In my younger days I was running a successful on-line retail operation. An opportunity came up for me to buy one of my suppliers for not a lot of money. I had been running a successful retailer for a few years during the pre-2000 internet heyday (easy money), and buying from all the major distributors at the time. I had even bought out the complete inventory of a couple that had gone under. I thought buying the supplier made sense since I had all kinds of retail experience and it was an extension of what I already was doing. How hard could it be? I already knew the retail issues I was likely to encounter. So I bought it, and oh boy. Sure, I knew the retailer issues, but I had NO IDEA what the distributor issues would be and almost all my now new competition was more than happy to point their bad customers my way. My point is you know what selling to a scrap yard is like, but know nothing of what the other side of the equation is. Short of you getting a job at a competitor for a year, I wouldn't even consider going up against established businesses with your experience. You have an opportunity to do something new, not try to scratch out a bit of business from others who know what they are doing. 1956's comment about the plastics makes a lot more sense to me. You get that going, you could add in other items as you grow.
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