Where are the best places I'm not looking?

Trying to get a decent thread here where folks chime in with spots that aren't thought of that yield good scrap.

To start...since I work at a tv station and there is plenty of stuff moving through there, of which I have done very well with...not every night, but if you could set up a once a month drop-by, you would likely make it worth your while. Computers, monitors, electronics, extra cables, etc. Best lead is the chief engineer.

Yellow pages, try calling people who normally have scrap they need to get rid of, electricians, hvac technicians etc. Offer them a good price where you will still make a profit for. Normally they don't have the time to go give their stuff in at the scrap yard so they are more than happy having someone come pick them up. If you are scared of calling them try get a list of emails from the yellow pages and paste them in BCC box of your email address and send a bulk message to them explaining your services.

Jake

If you like to yard sale, I pick up alot of scrap at yard sales. I throw it in as a sweetener or just buy the piece outright. Brass is all over. I pick it up and try to get it for a third of what I can get it for scrap. I also wind up getting UPS's. Most often they are out there because the bat is spent and I buy them for $1. A bat, a coil, a board and wire. I figure $3-$4 in scrap... And I get to drink beer!

I know someone around here who just posts a business flyer and cards at all the local grocery stores. You can just pin them to the cork board as soon as you walk in. The local churches also have items after auctions, renovations and the like. As odd as it may seem, sometimes animal shelters have things if you give them a card. I used to volunteer at one and when some of the animal equipment gets outdated or things get busted some places might appreciate being able to call someone to remove everything rather than have it sit in storage / outside.

*Edit, sorry didn't realize I zombied an old thread.

Goodwill, thrift stores, as funny as this may sound parking lots. When i'm waiting on wife to come out of a store just look around near the drains, corners of curbs, where ever the snow piles sit, and near the shopping cart things. It may not yield a truck full but i have found alot of SS screws/bolts or wire. Plus it lessens the chance i'll pick it up in a tire.

Your main competition is everyone else advertising their services, whether they're scrap metal & appliance pickup and removal, to electronics & computer recycling & data destruction.

You need to find a way to inform the rest of the local population about your services. Think about where everyone else advertises, and from that, think about who they AREN'T advertising to. Who DOESN'T browse CraigsList? Who DOESN'T look at bulletin boards with business fliers on them?

My grandparents live in a (very large and upscale) "Senior Citizens Community". It had a very large, widely read, email "Bulliten" that anyone can contribute to. Once every other month, I have her include a short paragraph about how her grandson has a freelance electronics recycling company, and if they have any old or broken electronics or appliances taking up space, he (I) will come pick them up and remove them. Key points she includes is that it is a free service, the items are recycled versus sent to the landfill, and for those concerned with safety, they can request a Certificate of Data Destruction for their old computers/cell phones.

Not only is that a HUGE audience itself, but there seems to be a noticable trend of them all having old tech. items (the old, heavily gold plated treasure ) . They're all senior citizens, so having someone come and do the heavy lifting is appealing to them, along with it being a free service ("fixed incomes" and whatnot). Most even are excited about their items being recycled. Nearly every point that I emphasize is a point that appeals heavily to them on some personal level.

This gets me items from individual homeowners with garages full of junk (a high percentage of which is working and resellable), and it also brings me items from friends/next of kin when a community member passes away (something that happens rather frequently in these places.. ) who need help clearing out the deceased's property, and a lot of look & picks at Estate Sales - which go on every weekend on a large scale.

These people do not browse craigslist, are (for the most part) ignorant to the entire scrapping industry, and are otherwise in the dark on what the heck to do with all their old electronics and appliances. Where I live, if your trash does not fit in your standard, city issued trash bin, it must be driven to the dump. That's something they are not capable of doing.

That's one of my best examples of what I'm talking about. A gigantic chunk of the local population that nobody else is advertising directly to. Had they not read about my services in the email newsletter (or fliers posted in the appropriate areas in their community), they would still have all their scrappy items, because they are not receiving anybody else's advertisements, and otherwise have no clue how to get rid of all the stuff.

Be creative, think like your competition, then use that to think about what they aren't thinking about. Why fight against the tons of competitors in our field over first-rights to getting ahold of the meager amounts of scrap, in amounts limited to what is has just become available? I hate having to rush to pickup a small cache of items, as soon as it became available - wasting time and fuel on a trip for a small load, just because if I don't grab it right away, my competition will. Competing sucks, it's stressful, and it's costly. Constantly trying to find ways to best your competitors for scrap, even having to offer to pay a small fee for it - a business practice I'm NOT against, for the record, but I believe if anything WE should be getting paid for our hauling services.

Why fight the same battle EVERYONE ELSE is fighting, when you can reach out to an untouched, potential goldmine, of unclaimed scrappy loot. That's what it is about in my opinion. Getting the word out about your services to the percentage of the population who ISNT already being advertised to.

Bit of a run on, but you get my drift. You can apply this idea to different categories of citizens in your area. This is just the best example. Posting an ad on Craigslist for your services is a free easy source of scrappies, but when you look at the tons and tons of ads already on there...you realize that you've got to branch out. Only a percentage of people actually browse CList, and even fewer browse sections of it where they'd even see your ad.

where to look will depend on what you recycle. then you need to think out of the box from there.

blue collar type of businesses (plumbing furnace appliance repair) are more likely to take their own stuff in or have stiffer competition for their product.

in my opinion its easier to get into office type environments. less competition and less likely to have someone internally recycling for them. get lots of computers, office furniture, and equipment. generally they are looking to get rid of it and right it off versus sell it for high dollar.

another thing we have done through facebook is give away a refurbished computer system for every 50 dead computers brung in. bring in 3 computers and get 3 chances of winning. can usually get several usable ones out of the 50.

biggest thing is to think what type of users use the product you want to recycle and find them before they find someone else.