Wow...hardly any metal out lately :-(

[brandyridge]

Hi all! Hope everyone is doing fine. Have been busy at work, thankfully lots of extra hours have been available...cuz on our scrap metal finding excursions lately...we have been coming back with very little. During the week my husband goes out by himself since I am at work...and week-ends I go along with usually. There is another guy we met, he has been scraping for 15 years and he is even finding less. The county started automated garbage pick up...everything has to be in the big can, so I figure that has hurt somewhat...but even when that first started there was still stuff out. Not only do we drive around night before or morning of garbage pick up...also we just go out looking, if we see like a washer or refrigerator out by garage by garbage cans...we knock on the door to see if we can take it, we also advertise on craigslist..but everyone else in the county does also...and posts get flagged and removed FAST...even in the services listings. I have also advertised on ebay classifieds and backpage....but not have had any luck. Anyway..was just wondering if anyone else is running into this slow down?

[Mick]

Sounds familiar. I started a thread about that just two days ago:
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/showt...d-for-business

[Scrap man]

Sucks about the automated garbage pickup. I haven't really been running into the problem of lack of metal. Just yesterday I found a nice little dishwasher on the curb. Sure, it's mostly plastic, but it's good for stuffing. I also found a bit of metal near a shortcut to the local mall, a new dumpster that's always gonna be there and that I pulled about 2 buckets full of phone wire from, plus another dumpster that I haven't even checked out yet. And, for the grand finale, a few weeks ago, I scored about 100-150 lbs of thick copper wire from the side of the highway. My dad was working there, and he said it was all gonna get buried if I didn't want it. Plus I have about 4-5 loads of mixed metal that I've been hoarding for the past month or so.

[trashman]

Its the same here. We had to get creative and come up with something no one else does. We came up with fishing in the canal. We've pulled out old nasty shopping carts, bikes, and even cut up cars. All we do is throw in a strap with a hook until we get a snag, then pull it out. Sometimes we need the help of a tow chain and my 4 cyl. car. Its a little more work then just driving around but the out come is worth it. And its fun.

[Lawn Island Scrapper]

years ago i could go my whole garbage route without seeing another pickup full of steel... now i exchange frustrated glances with 2, 3, 4 guys as we drive past each other every garbage night...

i don't even bother posting on craigslist anymore because everyone on there is BUYING scrap now... used to see a few random ads looking for handouts, now its one post after another of people willing to pay to come pick it up.

seems all these guys popped up in the last year too.

these days anyone and everyone is just doing anything and everything to make 50 cents into a dollar...

[Ditchdigger]

then most will stop and it can go back the way it use to be.

On one hand, yes, because those who are opportunists and simply entering the field during these days of high prices will drop out again, but on the other hand, there's so much scrounging around in farmer's fields and looking for piles of scrap dumped in the woods (stuff that's been there for 20 years because when it was abandoned it wasn't worth the effort to haul to the scrap yard), that those "old scrap" finds will all be gone. If this keeps up for another few years, you may find that the only scrap available for a long time will be that which is being newly generated at that time.

[murt]

I've branched into ebay selling. It is truly amazing how wide a market you reach with a 1-week auction. I found a 1970's or early 80's liscence plate while scrapping and sold it for 5$ yesterday. Just listed some china plates I found at the same spot.

[rca987]

I haven't had much problem with finding scrap. Just today I've found 2 truck loads, one load was mostly aluminum.
Also found working power tools, and a single stage bullet press with shell cleaner, spare shells, primers, boxes of bullet heads, live 500's rounds.. Sold the bullet press with all the extra stuff for $300 not even an hour after finding it.

Sorry it's not so great in other states!