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If it was easy everyone would do it.........Would love to pick up said material at $10 each and drive it across town and get $25 each........It has happened but those days are getting few and far between as everyone is a little more educated on ewaste than perhaps they once were...........Quote:
Originally Posted by armygreywolf
I made alot more last year than this year..Not to be a wet blanket but now is not the time to put out a shingle in my opinion, most metals including escrap are way down and unless you have access to alot of material I'd be more inclined to get a part time job at the gas station, your garage won't be full of scrap as you wait for enough to ship or the price to bounce back (probably not happening anytime soon) and your check will not be dependent on the flux of the markets. This is a tough business and unless you are VERY proactive your sources will dry up leaving you in a limbo without enough to ship and too much to throw away.. Again if I had to start now I wouldn't even bother. JM $.02
Well said wolf.
I feel bad at times for my silence and lack of commenting as I read though many posts on here however... I spend much of my time on here doing just that READING...researching, and then DOING! That as was mentioned earlier is the best way to develop and attack your OWN business plan and decide what works and doesnt as well as what your real NET is...(which I too concur is basically no ones business but my own) I seldom buy escrap though I do pick up a ton curbside...I would really never even consider paying for stereo receivers especially ones that had sat out in the rain for months (they were in the back yard of a property that i was cleaning out) much to my surprise the 4 large transformers inside weighed in at a total of 27 pounds....so yeah I went on a small rant but ya just dont really know til you get involved and do some work!
The first and best advice I received on this forum was to read old threads. I constantly still do! When I welcome a new member I encourage them to do the same. And I am not the only one to advise them to do so. But some just don't get it,or they are just lazy. Either way its their loss. It would have taken me years to learn the information that I learned in those first few months of researching old threads. And I am still learning! Lazy people rarely succeed in a business like this, if ever.
Generally no, but everything depends on intake volume. I don't see laziness or lack of research, but rather curiosity. It's curiosity that starts threads like this - no matter what it's intent is. I'm with everyone else though, I won't tell anyone how I do my business because it's no one's business(not even the mayor's aid that came to the house wanting to know what my process is) no matter how often or how many ways you ask it. We all live by a code and that code protects us because this isn't K-Mart or the local mom and pop shop where you can walk in and ask for that information freely because it's publicly accessible.Quote:
Originally Posted by mikeinreco
I think I get what you are proposing to do. If I have guessed correctly, you want to give a little something to people for them giving something to you worth value, that you can make money on.Quote:
Originally Posted by RLS0812
If this is the case, allow me to alleviate the guilt you might be experiencing.
People who are throwing out electronics, almost always are doing so because they are old, they have purchased NEW items to replace them, and they do not want to incur the penalty or cost of taking it to the dump and then paying possible hazardous waste prices to dispose of it. Instead, they can kick it to the curb, and some industrious hard working person will come by and pick it up. This is your payment for removing items from their living space, they have no time to properly dispose of themselves.
But if that doesn't convince you that you have every right to make money off of other people free junk, let me attempt once again to give you a good reason NOT to pay for e-waste whenever you can get away with it. If you were purchasing cell phones for example, how much would you be willing to pay, per phone, and feel you treated your customer right? .50 cents? A dollar? 5? If you answered 5, you are paying 4 dollars in most cases, more than what the phone is actually worth in precious metals. .50 cents and you are paying right around half of it's value, which cuts into your gross profit 50%.
I think it's an amazing service that scrappers are providing, without being directed to do so. Industrious people who are hard working, who go out of their way to remove those items people do not care to have anymore, who then break them down into smaller component parts to be sold through the right recycle streams so that they can then be re-used.
I was reading recently that close to 50% of all silver used in industry now, comes from recycling. That is all of you, can you imagine if we were only able to provide half of what industry really needed? Can you imagine what the prices for those things that use silver, specially electronics might be in that case? It would totally change the entire scope of industry.
You provide an invaluable service already, I would thankfully accept anything, anyone is willing to give you for free, and call it even. In many places, people still pay companies to take e-waste away. Many corporations still do.
Scott
There are already threads on this. Use your curiosity and do some research.Quote:
Originally Posted by logansryche
As matty said do the math. I don't buy electronics because I don't have storage to put large amounts, although I do have electronics that I've found or been given. My biggest load I got some laptops and laptop docks. A tub of them and it earned me around $50 but I have no escrap buyers besides a low paying yard
You seem to be a bit confused, I was replying to the OP(RLS0812) with my thoughts on the matter.Quote:
Originally Posted by junkfreak
Buyer's section!Quote:
Originally Posted by DevinThaScrapper
I can't really answer that question with a dollar figure- I refurbish some systems, so I make more on some machines than others. A Pentium Pro is worth more than a Pentium 4.
E-Waste isn't a commodity as a whole. RAM and HDD boards, though, are.
HAHa! Junkfreak really does read the old threads. I only know cause when JF thanks my posts I can see their dates, an some are from back when I joined! I imagine members who've been here awhile see the same thing. I like getting thanks on posts but it's always sweeter when you see their coming from older posts but newer members. Shows their going back an reading the archives like we all harp on.Quote:
Originally Posted by junkfreak
I know I did when I first joined. I must've spent a month or two reading before doing my intro. Then another month or two before I started posting more. I also apply to the method of read, an do. Sure I could sit around an wait for answers but usually my curiosity gets the best of me an it gets broken down or at lest open so I can see the innards for my own future reference.
I'm one of the few who does ewaste an doesn't really care about reselling stuff. Do I resell? Of course. I won't lie tho, I don't all the time. I have a selling background. There's a reason I got tired of it an decided to go off an do something else.
An I'm sure I've said it before in posts like this. Unless your my accountant, banker/loan officer, investor, or a possible buyer of my business...all you/anyone needs to know is I do just fine with my income. I'm not rich nor claim to be. I do well enough that I'm happy an so is my wife. So therefore..I will not discuss my finances on a forum open to the entire public. Especially when I know competition from my area or nearby is on here. Talk about making yourself a target..haha! No thanks.
Paranoid? Perhaps. In this day and age I trust nobody when it comes to my finances or banking.
Sirscrapalot - First rule of Business - DTA = Don't Trust Anyone.