my 200th post

**Libertytow** · 01-27-2013, 08:16 PM

Well for my 200th post i thought i would update everyone where i am @ i have learned way to many lessons since hurricane sandy took away everything from me.

For starters as a full time tax paying completely legit and insured scrapper having such an interruption to the services i can provide my customers as well as an interruption to my customers as well was devastating. Over half my route decided not to rebuild and the other half got extra busy. i lost most of my trucks all of my tools and had to rebuild the business piece by piece. Amazingly after buying trucks i cut out alot of fat and extra equipment on the trucks.

Cashing everything in before the price drops was crucial as i could have lost most of my equity but went seamlessly.

i lost my dually 2 rams and the f150 i only replaced it with 1 ram 2500 but more trailers. i got my costs Way down insurance is halfed payroll is a third of what it was and my customer base was replenished with a lot of hard work. i have to thank this site

1 without missing a beat i got new business cards shirts flyers and truck decals.

the hardest part was negotiating with the bank for my truck loans and dealing with insurance. it was very hard getting an adjuster to value the trucks losses accurately. with a liftgate and gps and tool losses

it was hard getting a computer system set up to track inventory.

lastly it was hard overcoming personal loss when you wanted to quit most for that i say thank you to my fellow scrappers

and look forward to posting more and sharing any value i can provide even if i am just a full time scrapper

**BurlyGuys** · 01-27-2013, 08:22 PM

Great 200th post. Thanks for sharing!

**tnjunkjockey** · 01-27-2013, 08:39 PM

that is a great post...glad u r getting back on ur feet...I had big set back yesterday ....I lost my dad.....I was gonna start scraping more but the last few months I have been tied up taking care of him and mom...maybe when things get settled down I can start scraping again

**Libertytow** · 01-27-2013, 08:41 PM

sorry to hear that i can honesty say it"s hard to work through it but you"ll get there

**Mechanic688** · 01-27-2013, 08:47 PM

my 200th post

Congrat's,,

**parrothead** · 01-27-2013, 08:58 PM

In this day and age, I love seeing people that are willing to grab their bootstraps and pull them selves up (or back up in this case) like most people on this forum. Scrappers are truely a big part of the heart of this country.

**PistoneScrapProcessing** · 01-27-2013, 09:03 PM

Liberty sorry about losing all of that expensive stuff. I gotta ask how fair was the insurance company with you. Did they actually pay you what you thought the vehicles were worth or did they say here is a check take it or leave it? What happened to the three trucks that they were totaled out? I feel like insurance is a joke because all they want to do is collect money and never pay it out no matter the situation. Just a few questions I have.

**Sirscrapalot** · 01-27-2013, 09:28 PM

Glad your getting back on your feet there LT. Being one who see's the south end of his sandbar razzed every year, along with new inlets created and houses/businesses destroyed and swept out into the ocean I can understand how tough it is to rebuild. Lord knows I've seen it enough times down here on my sand bar.

An as Parrothead said.."In this day and age, I love seeing people that are willing to grab their bootstraps and pull them selves up (or back up in this case) like most people on this forum. Scrappers are truely a big part of the heart of this country."

Full article at Scrap Metal Forum: http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/lets-...#ixzz2JEl2PCo9

Good luck with getting everything back to normal, it's never an easy task.

sirscrapalot - What doesn't kill us, only makes us stronger.

**happyscraper** · 01-27-2013, 10:03 PM

Glad to hear your back and running. Keep moving forward, never look back. my prayers are with you and everyone afected by sandy.

**Jonniebrass** · 01-28-2013, 10:12 AM

All that and time to post! I find your story very inspirational, great perverseness and good luck to you.

**Ewasted** · 01-28-2013, 10:40 AM

Another score for the man who loves what he does! Keep up the good work, you've earned it!

**Libertytow** · 01-28-2013, 06:57 PM

thank you as to the insurance ?'s they pretty much have no idea what a scrapper does. The problem is they see 2001 ram and base condition on body tires etc they don"t see the value in the liftgat securement system and wiring runoff the baqttery to an invertor to power tools. of course the $1500 they offered on that truck was insulting. they don't see the value in the lettering or the custom features added. lastly they don"t realize that the offer they make has to REPLACE the loss that is hard when 210k vehicles are off the market at once.

pProgressive imho has to be the WORST insurance company possible aside from a long process to evaluate the loss when time to rebuild was critical. the adjuster was clueless and the whole process was painful. they cane up with 4 different #'s aqnd took the vehicles before offers were even made. once io finally hated the offer they had my trucks and couldn"t tell me where they were. phone calls took forever and got nowhere and the amount of time passing between them taking them and making offers was rediculous i STILL do no have my checks. Kodiak indemnity was alot better at getting me running again. i had a check in 30 days robert sharma was amazing throught the whole process. i only got $5600 but it replaced the oxy acy tanks plasma and 1 set of tools.

i would strongly advise any full time scrappers to constantly look at where you are and your policies and see where you can make iumprovements. i would strongly advise you to be honest with your insurance agent and let them know what and where you are and let them know you are a full time recycler this is how we do it here are my needs.

worst of all was the layover when everyone else and there mom was scrapping being on the sideline sucked. getting a truck was imperitive and getting the loan was along process however it became doable in the tail end of open season on scrap