What advice do you wish you could give yourself when you 1st started scrapping?

I'm new to scrapping, so I'm chock-fulla questions!!
I haven't taken my first load in, so I'm still sitting on hundreds of pounds of copper, aluminum, steel, etc...

If you could go back to when you first started out, knowing what you know now, what would you tell yourself?
Would it be "how to avoid being scammed"? Better organization? How *not* to look for scrap around town?

Basically, I know that I have to make mistakes to learn, but I've read so many posts about people making *huge* mistakes and how they'll always regret them. Some people can't even bring themselves to *talk* about it (like this one guy I read about who sold a bunch of computers for a cheap price, and didn't take the cpu's out first).

So what are some of the common pitfalls that newbies make, that you'd like to give me advice on?

Feel free to shoot me links to similar posts like this.
I'm reading through past posts like a madman, so I welcome any & all info I can get my hands on.



Thanks,
brian