The ugly truth about being a scrapper.

The problems we face of being scrappers.

Not that hard. DO NOT HOARD STEEL! It is worthless. The only time I pick up steel is when I have a load of non ferrous to take in. Pile that crap up and get paid. Throw the little mouse bodies into the shred to sweeten the load. Burn through that crap and get rid of your troubles!

Originally Posted by t00nces2

Not that hard. DO NOT HOARD STEEL! It is worthless. The only time I pick up steel is when I have a load of non ferrous to take in. Pile that crap up and get paid. Throw the little mouse bodies into the shred to sweeten the load. Burn through that crap and get rid of your troubles!

Yep I'm going to be doing lots of cleaning this weekend until I get rid of all this crap. Plus dam neighbors are complaining already. But my back yard is not of their business as long as my front looks good they should just keep their mouth shut.

The yard in my area would reject the load if they seen all that plastic !

Originally Posted by geravega77

The problems we face of being scrappers.

Video would not open for me.

Originally Posted by msmoorad

sorry bro- i think thats the wrong attitude to have.

they are your neighbours- when u are in some problem one day, u will turn to them & u wont appreciate it if they turn their backs on you for not being a decent neighbour to them.

your scrap can become a breeding ground for rats etc if u leave it for too long and it will be an eyesore- even if your front looks neat, u surely cant expect your neighbours to only look out their front windows & ignore what the view from their back windows looks like.

and most importantly: no matter how much scrap there is out there to be picked up, the scrap you ALREADY HAVE is useless unless u strip it & take it to the yard & get paid.

the ONLY time u can just pile up scrap is if you live out in a rural area or on a farm.

Yep you right I just have to clean all this mess but as scrappers we keep bringing more and the cycle continues. I guess I just have to find a better way to keep my yard clean. Thanks for the advise.

Originally Posted by hobo finds

Yep you got a mess, 1st rats and mice you need to keep setting traps even when you think you have got them all, there are babies that will come out and the cycle will start all over again. Get rid off all your steel even some items that you were goanna break down more like vacuums, ceiling fans, printers and such. Same for your aluminum you were goanna break down in order to get clean alum price, sell as dirty aluminum and move on. Separate your piles better as you are brining in the stuff. Use tubs or other containers for your insulated wire same thing goes there sell as insulated vs. stripping it. I separate my steel into prepared, clean sheet iron, unprepared and shred, but I don not generally clean or breakdown the item just put it as in the pile and when I have enough of that type of steel take it in. So you will be getting rid of your shred steel almost every week. Good luck.

Also get containers for your yard sale items, I even put a price sticker on the item and add it to the sale bins, that way when its yard sale time you are ready to go. After the sale what did not sell take to the scrap yard or donate the item, as you will be getting more stuff. If you are going to do craigslist or ebay you will need to keep that stuff separate in your shed or house so you can get at it. What you cant sell there add to yard sale bin.

Good point hobo I will start doing that.

Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Dont take offense but do you want to be you tube star or scrapper......

You can never be a youtube star making scrapping videos. I wish I could. To be a youtube star you have to make other videos that you get more audience. Only few scrappers out there that care about watching this videos.

Don't get emotionally attached to the items you find. I've found myself clinging to items in the past saying oh I could get so much more for this or oh this is cool I'm gonna hang onto this. well those Items sat and got in the way and the hassle of having them sit around not doing nothing for no one was costing me way more than what they might have been worth. Now I hoard pretty much nothing and seem to be making way more just scrapping the stuff. Also try and find the tools you need to break stuff down as fast as it comes in. It now takes me 30 seconds to tear apart and get the wire and possibly motors out of washers and dryers where as before I'd have stuff like that sitting around forever and a day waiting to get torn apart. I just smack em with a splitting maul when they're either on my truck or on the ground at the yard. everything besides copper I now found ways to tear apart in seconds on the back of my truck or right where I found it. If you figure out ways to do that the hoarding problem you have at your house will be drastically less significant. and also get like trash cans with lids on them for your wire and copper buckets. the neighbors won't even know whats in them and all you gotta do when its full is throw the can on your truck and be on your way.

Originally Posted by ScrapmanIndustries

Don't get emotionally attached to the items you find. I've found myself clinging to items in the past saying oh I could get so much more for this or oh this is cool I'm gonna hang onto this. well those Items sat and got in the way and the hassle of having them sit around not doing nothing for no one was costing me way more than what they might have been worth. Now I hoard pretty much nothing and seem to be making way more just scrapping the stuff..

I agree where hoarding is bad. I found myself clinging to things because they were cool. If its something that I can get resale for I separate it and when its slow I list it. But I have buckets of mild steel and stuff that I swear one day I will use but in reality it just needs to go.

Also as stuff sits around it starts to get dirty and gross. So even though you had the intentions of selling that washer(Or whatever) after a month outside its just scrap.

Originally Posted by geravega77

You can never be a youtube star making scrapping videos.

Yes and No...'Scrapper Girl' will always be a star in my eyes...

i used to do this all the time. im in the country so no problems with nieghbors. my problem was with the wife she didnt like the yard looking cluttered all 20 acres. i always had the i could get more for it later excuse. 1 day i came home to 3 big boxes she ordered my a small garden shed, said i could keep anything that fit in it without being an eyesore. The rest is history, theres alot more money when you just strip and turnaround. P.S. she dosent mind all the extra beer i buy with the extra money when the property is clean. P.S. I really like beer. lol

Let me just say that I will probably get banned for saying what I am going to say.

I clicked on the video and watched about 15 or 20 seconds of the video. The first mention of having to set mouse traps I clicked off.
At the start of the video you showed the front of the house. I don't know where you are located but the house in the video would be at least a $200,000 house where I am from.

Get off your a** and clean your property up.

I will agree that it seems you want to be a YouTube star. Clean your property up.