I Don't want to be flamed. I have a honest general question for everyone here .... - Page 2

I get to the yard and the one guy comes out ...... good thing he was nice enough to help me separate


Thanks newAttitude for your response..... What i copied and pasted from your response is funny to me..... Im 100% not a sexist person at all... I just know in my own experience. The guys at the one scrap yard i frequent. . Sort of take advantage of me. . I have a friend scrapper and he saw what I was bringing told me I should get XYZ for it. . I ended up with significant less amount. I do think everything is a learning curve and a learning experience too. So I'm not mad about anything I just want to go back there with a ton more knowledge so whey they mumble to each other and say oh yeah thats copper#2 and whatever I want to know what is really #1. I also love that men and woman do this job. Coming from the medical field as a RNFA basically nursing was a all woman career for so many years now its very diverse. So when you were at the podiatrist were you a assistant or nurse or clerical?? I know hippa laws are whatever but many years ago. I assisted on a foot surgery of a famous singer from boston. Sang a song called love in a elevator and sweet emotion( hint hint) He had a few foot surgeries...Anyways this site has taught me so much in the past week or so. . Just talking to everyone here has helped so much and everyone here seems so nice and helpful.

@src3collector .... I hear you loud and clean about the cleaning up mouse crap and rat crap Its gross and vile and Now I keep my work boots outside on the deck before I come into the house. The whole smell thing Im totally cool with, After doing surgery for many years The smell of burning flesh is horrible so I'm a huge mouth breather these days and always since that part of my life. About the whole locker sales does it require you to become a registered person from the town or state?? Also what would be a realistic amount of money to bring with you. Like 1000 or 5000.. Or really what ever you have in your pocket. Kind of like a learning curve. You learn as you go to different auctions. Was it you who does the estate clean outs too? Does that require registration from the state too. Does it require a LLC or DBA?? Im sure I could google it but chances are hearing it from a trusted member here and a future friend would be more worth it in my opinion.

***Also thanks to everyone who replied. I was so afraid everyone was going to say Im dumb for asking all these questions and so forth.... I feel a lot better know the Im gotten so much good feedback here.

DayV

easy for me its $$ most other jobs do not make so much. its hard work but really fun and set when I want to work and how much I want to make

Originally Posted by dayvirus

About the whole locker sales does it require you to become a registered person from the town or state?? Also what would be a realistic amount of money to bring with you. Like 1000 or 5000.. Or really what ever you have in your pocket. Kind of like a learning curve. You learn as you go to different auctions. Was it you who does the estate clean outs too? Does that require registration from the state too. Does it require a LLC or DBA??

Since you're in massachusetts I'll tell you, for anyone else if you're in the north texas area disregard most of what I've said (except the bad stuff haha), storage auctions are horrible, they're the worst thing you could do, save yourself the headache and don't even bother with them! Anyway, I don't know about other states but I don't think you do. You definitely don't need anything here in texas, anyone can attend and bid. The only difference is if you don't have a sales tax/reseller permit you'll have to pay sales tax on whatever you win. Like alot of stuff the best way to learn is through experience. If you are interested in trying it out probably the best thing to do is just go to an auction to watch at first. See the whole process first hand, there's no charge to attend the auction so it's a free lesson. As far as how much to take that you have to figure out for yourself. Everyone's situation is different, plus the area you're in has alot to do with it. An auction in an older more rundown neighborhood tend to have cheaper units so you don't need as much cash. Go to a wealthier area and the prices start going up. Being in massachusetts I know the cost of living is way higher than here in texas so I would imagine the units go for higher average prices than they do here, I could be wrong though. You have to give yourself a limit too, otherwise things can get out of control.

Don't forget to factor in other things if you decide to do it, like is there a buyers fee? (some auctioneers will charge you 10% of the final bid). Also will you have to rent a truck to move everything? If you do that could be another $100+ for a uhaul. Plus gas and your time obviosly. Also, units can be very deceiving as far as size. I'll never forget my very first auction, just a small 5x10 but filled to the max. I thought a 5x10 is pretty small and figured I could get away with just using my regular cab short bed truck with hard tonneau cover and make it in 2 trips (3 trips being a worst case scenario). Nope, WAAAY off, took me about 7 trips and an entire weekend (I didn't have any help either) and it was almost 30 miles each way. I learned that lesson quick, after that I rented a uhaul every time and eventually when I started doing it full time I bought my own box truck.

As for the estate cleanouts I have only attended the estate sales, I don't actually organize those so I don't know what you would need to do it. I would imagine you need some sort of license or at least an actual business but I honestly don't know. Then again alot of estate sales are no more than a glorified garage sale so you may not need anything at all and just advertise your services. Probably would help to be an actual business though and build a good reputation with referrals. I don't want to drag this post out too long but I have to tell this story. My in-laws recently moved here from California and they built a new house and wanted to basically get all new stuff so they decided to put on an estate sale to get rid of everything before they moved out. They got someone to do it for them whose name was thrown out by their realtor. Turns out the realtor only got the name off some list and the person that did the estate sale was skimming money off the top of everything and my in-laws walked away with almost nothing from the sale. Even worse the person was supposed to take some items that didn't sell to a consignment shop for them, well weeks later my father-in-law finds the shop that this very big and expensive cabinet is at and goes in. Cabinet was in the back and wasn't even up for sale, he talks to the shop owner and turns out the person running the estate sale owed the shop some money and gave them the cabinet in exchange for their debt, never even mentioned where it came from. Anyway, don't do that, lol.

We all enter this profession for different reasons and at different levels. As an educator that retired early, I have a security blanket. It is not a great retirement, but enough that we will not starve. So this was a way to supplement income. When looking at starting a business, franchises did not interest me. So I started hunting, fishing, and raising cattle. A neighbor wanted a farm cleaned up and my new found love hit me in the head. A community water district contacted me about scrapping a water tank. New challenge. This forum provided my latest challenge. The latest challenge has provided more opportunities and more importantly, insight into the metal business.

The learning curve in this profession is excessive. Two on this crew are full time scrappers. They are a jack of all trades and provide contacts into the metal buyers and have sources for all types of equipment. Enough said.

To be successful in this business, you have to have the equivalent of a masters degree in many fields. All of us need the knowledge of a business professional. Some need the insight of a IT technician, electrician, and metal ology. Others need to have skills of a mechanic, iron worker, and equipment operator. We all need people skills.

And thank you Mattinthehat and dayvirus for your compliments. I love the challenges faced right now, but look forward to returning to the simple life where my dogs and I are working together again.

I used to go to storage auctions back in the day when you could get a large unit full of good stuff for under $100.00. Then the storage wars show hit the air waves and the prices sky rocketed out of control. I hated trying to sell the stuff, had a hard time dealing with people trying to jew me down all the time while I was just trying to make a profet. Then About seven years ago I found out how the scrap prices had gone way up so I decieded to start picking through peoples trash on thrash days and taking scrap metal to the yeard. Had a hard time at first because I had nobody to teach me what to do. It seemed like the scrappers that knew what to do would not help out(like I was going to take their business or something.) Then I noticed that alot of people was throwing away alot of electronics but the scrap yards would not take them because of the circuit boards and I wished there was some way I could recycle the circuit boards. One day I came home from my real job that I had at that time and there was a new phone book on my door step. I open the phone book up and the first add I saw was for electronic recycling. From that day on I started picking up all the electronics I could find and they were evry ware because the scrappers would leave them behind because the yards wouldn't take them. The thing was I didn't know about all the diffrant grades and how much they were worth. Then about three years ago I found this forum and did I ever get an ewakening, the guy I was sell my e-waste to was rippin me off big time. It was about three years ago when I lost my full time job and had to move in with my sister but sence then I have learned so much and found such good buyers while reading this forum that I am now moving into my own apartment and getting a work shop. That's my story and I want to thank everybody on this forum for all the help.

DayV, you said you had so many ideas on how to make money. Let me tell you what I would do if I where you. First write down all your ideas then focuss on one at a time and see how it goes. When you find one that works for you then go all out on that one thing. When you get that one down you can then spred out to other things if you want. I focuss e-wast because thats what I love to do but I also get the other stuff like metals, transformers, electric moters and so on. Thank you for this thread, it is very interesting to read and good luck with what ever you deciede to do.