Hello and thanks for a great forum!

I'm fairly new to the scrapping business. I tend to specialize in the area of my own personal interest. I've always been pretty knowledgeable about computers. I'm no expert but I'm pretty good. I can change out virtually any part on it. I can even rebuild one from scraps as long as it has a valid operating system. With that in mind, you can probably guess that I tend to focus on selling mostly e-waste, scrap boards and the like. If I get a scrap computer that still has a hard drive, I'll wipe the drive and sell it on eBay, if it is selling. If it's not worth the trouble, I pull the board and the discs, then sell the aluminum, boards and discs separately. There are several other areas of scrapping that this leads to as well. I'm still part-time and probably will be for quite some time.

As most of the pros on this site will advise, your not really making money unless your buying product. And, finding a consistent supply of product is still my greatest challenge! I started by finding computers sitting out for trash pick-up. I would pick them up, rebuild what I could, keep the useable parts from those that really had no resale value and throw away the "trash". Of course, a lot of that trash is now sold to scrap yards. Since then, I've been fortunate enough to find a few good auction companies that deal directly with large corporations or government agencies. Unfortunately, sooner or later the general public will find any auction I can find. Once they show up, the prices go up. It never fails. The public tends to bid emotionally without understanding what the items are truly worth. Oh well, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it! I've also been lucky enough to find a couple of medium-sized corporations that will occasionally call me to haul off their ewaste because I can certify and will guarantee their data destruction. By the time I'm done, about the only people that may be able to recover any data from their old storage media would be the CIA!! I also guarantee that all identifying information, stickers and the like, will be destroyed prior to disposal. Hopefully, since I can protect them, I'll be able to grow that side of my business. Banks, pharmacies, doctor's offices and the like all have to upgrade their IT equipment, sooner or later. Disposing of their old equipment is an problem for them because of the sensitive data that may remain on it. I can resolve that problem for them.



I have found this forum to be the best site for information and advice, hands down. I've been a member for a couple of months now. I haven't had anything valuable to post, so far. What I have found is that, with just a little searching effort, most of the questions I've had have been answered. I've also found information that has helped me increase my earnings on some of the scrap I sell. I just can't say enough about this forum and the people who have volunteered the information on it.

Well, that's probably enough about me for now. I hope that I can contribute information to help others who find this place. It has certainly helped me!

Thanks!
Firebird77