- metal prices!!!!
Writing is on the wall. Deere, cat, us steel, and multiple oil service company's cutting workers. Yards are dead. Mills have gluts of inventory. Prices are gonna nosedive. Cheap gas is terrible for the economy. Every car or truck sold means less gas being used. It's just gonna get way worse before it gets better.
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Yep.. was just having a text conversation with a fellow member that was the same.
Everything is taking a dump right now.
Who wants to sell me 10 acres and a ranch house in Central Indiana- WITH A HUGE OUTBUILDING???
I'm so into scrapping.. When my Steel Toe Boots Wear out, I cut the Steel out of them and recycle the Toe!
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I do scrapping, refurbishing, and farming.
I can tell you that the metals market is on life support right now. The way I see it, it's a full-blown crash.
For refurbishing, this doesn't really help, either. As more people have "disposable" income, they're less likely to spend it on refurbished computers.
I don't know how this will affect our hay and straw sales, but I have a hunch that it won't help. Cheaper fuels means that people will be willing to drive farther.
matador: "I can't believe I'm saying this, but higher fuel prices would be better. Just let me fill up our diesel tank first!"
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matador, I think your wrong in the disposable income. You have to look at national mean income in the last 7 years...we've lost HUGE buying power, companies like best buy and walmart quietly posted some junk figures for holiday spending...and what does it all mean.
I will give you my personal spin. I took olddude to heart. I made drastic changes to my business strategy several months ago now for two reasons. What he said and for tax season. I wanted to market refurbished machines in as much quantity as I could muster. I've been aggressive about it in multi-facet ways.
It's paid dividends, why?
People can't afford thousand dollar machines, 300 dollar machines fail quickly, truth...most people have been burned by low cost laptops...I would know I get them in scrap by the hundreds. I sell to businesses I get scrap from, I CL, I ebay, I use the newspaper, I solicit local businesses, hand out cards, beat feet. Why? Because I can, and I like to eat bacon. (Bacon meaning I want to have not just enough, but more)
I've spent alot of energy in diversification. I still plow snow like I do every year, I still take some diesel repair jobs now and then, mostly if I'm doing a friend of a friend a favor. but as far as concerns what we do and who we are on this forum...when scrap is down we should be focusing on stockpiling, selling only what we have to. For computer guys that means selling only your high PM boards and holding out on low PM boards like power boards and low grades until things turn around. Looking to sell parts, taking the time to see if a machine is selling as is on ebay, things like that. I see more and more threads complaining about things. Well, not every scrap metal's price bottomed out. We still have a pretty solid aluminum price in our area, copper isn't terrible but it is down to 1.90 #2...I'm ok with that if I'm honest.
I know a guy who got caught up in the metal lull years ago (early 2000s) and decided he was out of the metal business, now he and his wife operate an antiques and reclaimed lumber business. He spends all his summers taking apart barns and old farm houses, you name it. Wood like that...impossible to come by these days. Food for thought, scrap isnt necessarily metal specific.
Plastics are doing alright so I'm hearing, takes some doing to get into plastics but a good presentation to the bank...can get things going, it's what I did.
Last edited by armygreywolf; 01-26-2015 at 01:02 AM.
WI ITAD LLC, IT Liquidation Services, we remarket, buy and sell scrap electronics No customer too large or small!
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I know the economy sucks! For fear of sounding political, I think it's gotten worse every recent year. Businesses are closing left and right in our town. You could rent 1/2 of Main Street!
I too am going into refurbished systems a lot more than I used to. I don't know how many machines I can acquire per month, how many I can prep, how many I can ship, or how many I can sell. Whatever that number is, I'm going to be pushing it every month, though. As I expand, the number will grow. To where- who knows.
I service a lot of laptops, and would never recommend a $300 Acer. I've just fixed too many of them. But, they sell like hotcakes out here.
Things are worse, though. I have no business debt, and refuse to go that route if possible. Debt is slavery. Once my box truck died, I used the 1/2 ton that I had. Part of me wanted to get a nicer truck, but I didn't until I could pay cash. I never want to be owned by my equipment. My father did that back in the 80s (Farming was so bad that Allis Chalmers went under, and International almost did too), and paid with the next 15 years of his life. I refuse to do that.
I help him farm, and will be hauling straw this fall. Diversification is key.
I'm hoping that the refurbished market does well, but if it doesn't, I have other options.
I'm just afraid that we're in this mess for a long, long time.
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Of course we are, an economy where we all consume and don't produce is not really an economy. If we aren't making the things we buy...eventually we won't be able to buy the things we don't make. Kind of obvious now, but our parents didn't think that way. Either way, even if the computers were built elsewhere, they get rebuilt right here. I'm trying in my own way.
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