This is why there is a LOT of money in scrapping/ recycling etc....

I haven't been on here for a few months.

But lately I have been baffled by some people in the area, so I figured I tell you what is going on.

We were working with appliances mostly and tried to get into e-waste.
Picked it all up together and things looked good.

My e-waste partner who is a different guy than my appliance partner had family issues so we kinda put that on the back burner.

Anyhow.... the appliance business has been taking off like crazy. TONS of free appliances to fix, sell or scrap. MANY work just fine.
So I let go of the e-waste for the time being.
However, the little that came through was SUPER profitable. Picking up stuff that can be sold for 50-100 and more ALL DAY LONG. Have a vintage portable computer here still that works. Sells on ebay for $300+. My buddy sold ONE part non-working as we could not test it for $600 within a week of listing.
And so on and on and on.

So back to the appliance part. We got so busy that we made a deal with a fellow scrapper to trade us 1-2 working or non-working appliances a week for ALL our scrap metal. We don't even separate the non-ferrous/wires etc. Probably $300+ a week in just tin value, more if he separates.

All additional appliances we will buy at $10 a piece. That's a little low, but in difference to other appliance places we will take 98% of the appliances, even the ones that others absolutely avoid.

Worked for a few months then he turned unreliable. Scrap was sitting outside for days, big old mess. Also not bringing any appliances any more. Finally we told him the deal is off. Besides his cursing and insults at us *******s it was laughable how he reacted.

Since then we have gone through 2 or 3 other scrappers with the same results. Mostly totally unreliable in picking up.
Right now we give it to anybody just for the asking.

We will get a 2nd large trailer just for scrap and will make our own money. Thanks for forcing us to make an extra $300+ a week!

Long story short. People are lazy. I mean getting entire truckloads one at a time isn't that a scrapper dream??????
If you apply yourself, do your homework, learn the trade and make the right connections there is a ton of money to be made.
Even in this slow time of the industry.

Enough venting. On to making money!
Happy scrapping all!!!!

It's often been said more money is made in a down economy.

Originally Posted by aph

Long story short. People are lazy. I mean getting entire truckloads one at a time isn't that a scrapper dream??????
If you apply yourself, do your homework, learn the trade and make the right connections there is a ton of money to be made.
Even in this slow time of the industry.

It depends on your area - in a large city appliances are all over the place. Come on out to my area, were you will be faced with low population density and a ton of competition ( most folks are poor ).
Out here, you will *NEVER* get your hands on much unless you pay more than than the other guys.

As far as E-waste ... it's not profitable to drive hundreds of miles a week just to pick up junk that has low and mid grade boards! ( again low population density ). In my own experience, after paying very high shipping, I average a profit of $3 a week ( both scrap and Ebay ). [*1]
Also ... do you have an EPA 608 certification? In my state it's illegal to handle anything with refrigerant in it unless you have it.

*1 - HERE is my current price list ... if I pay more, I lose money !

Originally Posted by aph

I haven't been on here for a few months.

But lately I have been baffled by some people in the area, so I figured I tell you what is going on.

We were working with appliances mostly and tried to get into e-waste.
Picked it all up together and things looked good.

My e-waste partner who is a different guy than my appliance partner had family issues so we kinda put that on the back burner.

Anyhow.... the appliance business has been taking off like crazy. TONS of free appliances to fix, sell or scrap. MANY work just fine.
So I let go of the e-waste for the time being.
However, the little that came through was SUPER profitable. Picking up stuff that can be sold for 50-100 and more ALL DAY LONG. Have a vintage portable computer here still that works. Sells on ebay for $300+. My buddy sold ONE part non-working as we could not test it for $600 within a week of listing.
And so on and on and on.

So back to the appliance part. We got so busy that we made a deal with a fellow scrapper to trade us 1-2 working or non-working appliances a week for ALL our scrap metal. We don't even separate the non-ferrous/wires etc. Probably $300+ a week in just tin value, more if he separates.

All additional appliances we will buy at $10 a piece. That's a little low, but in difference to other appliance places we will take 98% of the appliances, even the ones that others absolutely avoid.

Worked for a few months then he turned unreliable. Scrap was sitting outside for days, big old mess. Also not bringing any appliances any more. Finally we told him the deal is off. Besides his cursing and insults at us *******s it was laughable how he reacted.

Since then we have gone through 2 or 3 other scrappers with the same results. Mostly totally unreliable in picking up.
Right now we give it to anybody just for the asking.

We will get a 2nd large trailer just for scrap and will make our own money. Thanks for forcing us to make an extra $300+ a week!

Long story short. People are lazy. I mean getting entire truckloads one at a time isn't that a scrapper dream??????
If you apply yourself, do your homework, learn the trade and make the right connections there is a ton of money to be made.
Even in this slow time of the industry.

Enough venting. On to making money!
Happy scrapping all!!!!

Where are you located, if you don't mind...?

Originally Posted by HipoGear

Hey RLS, just curious ... does this type of advertising work for you? I was thinking of doing something similar in my area. Thanks.

I do "shotgun" advertisement on Facebook Groups, Craigslist, and a few other sites. A couple folks contact me from time to time, and according to the page counter, 1,700 folks looked at the site in the last month !
Neocities ( the site i use because it's free ) does require some knowledge of HTML.