Adaptation. Adapt to survive and et.al.
Here is my opinion and yes I'm going to textually cram it down your throats. (no pun...definitely no pun.)
When I started in 2009 I was living in a depressed area of Louisiana. I worked an exceptionally boring job at Procter and Gamble. They paid me excellent money to tell them how to make soap, containers, caps and even labels. One day I learned about internal company auctions. We could literally bid on, win and take home obsolete (according to them) stuff they had no use for anymore. I bid on and won two shipping containers (20 foot containers, 6 pallets in each) of computers, desktops, servers, laptops...for less than a third of my bi weekly paycheck. At the time the only companies I knew to take scrap at all was board sort and a local yard who payed roughly what prices are now for things at 1700 gold price... I made out well and my perspective on scrap computers changed.
Fast forward through personal issues and illness, 2013 I was back at it again, at much lower PM prices, so I already had reason to be diswayed from e waste. I started to diversify. Buying alloys and e waste. Then I started to get into more than scrap value...then Ken and me got together and all the while prices have gone down, yet here we are...continuing to make it happen. So if you asked me why I thought we were still in business I'd have to say customer service. We aren't the highest paying, we aren't the fastest turnaround. BUT we are fair, transparent and personable people. When times are tough and everyone is feeling very off put by prices you have to find something to give those guys a good feeling about you. Being fair is ALWAYS a good ticket. I operate our ebay account as personable as possible by answering questions, being friendly and letting potential customers have my phone number so they can talk to an actual person about a larger lot they are interested in. You have to give people a reason to do business with you in lean times.
Theres other aspects to this. diversification is one. You don't have to do JUST scrap. The other side of that is focus. Because you also don't want to lose business to a large pool of buyers. I have equipment to do things other buyers may not be able to. Better still I work with some of the best people, you know who you are. So, chin up, pick it up, drive on. Let the pins fall and be the last man standing if it comes to that.
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