New member from Ohio

Hello everybody,

I am a 52 yr old man who has bought and sold almost anything my whole life. I have been selling scrap since the age of 12. I buy stuff and repurpose, restore, or scrap. Bought all my city's parking meters for $70. This load was 235 meters and a full truck bed of timers. Spent time bead blasting the meters, repainting them, then assembling the meters. The company sells the decals, metal labels, plastic domes and drive pins for less than $12 per meter. Invest another $6 for new locks and they sold great. All done I got over $6500 for all after being sold on Ebay a meter at a time.
Currently looking into the e-waste and wire aspect of scrapping. Our yards will not take any burnt wire of any type so people quit messing with the smaller wire. Thinking about buying a stripping machine but not sure what to do with the insulation waste. Also have a good access to e-waste as I have two friends who own scrap facilities and they get loads of it stuffed in junk cars. I can buy this for around $.15 lb. I need to find a source that buys the plastic waste.
Scrapping was an honorable profession but about 5 yrs ago the dopers learned the value of scrap and now they steal all the copper out of homes that are empty and ac units get stolen daily. The dopers have created a situation where everybody is suspicious of anybody who scraps.
I have always learned from the scale men what sells for what. It might be something that takes 5 minutes to fix that gives you $.20 more per pound. I love disassembling items and sorting all the different metals. The e-waste is going to be a new, uncharted course for me so any learning tips that anybody can provide would be appreciated. I look forward to spending time reading the forums so I can learn everything possible. I know that the places where you get your stuff is off the table but hope the how-to's are plentiful as I will also share any advice and tips I know.

Bill

The only problem I see is locally they all have old CRT monitors they want me to take too. I don't have any interest in the dismantling of these because I think they contain hazardous waste inside the tubes? From what I have already learned, gold prospecting is in E-waste instead of digging in mines.

Welcome!!

Welcome to the forum from Florida. We have an e-waste buyer on this forum that is in Ohio, I think He is outside of Cleveland And he has a thred in the buyer/seller section. His name is E-wasted and if it's not too far it might be worth a trip to go see him, he will help you out with good info. Save up some e-wast to bring with you and it'll pay for your gas.

welcome to the board

Welcome from Cincy