Buying broke down appliances

There's always a ton of free ones on CL here....

I don't think I would buy appliances, #1 you can only haul so much in a pickup(unless you had a trailer). #2 A lot of the people are overjoyed that your getting that "junk" out of their way. The only thing I buy right now is auto/truck batteries. Just my 2 cents

That's cool that you scored some stuff, but like dherik said, in my area as well there are more free ones then I can handle. I post an ad in the appropriate sections (labor & moving, household services, appliances) late at night, and by the next morning, almost like clockwork, I have people calling (I have to turn some of them down if they want it gone that day!).

Now get this, I even charge them $10 if the appliance is in their basement or anywhere else but the garage, driveway, or 1st floor of the house, and they pay every single time...which covers my gas.

Just food for thought!

If you're handy, some of these machines are easy fixes. Tons of repair videos on youtube. Invest an hour or two, some parts, and make far more than scrap.

Gotta kinda go with the flow on this one. There is a very short list of things that I will pay money for in small quantities. Appliances are great, but they are not on that list......unless you are into fixing them for a profit. I will make an exception for large quantities....just like buying iron. Example. I did give $50 for a large pile of mostly complete appliances, washers, dryers, refers, freezers, stoves, even a couple of microwaves. It was 80 some odd total appliances....enough to fill the trailer.

I give 5 bucks for each appliance. What you're going to run into, because junk prices are so high is that the average idiot is going to go out and become a scrapper and CL is definitely going to become overpopulated with people posting ads for scrap. In my town alone, I see 4 ads a day for people looking for scrap on CL which is why I run an ad in the local paper, have a facebook, have a website, and have 4 businesses save their scrap for me. I plan ahead. Some folks are just lucky to be in an area where scrappers aren't prevalent. In my town it's survival of the fittest. Besides that, I have a problem with generally going to someone's home and getting something for free in a time of recession. In my opinion, give out a few dollars. Karma is your friend and nothing helps word of mouth along like a good deal. People will tell their friends and neighbors about you and how they easily made some cash.

Karma is great but im with everyone else. There is more than enough free stuff to go around. Sometimes you can even get paid to remove stuff for them. If your wanting to just help the elderly and not make money i say never buy appliances. I got a dryer from a buddy the other day. It works he just wanted it out of the way. Next day i passed him. He had a flat. I stopped he didnt have a jack so i loaned him mine. And i helped him change it. See i got good Karma too. lol

It's definitely handy to know someone who works/runs an appliance repair/sales shop. I established contact with a local one (on the way to the yard) and stop by on my way to the yard to let him buy anything he feels is worth fixing up. We worked out a fair deal that makes it worth my time to sell to him rather than the yard if I have anything he likes.

talking about the south and old cars, I came across a super bird sitting in the back yard of this old ladys trailer one day, she was using it for storage of old useless cloths and junk. that was 30 years ago im sure the ants finaly burried it. I couldnt buy it from her for any price. that car is worth up to 1 million $ today. the numbers of 57 chevys rusted away to dust in front yards down here are uncountable.

Originally Posted by olddude

talking about the south and old cars, I came across a super bird sitting in the back yard of this old ladys trailer one day, she was using it for storage of old useless cloths and junk. that was 30 years ago im sure the ants finaly burried it. I couldnt buy it from her for any price. that car is worth up to 1 million $ today. the numbers of 57 chevys rusted away to dust in front yards down here are uncountable.

When I was working for my Uncle in Mesquite, they passed some code compliance ordinance threatening to shut off people's water service if they didn't clean up their yards, I was buying old caddys and suburbans for 25 bucks, and taking them straight to the scales. I made friends with a code compliance officer, and found out what neighborhoods he was working. I wouldn't even have to knock on doors sometimes, people would flag me down. Man those where the days

I used to scrap washers and dryers and then I looked up "appliance repair" in the phone book.

A timer for a washing machine is $75 minimum and these appliance repair guys will always buy broken ones at $25 - $50 each to get parts cheap. I haven't scrapped a washer in a while (except the ones I find out in the desert that have been used for target practice).

Around here, alot of people set them out on the curb with a "free" sign on it and you can just pick them. You can troll Craigslist too for freebies but it's just too competive for me to fool with.

Overall there's much more profitable things than washers and dryers but I'll grab them when I see em.

Hey, I learned a new thing the other weekend that ya'll might want to know. Washers/dryers have gone electronic and the washer repair places don't want the new style washers as the board is what goes bad and it's too expensive for them to replace and sell the washer.

I nabbed one of the new ones and had to drive to three different places (lucky for me they were all within a mile of each other) before getting a measly $20 for it.

Of course if the board works fine and the motor is what's bad they'll want it.