Everything said here is part of a logical explanation to my original question. I have a client who has a large amount of scrap material who had been approached by a buyer who in turn is selling to another buyer in Atlanta (supposedly). The buyer's offer was about two thirds less that what he would get from Boardsort or Ewasted. My client asked me if I could locate the Atlanta buyer if possible to sell directly to them to save shipping costs to Ohio. I've had no such luck locating such an Atlanta buyer and I'm quite suspicious my client's buyer who approached him is simply sending his purchases on to Ohio. My client has sold to Ewasted before in years past.
What has been said here so far draws this conclusion with me. At this time even with the recent increases in
scrap metal prices of gold, silver, copper and so on it is still not enough compared with inflation in general to take pressure off profit margins buyers of scrap have to have to operate. Scrapyards, refineries and everyone else involved are still dealing with a multitude of problems including little available labor, bad supply chain for replacement parts for machinery, slow logistics, fewer people selling scrap, etc., etc. etc. I do believe that in the near future that
metal prices will accelerate in price overcoming general inflation effects. In other words being in this business will become quite profitable again. But we are not quite there yet. Could be right around the corner.
These are some of the strangest economic times I've ever encountered. For example, I know several people who have large amounts of scrap material on their premises they could process to generate a lot of money but don't do anything with it. And they are on the poor side. Why don't they work it? They say, "I've got bad knees so it hurts to do labor", "The scrap yards cheat me on their scales always", "I need money immediately, scrapping takes too long", "Social media takes up most of my time". Somehow, someway these people don't really work anymore. They are living on easy money. That's going to change in the future also. They will work again eventually. Or starve. I hope I haven't offended anyone.
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