So...looking back...

Of course ... every situation is different. What's profitable in one area might not be profitable in another.

I know it's being kind of a Debbie Downer but i've seen a lot of ewaste ventures go southbound. There aren't many that survive beyond the five year mark. For that matter ....the same can be said of most business ventures.Business is risky and the odds generally aren't in your favor.

If you look back at the old threads ... there are so many members that aren't here anymore.

Scrapping is generally a thin margin thing so you have to manage carefully in order to survive.

Maybe a bit of a derail, but i'm wondering how others operate.

Do you just dive right in and charge forward ?

Do you carefully track your time, all operating costs,shipping, and taxes ? How do your true operating costs mesh up against your gross income ?

See ... the trend is moving toward less scrap value being recovered.

For example: An older computer might have a 386 gold rich processor, a decent lg socket mobo, and three or more finger cards, memory, and nice HDD and CD boards. A newer tower might only have a laptop MOBO and a few sticks of ram.

Pretty slim pickin's with the newer stuff. Most especially with tablets & cell phones.



Is there a thing going on where your operating expenses are going up and your net profits are trending down ?

That would be a thing to watch for. You could end up running in the red and not discover it for a couple of years if you aren't managing the business carefully. This happens all the time.

Originally Posted by hills

Of course ... every situation is different. What's profitable in one area might not be profitable in another.

I know it's being kind of a Debbie Downer but i've seen a lot of ewaste ventures go southbound. There aren't many that survive beyond the five year mark. For that matter ....the same can be said of most business ventures.Business is risky and the odds generally aren't in your favor.

If you look back at the old threads ... there are so many members that aren't here anymore.

Scrapping is generally a thin margin thing so you have to manage carefully in order to survive.

Maybe a bit of a derail, but i'm wondering how others operate.

Do you just dive right in and charge forward ?

Do you carefully track your time, all operating costs,shipping, and taxes ? How do your true operating costs mesh up against your gross income ?

See ... the trend is moving toward less scrap value being recovered.

For example: An older computer might have a 386 gold rich processor, a decent lg socket mobo, and three or more finger cards, memory, and nice HDD and CD boards. A newer tower might only have a laptop MOBO and a few sticks of ram.

Pretty slim pickin's with the newer stuff. Most especially with tablets & cell phones.

Is there a thing going on where your operating expenses are going up and your net profits are trending down ?

That would be a thing to watch for. You could end up running in the red and not discover it for a couple of years if you aren't managing the business carefully. This happens all the time.

As long as anyone is basing their value on scrap prices(the lowest price you can possibly get for the item) there will always be slim margins. For example, you can scrap a truck and get $300 at most or you can sell the truck and get $2,000-$3,000. One has a slim margin while the other is clearly the better option. While the newer computers and other electronics have less scrap value they make up for it by having a better resale value.

Originally Posted by hills

Of course ... every situation is different. What's profitable in one area might not be profitable in another.

I know it's being kind of a Debbie Downer but i've seen a lot of ewaste ventures go southbound. There aren't many that survive beyond the five year mark. For that matter ....the same can be said of most business ventures.Business is risky and the odds generally aren't in your favor.
See ... the trend is moving toward less scrap value being recovered.
Pretty slim pickin's with the newer stuff. Most especially with tablets & cell phones.
Is there a thing going on where your operating expenses are going up and your net profits are trending down ?

A lot of small refiners are gone now. It's more difficult to deal with specialized scrap, especially low grade boards and plastics !

Just a reminder, shipping rates are going up next year !