Buying Appliance Parts Working or Not From Scrapped Appliances

Buying Appliance Parts Working or Not From Scrapped Appliances.

Make more $$$ from those scrapped appliances with just a few moments of your time!

10/06/2021 This is just our initial post to get the ball rolling. We plan to provide more details in the near future. We will update this posting regularly when needed so check back for updates.

We are currently have the most need for the following:

Dryer Timers	$4 Each
Range/Oven Main Control Boards	$4 Each
Most Washer and Dryer Main Control Boards (more details to come)	$3 Each
Refrigerator Main Control Boards	$3 Each
Dishwasher Main Control Boards	$3 Each
Analog Range Oven Thermostats (complete with copper wire that goes into the oven)	$2.5 Each
Additional Appliance parts (by invite only to consistent suppliers)	Price Varies

All parts must be free of obvious external damage. Parts with obvious damage can still be purchased but at $1 each. Analog Range/Oven Thermostats with obvious damage are not purchased. Seller assumes all shipping and tracking responsibility. Sellers are responsible for damage that may occur in shipping (see below for more details).

This program is ideal for:

• Those who have access to a metal yard that allows you to pull parts.
  
• Those with big box appliance haul away contracts, or know someone who does.
  
• Anyone who is regularly hauling appliances.

About Us
Spokane Appliance Recycling has been in business since 2011 with our main focus on testing, refurbishing and repairing certain types of appliance parts. Our regional suppliers provide us with good parts, but there are some items (listed above) that we can never get enough of. We look forward to establishing many long-term buying relationships with many of you here on the forum.

FAQs
How do I get paid?

• Email us at Info@SpokaneApplianceRecycling.com prior to sending your parts. Once we receive the parts, please allow us up to 5 business days to inspect everything. We can then either mail you a check, or send the payment via Venmo.

Is there a limit to how much you can send?

• Currently we do not have a limit. Everyone always asks this question in the beginning, but we have never had anyone come to overwhelm us yet. There are some parts (not listed above that we will buy in limited quantities, but we will only offer to buy these parts from sellers that prove to be a steady supplier.

Who pays the shipping?

• For now our prices are set for you to cover the cost of shipping. Later on we hope to offer 2 pricing structures (we pay shipping or you pay shipping).

What is the best way to ship?

• It is really up to you how you want to ship. USPS, UPS and FEDex are all the standard ones. A good example of shipping costs is that 26-28 dryer timers can fit into a USPS Priority Large Flat Rate Game box (not the top load box) and will cost (at the time of writting this) $22.65 if paid for at the post office, or $22.05 if you use an online service like Pirateship to purchase the label.

Is there better pricing if we can supply a high volume?

• If you can supply enough volume to ship via a pallet (48”x42”x42”) then we will cover the freight cost (must contact us first in advance to arrange shipping). For perspective you can typically ship 500-600 range/oven and or Washer/Dryer circuit boards or 1800-2200 dryer timers in one pallet. Shipping via pallet will only be offered to sellers that we have built enough of a relationship with over time. Message me for more details.

Do these parts have to be working/tested?

• No, we do not require that these parts be tested and/or working. Regardless of the stated condition, we will do full testing on ever part. With that said, if you run an appliance shop and just send us only dead parts, low value parts, we may ask that you not send us any more in the future. If you are pulling parts off of appliances that you pick up off the street or in a scrap yard then you should never have an issue. We have done this long enough to know the average ratio of good/repairable vs bad/unrepairable is.

What about damage in shipping/how should we pack these parts?

• Simply put, pack the parts as if you were the person on the other end paying for them. While we are not going to try and nickel and dime you for any part that may get damaged in shipping, we will only pay $1 for parts that have obvious external damage that occurred prior to shipping, or for damage that happened during shipping due to an obvious lack of care for proper packing. With that said, Dryer timers and analog range/oven thermostats should not need any additional packaging as long as the box is full. Circuit boards that have a complete plastic covering should be fine as well without additional packaging (again, as long as the box is full). Just make sure that any shafts sticking out of the plastic casing are facing inwards rather than facing towards the outside of the box. Circuit boards with exposed components are best to ship in their own box and the use of either small bubble wrap, packing paper or plastic grocery bags on at least the side of the board with the exposed components will do a great deal in reducing the possibility of any damage during shipping.

I still have a question how do I get a hold of you?

• If it is a general question, please post a comment on this thread, as others are probably wondering the same question. If it is a specific question, you can either PM me or email us me at Info@SpokaneApplianceRecycling.com

We look forward to being a part of the Scrap Metal Community Here. Once you have sent us some parts, we would love to have you post your experience on this thread.

I know for a fact there are people on here who have probably scrapped many thousands of appliances. I've scrap probably 100 myself..... you've definitely come to the right place in that regard.

None on hand currently as I just moved but will start accumulating for sure. I usually keep the boards anyways to sell as e-waste, but this seems like a better option. Welcome to the forum!

It's difficult with the 3 - 4 dollar items. Oftentimes ... just the cost to ship a thing exceeds it's value.

Then .... you've got the time invested to harvest the part, package it up, and arrange for shipping. That can easily eat up an hour or two.

Originally Posted by hills

It's difficult with the 3 - 4 dollar items. Oftentimes ... just the cost to ship a thing exceeds it's value.

Then .... you've got the time invested to harvest the part, package it up, and arrange for shipping. That can easily eat up an hour or two.

This type of program is all about the volume that you can do. If you have access to lots of appliances, then this can be very lucrative. If you get one appliance a week, then maybe not as much. I don't know about you, but if I take the time to pick up a dryer on the side of the road for scrap, I am also going to take the time to cut the the dryer cord for the $1 that I can get (for insulated copper). If you are the type willing to pull the cord for $1, why wouldn't you take the time to pull the timer for $4?


While I can't speak to your situation or what amount you personally need to make per hour, I can speak about our experience, from years of doing this locally. When we go to harvest timers off of dryers, we can easily pull 30-40 in an hour (per person). Sometimes we can even pull up to 60/hr....but that is at hauling *#* speed. This of course is in an optimized environment where they are all easy to access. For argument's sake, let's just say you are able to pull only 15 timers in an hour (4 mins each). We can fit 28 dryer timers in a large flat rate game box, which is currently around $20-22 for shipping. 28 timers x $4 each = $112 minus $22 for shipping = $90. $90 profit for 2 hours of time ($45 per hour).....I don't know about you, but that is pretty good money. Like I said in the FAQs, dryer timers don't really need any additional packing material/time. It should only take you 5 minutes (10 minutes tops) to stack timers into the usps large flat rate game box (which is free at any post office). If you get faster then you are only making more $$ per hour. On top of this, there are other parts that we can buy (if you become a "regular") that will only increase your profit margin per appliance.

We are located in Washington state, which has some of the highest minimum wages in the country. With worker's comp and the other taxes and such, we start workers out at around $17.75/ hr (our cost). Therefore, even at pulling 15 timers an hour there is almost a 3x mark up when you are paying someone to pull these parts....at least with dryer timers.

Like anything in life, there is a learning curve to this to make the process faster. With my existing suppliers, the hardest part was getting their workers set up to start pulling. Once they do, they keep pulling.


I hope this answers your question on if it is worth it. I invite any other questions you may have!

Originally Posted by greytruck

Sell your own stuff on ebay and skip the middle man. $3 is way low. most timers go for $30 - $50 ea working of corse. i dont sell these things by the way i did a quick search. not to hard

True, you could sell these on ebay....if you can guarantee that they work, which requires a lot of time in testing a machine. In fact, virtually everything that buyers are looking to buy on this forum could be sold on ebay, but there are a number of reasons why people don't. Customers on ebay (and other sites) don't want to take a gamble when they are buying a part to fix their appliance. They expect what they are buying will work and are not to particularly happy when it doesn't. Either you clearly state in the ebay listing, that the part is sold untested as is, which doesn't cut it on ebay anymore, or you sell it as used. If you sell it as used without testing it, you simply won't last long before ebay shuts you don't for bad reviews and bad return metrics. Many of our best suppliers once sold parts on ebay back when things were a lot easier, but gave up out of frustration. Selling online has (and will) only become harder and harder if you are just shipping out untested items.

I've cut and pasted the initial post to several appliance repairmen in my area. They have all responded favorably in regards to the idea of starting to save parts they would normally not bother with. Will I make much if they get quite a quantity? No. However, I will have a much better chance of doing more scrap business with all of them in the future. This business isn't one where you get rich on one big score. It's similar to every other business where it takes consistent effort at building good relationships with other people. And in the scrap business its the people that have the raw material that we all desire to do business with. Some of us are happy with a pickup load a month, others require a semi truck load a week. This buyer provides all of us with a chance to add one more type of material that we can all use to make a bit more money.

Just my opinion.....

Originally Posted by IPurchaseApplianceTimers

This type of program is all about the volume that you can do. If you have access to lots of appliances, then this can be very lucrative. If you get one appliance a week, then maybe not as much. I don't know about you, but if I take the time to pick up a dryer on the side of the road for scrap, I am also going to take the time to cut the the dryer cord for the $1 that I can get (for insulated copper). If you are the type willing to pull the cord for $1, why wouldn't you take the time to pull the timer for $4?


While I can't speak to your situation or what amount you personally need to make per hour, I can speak about our experience, from years of doing this locally. When we go to harvest timers off of dryers, we can easily pull 30-40 in an hour (per person). Sometimes we can even pull up to 60/hr....but that is at hauling *#* speed. This of course is in an optimized environment where they are all easy to access. For argument's sake, let's just say you are able to pull only 15 timers in an hour (4 mins each). We can fit 28 dryer timers in a large flat rate game box, which is currently around $20-22 for shipping. 28 timers x $4 each = $112 minus $22 for shipping = $90. $90 profit for 2 hours of time ($45 per hour).....I don't know about you, but that is pretty good money. Like I said in the FAQs, dryer timers don't really need any additional packing material/time. It should only take you 5 minutes (10 minutes tops) to stack timers into the usps large flat rate game box (which is free at any post office). If you get faster then you are only making more $$ per hour. On top of this, there are other parts that we can buy (if you become a "regular") that will only increase your profit margin per appliance.

We are located in Washington state, which has some of the highest minimum wages in the country. With worker's comp and the other taxes and such, we start workers out at around $17.75/ hr (our cost). Therefore, even at pulling 15 timers an hour there is almost a 3x mark up when you are paying someone to pull these parts....at least with dryer timers.

Like anything in life, there is a learning curve to this to make the process faster. With my existing suppliers, the hardest part was getting their workers set up to start pulling. Once they do, they keep pulling.


I hope this answers your question on if it is worth it. I invite any other questions you may have!

It's all good. It sounds like you're really quite good at what you do. You've got efficiency and the economy of scale thing going on. That's the way to do it.

The main thing i was trying to highlight is that it can be difficult to show a profit on some items after deducting shipping expense. That's a theme that has come up time and again here over the years. The general consensus has been that the best solution is to ship in gaylord quantities. We even have a few members who specialize in shipping logistics. They're quite good at what they do as well.

It's all a numbers game even for the small time scrappers like myself. I have to be especially careful at my level because shipping costs can take up anywhere from 35 to 110% of my gross.

I process all my timers and boards from appliances through my hammer mill then collect then recover the precious metals in my centrifuge.

Just wanted to post a quick down and dirty cell phone video to show you how quick and easy it is to pull timers. In 3 minutes I casually pull 5 timer. Do the math and you can see that this is seriously easy $$$. Please note that I do show pulling of washer timers in this video as well. At the time of posting this we are not accepting washer timers, but hope to be purchasing them in the near future.

Finally, we have heard from enough of you to state that we will be offering to pay shipping, but simple requirements must be met, for example minimum quantities, weights and such. Shouldn't be anything that is too difficult for anyone to abide by. We will publishing all the shipping details soon.

I shipped Mark about 275 items on his list. Shipping worked well and he paid the same day he got my shipment. Was great to work with him. I highly recommend