too new to be a newbie :)

Hey there,

I am so glad to find this forum! I've been searching online about everything concerning scrapping, but hadn't found enough to really feel confident to go ahead and start until I came across here!

I first got my interest peeked when I was at one of the local goodwill's around here, and had struck up a conversation with a fellow book-scouter about what he did part-time -- which was scrap.

now to be honest, as a book-scouter I make enough to pay for groceries, but my goal is to catch up on my bills and make a little extra to save up for a first-time family vacation (by next summer). I think that's a reasonable goal weather its a saturated market here or not.

One problem I have to work through...the only vehicle I have right now is a Toyota Yaris (I know, I know I'm laughing too because I'm lucky if I can fit my 5'1" butt in the car-even though its good on gas). Otherwise I'm going to read and learn everything I can about scrapping because I lose nothing by trying :)

Thanks so much for this forum. everything I've read so far has given me courage and inspiration!

Welcome to the forum.

How exactly does book scouting work? I've made a bit on books by picking up cheap at yard sales and selling them to the local Half Price Books - but not enough to buy groceries, much less anything else.

Welcome to the forum. Try startting out by saving copper and brass that you can store in five gallon buckets and these metals also pay good money. Good luck and keep us posted on how your doing.

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Originally Posted by waredu

Welcome to the forum.

How exactly does book scouting work? I've made a bit on books by picking up cheap at yard sales and selling them to the local Half Price Books - but not enough to buy groceries, much less anything else.

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I sell to buyback bookstores online. Its sort of the same premisses as selling books back to college bookstores except the online bookstores I sell to pay around 30% more for a book then a local college book store would. I get live quotes on my phone (not a downloaded database), so I know what I'm going to get for the book before I buy it, this way there's no inventory I have to keep at home for months, and I get a check in 7 to 14 days.

Its not the norm I know. Most book-scouters I've had the pleasure of meeting sell on amazon, ebay, abebooks,or half.com. And because the market has become really competitive and saturated in those selling areas so I had to find a different approach to earn.

Just do a search online for book buyback companies. :)

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Originally Posted by happyscraper

Welcome to the forum. Try startting out by saving copper and brass that you can store in five gallon buckets and these metals also pay good money. Good luck and keep us posted on how your doing.

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thank you for the advice. I've actually been hunting around my house looking at different stuff I was originally going to throughout. I'll treat anything that's copper and or brass as my best friend!

Welcome to the forum. We wish you happy hunting and you found the right place to get the inside scoop of scrapping.

Welcome to the forum. You don't know what you don't know, but you will if you hang out here a read the old threads.
What part of N.C. are you located in, I'm in the coastal area? Mike.

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Originally Posted by miked

Welcome to the forum. You don't know what you don't know, but you will if you hang out here a read the old threads.
What part of N.C. are you located in, I'm in the coastal area? Mike.

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Hi Mike, I'm located in Charlotte. and thanks I'm reading, reading, reading :)

I live pretty close to you in hickory N.c.
phil

Welcome to the forum...the non-ferrous (copper, brass, aluminum, etc) takes up less space and you get more bang for your buck. Much of the non-ferrous I get comes from breaking down the bigger stuff though. Always amazes me how the little pocket of good stuff in the back of the van is often times worth 2-3 times the steel load surrounding it.

have fun here !! hope you take your vacation in Maine , we are known as vacationland after All !!

Re books

Yeah, selling through Amazon and the other book selling venues is slower but you get a much higher return in the long run. Of course you have to have the space to store the books in the meantime. theartofbooks.com is one way to manage sales through a number of selling venues.

BookScouter.com is a good one-stop shop to get an overview of book buyback venues.

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Originally Posted by smajor

Re books

Yeah, selling through Amazon and the other book selling venues is slower but you get a much higher return in the long run. Of course you have to have the space to store the books in the meantime. theartofbooks.com is one way to manage sales through a number of selling venues.

BookScouter.com is a good one-stop shop to get an overview of book buyback venues.

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Hey smajor,

Its great that you're able to really do great with other venues such as Amazon, unfortunately, bookscouters are a plenty here in Charlotte, NC and the majority do sell via amazon.com, a small minority sell half.com, abebooks, ebay, and of course bookstore owners are always on the hunt. Also, most of the second-hand stores, the goodwill's in my area, and salvation army are scanning books (setting aside books they will sell via amazon before they put books on the shelf).

In other-words it's slim pickings here -- for those trying to sell in those venues anyway.

Now I will tell you I've used bookscouter.com, DealOz, and BigWords. And it does help me because I know exactly what my profit will be before I spend a dime to buy anything.

I know you're right when you say I would make a lot more with Amazon in the long run, but when I scan Amazon doesn't even show a blip on my phone.

I always find books though -- even when books have been gone through dozens of times by bookscanners that can't even find one -- and there are a lot of happy scanners when I'm around because they know I'm not competing with them for the books they want.

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Originally Posted by submarinepainter

have fun here !! hope you take your vacation in Maine , we are known as vacationland after All !!

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WOW, My hubby has family in Windham, Maine -- beautiful in the fall. Hopefully next fall it will be our vacationland! :D