piranhas and great white sharks, oh my! - Page 2

Well let me jump in!! Start with what you have and let it grow slowly... I started with a shopping cart and trash bags 40 years ago. My personal rule is to keep it moving and keep your scene clean to avoid the ire of the public. If you have an apartment rent a store space,if you have a house use the garage,if you have rural land start an outlaw yard...but keep it moving. I just took the leap into a yard and you have to watch everything all the time. I could not get a bank to finance me so I have a small "nut" that I buy with,and I do not advertise (I could get wiped out fast),just word of mouth and slow steady increase. I only have 10% of the buying power I need,,I will be livin' skinny for years to come as I build up.Go gettim' don't be discouraged.

area67, do you sell to a larger yard, or is there enough volume to sel to a broker/refiner? I'd love to hear more about how you make the yard work for you.

My goal is to do a hybrid of sorts...cars and parts on one end, baled material and flattened cars on the other. Wouldn't really buy metal from walk-in customers (there's plenty of places that can do that better already). Cars are my passion and the parts interest me most, but it seems like a good plan to can process your own "waste" and bypass the middleman

Funny you mention Outlaw Yards...Cincinnati requires a license to operate a metal yard, yet out of the 10 businesses in town only 5 actually have licenses. The city wants to license buyers but it can't even keep track of 10 scrap yards?!

Alright,alright I ran an outlaw yard for 3 years in the county till a nosy neighbor (who could not even see us) ratted us out. We were not making a mess or doing anything like burning wire/mobile homes. Mostly just processing cars/RV's appliances and doing tire repair for the folks in the county (day or night..3 am flat repairs,no problem, just knock!!). We were doing pretty well....oh,well. Now I have strong support in my yard from a large yard in the next large town over (28 miles). They provide 40yd roll-offs and they get all my ferrous, I put in a car and then surround with appliances etc. I get each box in the 5 ton range. I don't make much per ton, but no trucking (no gas,no truck insurance,no D.O.T.,no traffic) so I can focus on harvesting higher paying metals. I also sell all my aluminum to the same yard,delivering it a large 1 ton van. The "good stuff" copper/brass etc goes to a very large yard 40 miles up the road that I have a vendor relationship with and I get 10% plus better than counter price. I am currently really searching for a better cat buyer and am not happy with my battery buyer. I stay very,very loyal to the yards I sell to with clean,honest,sorted material. I have everything in separate containers (with container weights on the side) and help with unloading. I am not large enough for gaylords. I don't have a loader and am going to keep it that way...equipment costs on old run down stuff drains the bottom line. I don't want heavy farm junk that I have to cut up/or Bus's etc. I am very low tech and specific on what I buy. I have been in this biz for years and seen yards in the growth "death spiral" where they handle millions per year and loose $$(no thanks). I only handle what I can handle and what pays the best! So far so good...

I would not sell parts out of the same location..that gets into retail sales, big can of worms and zoning conflict.Get a relationship with an existing thrift shop/tire shop and sell to them that is o.k. in most places,or just do internet sales.

Originally Posted by Scrapette

Neither. sui generis.

an evolved predator. even more dangerous.