bit to put out every other week) and my mom *****ed about it. Personally I don't care since it will get recycled anyway and they didn't make a mess with what was left. There are trucks driving by every Thursday here (trash day) and I try to keep anything they might find usable to the right of the nomal garbage so that they can take it (TV's, computer parts, old aluminum screen door, gas grill, etc) and it is gone within an hour.

People look at me funny when I snag a 20 years old computers from somebody or ones left on a curb as trash, so I know what you guys must be hearing and seeing. The thing is I don't realy care what strangers think about my hobby, especially when quite a bit of their junk is actually valuable to other collectors. Hell even the people who pay for computer scrap at local small time recyclers think my hobby is odd, doesn't bother me digging in their tubs for looking hidden treasures. As long as what you are doing is legal and profitable why would you care about what somebody else thinks?

One time my mom and I were driving around and I had scrap in my truck. We happened to pass a lady on the street with her little boy (we were in a very nice neighborhood but that shouldn't even matter!!) and she pointed to my truck and said something to her son about ''Dirty.'' I didn't catch exactly what all she said but it wasn't nice. My mom even rolled her eyes and ''tsk tsk'ed'' at her comments. Most of my family know what I do and all have good things to say about it. Buuuuuuut.....that could also be in part from all the goodies I run across and pass out to them! Lol! Seriously though, most of my family gives me a ''List to be on the lookout for'' and if anyone does have a problem with what I do i don't let it bother me and I don't care what they think.

I never looked down on ''garbage pickers'' as most folks like to call us before I started doing it myself but I DO have a better appreciation for how hard working it all is. I feel proud of what I can provide and accomplish with scrapping and that's all that matters. I may not always have money in my pocket but I always have something lying around that I can turn in for money if I need to, even if its just a $5 dollar bag of cans.

Today a friend calls me and asked if i could haul some stuff for him. Me and my brother ''who is on leave from kuwait'' was just ridin around anyhow. So we swing by and load up a cultipacker unit. A corn planter and some water sprayers. Well as we load his loot a guy rides up jumps out of his truck and starts yelling. YOU BASSTURDS are ruining this planet. digging in trash and making a mess all the time. My brother being a man of honor simply says buddy if you can honestly tell us that you dont throw things in the trash at all then you can cast that stone.Well the guy starts at my brother which isnt smart at all at 6ft4in and 265lbs solid as a piece of oak lol. Well my brother simply told the guy dont do it. After a stand off the guy finally admits that he just wanted the packer for his gardening buisbness. Said he thought he could bully us lmao. My brother being well quarkie paid my friend the $50.00 for it that he was asking and gave it to the guy. Then told him look I only bought it so that you can maybe get a grip on life and how kindness gets you more in return. The guy even helped us pick up the trash that was on the ground befor we got there. Maybe an hour ago I get a call from the guy asking if I want some cell phones and various other electronics. So tomorrow I get to take my trailer over there and load up a massive load of his hoard. Point is sometimes we may ALL go about things the wrong way. And if my brother who has fought in war 3 times can hold his temper and not pummel the guy stupid maybe I could hold my temper aswell. Plus my brothers donation to the guys buisness ventur just gained me who knows how much money. My wife and I are taking him and his woman to dinner tomorrow night I guess my way of saying thank you brother not only for your generosity but your sacrafices you have made for our country.

here is a true story about judging a book by it cover: in the late 70s and early 80s, I moved from selling yellow page ads for ma bell to truck sales at Dongnessbros Ford in the oil patch of Tulsa OK. I didn't know who to sell to, but I also didn't know who not to sell to so when a ragged old man came on the lot in worn down boots a torn shirt, and old oiley floppy hat, the other salesmen just said he cant buy any thing look at him, me not knowing any different went out to wast my time any way. Half of those guys were independent wild catters (oil men). with in a year I was top sales man and with in 3 years I was a grand master sales consulter at ford international (top 2% in sales world wide) stayed there for 4 years at the top until I opened my first lot. just because I didn't judge people by their looks or vocation one year I sold 652 trucks the next I sold 712 the 3rd year I added 600 LTD hiway patrol cars, just because I didn't judge and got referrals from every where.

one day while still at ford this young guy in his early 20s came in all raged from hard work and wanted a truck. he couldn't read or write, and when I asked his employment info he said he was a wood cutter. my finance manager wouldn't even look at the app over the next 3 days, but I had a feeling about this kid. so after 3 days of stalling him off I finally had to tell him the deal was kicked out of finance. he sat there for a few minutes and then got out his worn billfold and search through it for ten min. he then handed me a card, and just said call this guy. "this guy" turned out to be the VP of a well known large local bank. he asked me the customers name and date of birth and a description, after getting the info he asked what he was trying to buy. I told him , A 1 ton cheepie dulley about $10,000 new. the bankers reply was give him any thing he wants with in reason hes worth about 3.5 million.

turns out he was the son of a wildcatter who along with his wife had died in a private plane crash a year or two before. judge people by who they are, not by their looks or what you think they are.

just think how great the world would be if every one did. just my .02

Originally Posted by olddude

one day while still at ford this young guy in his early 20s came in all raged from hard work and wanted a truck. he couldn't read or write, and when I asked his employment info he said he was a wood cutter. my finance manager wouldn't even look at the app over the next 3 days, but I had a feeling about this kid. so after 3 days of stalling him off I finally had to tell him the deal was kicked out of finance. he sat there for a few minutes and then got out his worn billfold and search through it for ten min. he then handed me a card, and just said call this guy. "this guy" turned out to be the VP of a well known large local bank. he asked me the customers name and date of birth and a description, after getting the info he asked what he was trying to buy. I told him , A 1 ton cheepie dulley about $10,000 new. the bankers reply was give him any thing he wants with in reason hes worth about 3.5 million.

turns out he was the son of a wildcatter who along with his wife had died in a private plane crash a year or two before. judge people by who they are, not by their looks or what you think they are.

just think how great the world would be if every one did. just my .02

If he's worth 3.5 million why would he finance a truck? Or was he waiting on an inheritance/cash tied up in assets?