Sharp Eyes

**Ken styles** · 11-17-2010, 10:11 AM

I have noticed that since I've been scrapping, I have sharper eyes!
While I'm driving I can look down an adjacent street and know if there is any money sitting on the curb. I can drive by a pile of junk and know within a split second if it's worth stopping or not.

Sometimes during the night especially, I would stop at a dumpster or pile thinking cardboard is metal or aluminum but I am learning tell from afar if it's anything good or not.

And of course dryers, washers, stoves, fridges, AC's are easy to spot.

**scrapinkc** · 11-17-2010, 04:33 PM

I have also noticed that. I work during the day at my job and as I drive around doing my deliveries I see scrap metal with out really looking for it. Lucky for me I can just stop and throw it in the back of my work truck.
After work I don't really drive around looking, most nights I go and pick up things from people that have called through out the day.

**Ken styles** · 11-18-2010, 09:26 AM

Sweet job. Getting paid twice.
I, on the other hand, sit in an office all day

**Ditchdigger** · 11-20-2010, 06:40 AM

I think this is true.

I spend lots of time taking bucketfuls of dirt out of the ground, and dumping them in trucks. I'm always on the lookout for scrap, or Belgium Block (what we call cobblestones here--dunno if that's what they're called everywhere), or even old bottles. I'd like to think I don't miss much. (Of course, using a 1 1/2 cubic yard excavator bucket to pick up a railroad spike probably isn't cost effective, but hey, sometimes I feel like that's my profit for the day.) Sometimes, I'll walk a site, looking for stuff, and find my head involuntarily snapping to the left or right. That's because I've spotted something out of the corner of my eye, that my brain didn't even conciously recognize...

**Scrap man** · 11-21-2010, 09:01 PM

I've noticed this too. Even if it's a small piece of barbed wire half buried in a pile of leaves, I usually notice it. I spend a lot of time in the woods, and i'm starting to notice that I seem to be seeing more and more scrap there. Kinda wierd how that works

**Ace** · 12-02-2010, 02:12 PM

I agree with all of you. I drive about 40 miles oneway to to my 9 to 5 job. I notice things on the side of the road, that when I'm on my way home I will pick up. I will sometimes take back roads that isn't really out of my way to look. I collect cans also, which I have notice not many do on here, but money is money. I will right down places I see cans when I'm driving thru town for a specific reason, then at night when I take my dogs for a walk. I grab a plastic bag, for the can's, and walk to the spots I noticed. I can spot a aluminum can a good distance now.

**gapajeff** · 12-02-2010, 05:39 PM

I save cans, but only ones that I use. Or I have family members save them for me. I don't think I could bring myself to stop along side the road and pick up one can. Doesn't seem like its worth the hassle for one can. But maybe that's just me

**Ace** · 12-03-2010, 08:32 AM

Your right it probably isn't worth it. But it not out of my way, and I don't mind at all. My goal is to avg. $100.00 a month in scrap. So every can counts. It's like a game, I think. I don't have to do it, I just like seeing that I can make that much.

**Ditchdigger** · 12-03-2010, 05:08 PM

I wouldn't bother pulling over for a single can, but at the same time, sometimes you just have to consider the possibilities and stop to see what else might be there.

I spend a lot of time looking in the dumpsters at the sites I work on. You never know what the plumbers, electricians, or HVAC guys will throw out. It may look silly for me to retrieve a few strands of copper wire, but, if I've already invested the time in walking over and looking in the dumpster, it's silly not to grab whatever's good that I see. The scrap yard pays absolutely zilch for anything that ends up going to the landfill...