I have been scrapping for years and usually stay busy at it. Mostly calls from a few regulars but mostly from my Craigslist ads. As of today I have not had a scrap call in over two months. My regulars call me now and then but not one from Craigslist.

Did some checking and found that there are hoards of scrappers with ads on there currently doing the same as I am. Hauling for free. Usually when this happens it might take a few weeks for them to discover how little profit there is to be made unless something other than shred steel is being picked up. But now two months down the road and there are even more ads for people picking up in my area.

I sold my stash of clean and dirty copper last week. Did really well with it. The prices have gone up a lot. The same with my bare bright copper wire. Even made a little profit off some clean aluminum. But any shred I had is almost not worth hauling.

I saw a guy drive through my neighborhood yesterday. He had a beat up trailer behind his pick up that was full of things like old satellite receivers and scrap steel plus he had a refrigerator and a drier. He drives up and down the streets looking for stuff to haul. He might have had $10 worth of shred on the trailer. Not worth the overhead. He is picking up for free and driving around burning gas while doing so.



When I go on called pick ups if I see something while in the area I will stop and ask. Often times I run in to another scrapper. Recently I stopped to grab an old dishwasher. The lady had 7 old car batteries sitting there. I asked if I could have them. She said yes. I even told her they have value. She said take them away. We have a guy here in Mesa that pays $12 each for junk batteries. That was a nice profit of $84 bucks.

Anyone else experiencing a lull in scrap calls and pick up's due to added competition?

Just for saying. It's 80 degrees here in Mesa Az today.