Hello! Finally stepping out of the shadows and introducing myself...

Hey! My name is Evan - I've been lurking around the forum for some time now. Then I paid for a membership but still just lurked a bit more. But here it is: my intro post!



There are tons of things I don't know and only ounces of thing I do...

Not sure exactly what to write about here! I have a lot of interests and I'm trying to develop my knowledge of metal scrapping because I like investing in skills that pay dividends over time, whether passively or opportunistically.

I'm making a change in lifestyle soon, from city living to country living, and with the extra space I plan on storing scrap materials for semi-longterm projects. I see myself owning land and living with sustainability in mind. And in that setting, I think I will be in a very good position if I spent time before that saving the following materials:

Plastic/glass: I can calculate how much concrete I might use for a future building project, figure out how much plastic/glass I'd need as aggregate for that amount of concrete, then passively save these materials at least until I reach that specific amount. By planning this now, I expect to save a nice chunk of money on future construction cost.

Paper/cardboard/wood chips: Again, for down the road. A large batch of these materials could be efficiently turned into biomass briquettes and burned in a wood stove to save tons on monthly heating/hot water bills.

Pipes/tubes/containers of all shapes and sizes: Future gardening use. With a little knowledge and enough space and materials, I know I can put together a simple hydroponic garden.

Raw materials to create my own windmills: Pretty self-explanatory at this point!

I'm also a freelance photographer and in general think of myself as the jack-of-all-trades, seize-every-opportunity type

Anyway! Just spilling some of my hopes and dreams to you fine internet folk...

I do have a practical questions I'd like to get some opinions on: I have a good chunk of e-waste and usable electronics on hand that I'd like to part with. But here's my problem: Within the next few months I will be living with more space, I'll have a car and income aside from scrapping to reinvest in things like better tools to make breaking down scrap more efficient. Right now though, all of my on-hand scrap is sitting around, and having cash would be much more useful. As a newbie though, I feel there's a lot to be learned from breaking down scrap - getting my hands dirty. Knowledge is part of the payoff of taking the time to do that. On the other hand, I also think it would be pragmatic to sell my e-waste to a buyer here on the forum. It would help me start to develop a buyer-seller reputation here, and I could get a Sawzall and a wrecking bar and some other tools of destruction... So, hold onto what I have for when I have the tools to break the stuff down a bit, or sell now and so I have cash/something more useful than boxes of scrap?

Hope you all are having a great day! See you around the forum.

Imo , you have the drive and willingness to do well scrapping. If I were you, I would NOT sit on piles of scrap (e-waste or any other). Turn material around and invest in tools and more scrap. Scrap to buy better tools to scrap more efficiently, then scrap some more. Bigger, Better, Faster.

Good luck from your neighbor in New York.