Am I wasting my time ?

Am I wasting my time or can I make money off these items?

1) TVs other than the cords
2) computers and accessories
3) Grills
4) bed frames
5) springs from old couches and beds
6 ) ceiling fans
7) metal filing cabinets and desks



Thanks for any input

Originally Posted by bogie

Am I wasting my time or can I make money off these items?

1) TVs other than the cords
2) computers and accessories
3) Grills
4) bed frames
5) springs from old couches and beds
6 ) ceiling fans
7) metal filing cabinets and desks

Thanks for any input

I personally do not deal with e-scrap. Not that there isn't money in it, it just does not suit me. As for springs in old furniture. I haven't gotten that desperate yet.

Grills...absolutely. One of my favorite finds. A lot of them are money makers. Gas grills will often have quite a bit of cast aluminum and/or SS on them. Most don't take much to break down. You'll often get a little brass out of one too. Even the ones that don't have cast or SS are worth picking up. No tear down involved with those.

Bed frames. Why not? All light iron adds up. Most are already taken apart and don't take much space.

Ceiling fans. You bet. Break it down to get the copper out, or take the motor in if you have a yard that pays decent. Some will have a little aluminum on them.

Metal filing cabinets? Oh heck yeah. Stuff like this adds up.

All of these are money makers. As for the couches and chairs I love em. Easy to find (think apartment units and/or rental houses), and they all have some metal. Especially the sleeper sofas and rocker recliners. Lots of metal in those. Now I live out in the country so I just burn em. Carefully and one at a time. In the end your money rises up out of the ashes!

Originally Posted by bogie

Am I wasting my time or can I make money off these items?

1) TVs other than the cords
2) computers and accessories
3) Grills
4) bed frames
5) springs from old couches and beds
6 ) ceiling fans
7) metal filing cabinets and desks

Thanks for any input

I will be numbering my responses. So number 1 response will be for your number 1, etc.

1. Here, our scrap yard does not take tv's period. You can take them to the landfill every wednesday I believe it is and dump them off for free. Also, regarding computer monitors, some scrap yards that take e-scrap or better known as electronic scrap will take the monitors depending on what kind they are and pay for them. The others, you must PAY them to take!

2. some computers and accesories you can dump off at the scrap yard, but they never take the motherboards. All the grean stuff (computer motherboards, chips etc) must be stripped, at least for me. Keyboards, speakers, etc they will take.

3. Yes, you can make money off of any grill.

4. Only if the bed frames are metal or brass. No wooden ones obviously.

5. Springs have always been metal, and some can weight a good 100lbs or more, so yes.

6. Yes, they will take ceiling fans, or at least mine does. However, if you have a brass and stainless steel ceiling fan, unscrew the wooden wings on them, so you can get paid for the clean and not dirty brass or stainless steel. If you leave the wings on, they will not pay as well.

7. Yes, any and all metal filing cabinets and desks you can make money off of it.

Originally Posted by easyrecycle

You can go to our website thats in our signature and see the prices that computer parts are worth....its worth your time to go HUNTING for computers any day of the week.

With all due respect, it would be worth it, only if you have a company willing to buy the e-scrap simply and plainly, to do so. As I mentioned in another thread, some companies will charge you to bring certain items in.

If all you do is cut the power cord off your really missing out. Last trash day I found 1 small tv and one large tv in my neighborhood with just the cord cut off. I took them both home pulled the yokes and degaussing cables out; 1 lbs of #2 copper in the small one and 5 lbs in the big one or $18 + the alum and electric motors on the board I probably made at least $20 bucks that some other scrapper just left behind. Go to youtube and look up how to scrap a tv.

I think someone figured out that you can make 12$ off one computer, probably more now because price of gold has gone up

Its pretty easy to get the springs out of beds.. never tried it with a couch before.

Ceiling fans can be broken down to get some #2 copper or just sold as electric motors if they still have the brackets for the blades attached take those off first they are alum.

If you find filing cabinets in good shape try to sell them on Craigslist before you scrap them.

Its really up to you to decide if somethings worth your time almost anything metal can be sold to a yard (some don't take refrigerators cuz of the freon or microwaves cuz of the magnetron) and you can almost always make more money by breaking things down just as long as you don't spend to much time doing it.

Dru, what do you do with the CRT? I'm confused a bit because of all the warnings of dumping t.v.'s and computer monitors. They want to charge me to dispose of them around here. Just wondering...

Just wondering because i have a local computer store near me and i know the owner. He has about 20 or so large (20") monitors that weigh a ton and he wanted to give them away, but i didnt want to deal with the crt's and cost to dispose. What do you think is the scrap value of a monitor that size?

It all depends on how much copper is in each monitor, I figure anywhere from 1-2 lbs. of copper plus heat sinks, low grade boards etc. Here in NJ it cost anywhere from 10-20 dollars to dispose of CRT's so it makes it pretty hard to harvest them unless you do like dru does and do it on the spot. I currently have around 15 monitors that I am wondering what to do with. Hoping to find someone that will take them whole and ship them to some country that still uses them.

I never actually answered your question about the monitors, i would guess you could make about 3-5 dollars per monitor, unless someone else as a more accurate number. Again, this is negated by the cost to get rid of the crt.

i would guess you could make about 3-5 dollars per monitor, unless someone else as a more accurate number.

That is unless the degaussing cable is aluminum instead of copper, then your price just went down. See my link below,,,
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/showt...ling-a-Monitor

Originally Posted by bogie

Am I wasting my time or can I make money off these items?

1) TVs other than the cords
2) computers and accessories
3) Grills
4) bed frames
5) springs from old couches and beds
6 ) ceiling fans
7) metal filing cabinets and desks

Thanks for any input

1)Televisions suck for scrap, not so much in the fact that they don't yield scrap, they do, they're just messy and a pain in the arse. The older tube televisions. You get those 30lbs behemoth 19 inch dinosaurs and with those you find some idiot has cut the power cord to it and gotten the heck out of dodge. The easiest way to finish this bad boy off, is to take a hammer (I recommend a mini-sledge) and just bust the back of the tube off with a couple whacks. This will remove the copper core attached to the vacuum tube and open the back up so you can grab the board connected to the coax jack. Do yourself a favor and get a rubber handled hammer and rubber handled wire cutters. Televisions can still hold a charge in their capacitors and they will straight light your arse up like the fourth of July. It sucks. Either way, they're good for an easy pound of #2 copper and some miscellaneous wiring and circuitry. It's basically like saying "No, easy 5-10 bucks, I won't swing this hammer twice, so I can make you."

2)Computers are awesome for scrap. So many people are just discovering this, which means if you pay attention and talk to the pioneers of the pc scrap industry around here, you won't look like a monkey wearing oven mitts trying to rub one out. Here's the controversy, Most people don't fully realize what you can get out of computer scrap. The general population has started to realize motherboards are worth money. How much money? They're not sure, however this is causing a stir in the wallets of fools and rich fools alike. People realize there is gold in motherboards and have begun trying to farm them. Whatever, good for them. Don't be that guy. Every piece of a computer is worth something. The case is good for light iron scrap. If you have an Alienware case you can make an easy 100 bucks on Ebay because Alienware doesn't sell their limited edition cases by themselves. Processors can be worth up to 60 bucks a pound. Most people don't even get that one or know it. CPU fans are one of the most commonly overlooked items yet they're thrown out all the time. You can get electric motors on those. Hard drives, people sell these whole but it's nonsense to do so because you can get an electric motor out of the platter spinning mechanism and the tops are stainless. In another year or so, It's going to get manic and nonsensical. Like storage unit auctions because of Storage Wars on TV. It'll be that stupid.

3) Grills are money. Any black grill that is made by "Char-Broil" is caste aluminum. You can clean them with a hammer. It's that easy. 3 whacks and you're 3 bucks richer. All the burner accessories if they have single burners or propane hook ups are usually stainless and brass. Get some screw drivers, put in work. Even those small round 24 dollar models, that look to be all tin, usually have aluminum legs or an easy 5 dollar resale value with a little sanding. Make sure you know your brand names. People love Webers. Easy resale value. Smokers are awesome too, smokers are almost always made out of heavy heavy steel. With a grinder you can make one worth an easy 40-50 bucks in short steel and that maybe takes a half hour. Do the math, that's like 80 bucks a half hour. Only crooked lawyers make that.

4)Bed frames are great. What's not to like? It's a quick 20lbs you can either cut up as short steel or sell as tin. You don't really have to prep it, people throw them out when they toss their bed, and you can resell those to furniture and bedding stores if you know the right people. Seriously, people pay upwards of 30 bucks for them new. They're cake.

5) Couches and beds are tricky. Here's where I stand on this... I know what actions I've committed on couches and beds and I know whom I committed those actions with. Not everyone is as pretty as me. They gross me out. You can make money on hide a bed couches pretty easily. Usually a hide-a-bed sofa is good for about 30-50lbs depending on the size of the bed. They're easy if you torch them or use a grinder or sawzall and cut them out. Bed springs are different. They're bulky, take up truck space, only weigh 15-20lbs, and they're awkward in all ways. Take your average truck and see how many you can get in. Most I've done is about 8-10 before things got dicey. Kinda pointless for 200lbs of tin scrap. That's 20 bucks here. Doesn't even cover gas expenses, plus bed bugs are flippin' annoying.

5) I don't know what the deal is with ceiling fans. Is there like a alt.ceilingfanlovers board or something? You can get a small motor, mixed brass, and a little copper. Go for the big industrial ones. I mean ceiling fans weigh 10lbs, and it's usually the faux brass housing that makes most of the weight. You can spend a good 20 minutes tearing one down and get like 50 cents worth of copper and maybe a dollar off the motor. The newer ones aren't even brass anymore. I wouldn't turn one down for free, but I certainly wouldn't put it up there as a money making strategy.

6) Metal cabinets and desks, those are money. Junk those all all day long. These desks are a good couple hundred pounds and you can always stuff the drawers with more scrap. Cabinets you can do the same with. I get these all the time off curbs because most loner scrappers can't load them by themselves. I put a winch in the bed of my truck. It's cake and it tastes good.

Dude, honestly, this stuff is just the tip of the iceberg. This is just the newly common knowledge stuff. Read into the forum a little more. I usually hand out a list to most of my clients that has a total of 94 things on it that I take.

@shendog, I think $3 - $5 is about right it depends on the prices in your area. Also you could fit all 20 crts in your truck after you scraped them call you local dump and see how much they charge per load you could make $60 to $100 minus the dumps fee. It's up to you to decide if that amount of money is worth your time, good luck!

Here is a youtube video from someone on how to scrap a tv http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...crap+a+tv&aq=f