To much competition in my area

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.

I'd have to agree with HipoGear. Branching out pays dividends in times like you are experiencing. Look for areas that no one else is doing. See my recent thread on pallet recycling.

I have also experienced slower times recently. But they sorta came at a time where I was trying to slow down and take a break just a bit, so its not really all that troubling at the moment. And as hippo gear and others have said, expand, or change the way you do things. Scrap hauling is an ever changing business you have to adapt to or fail. Just recently the townships have started going with these giant single stream recycling cans and only allowing one trash can per house hold with all sorts of extra charges if you can't get your trash to fit nicely inside the cans they provide so curb shopping has really been hard hit here. Thats how I got into doing all the other stuff I'm doing now. adapt or fail. and on a side note, if you got a smart phone (I don't) I here this LetGo app is starting to replace craigslist in some cases. Its really hard to navigate the LetGo website though so I haven't had much luck with that.

I wonder if you could pay more than the local scrap price of your local area, but still be able to make a profit to send to e-wasted? I know 1 hour and 45 min drive, the recycler in Grants Pass Or. buy ram for about 1/2 of what you could get from E-Wasted. That way your getting stuff already broken down and you just need to ship.
kind of like just an idea.

Ha, you call that competition? I am an adventurous dumpster diver myself. I love it, I literally find treasure from time to time. But in any case, from time to time in a given year, I will walk up onto a scrap party. Lol, wth is that you say? Thats when im driving by an apartment dumpster usually, and there are already two people picking through stuff in and outside the container. I think the funniest one was probably about a year back. The maintenance guy is parked by the container doing some paperwork in the go cart. I pull up, as I have spoken to him once before, greet him, ask him what hes seen. Tells me to scope it out he hasn't really looked. I go through and pick up one of them satellite dishes you mentioned, a microwave, and a desk lamp. Looks like some evictions had their stuff tossed as well.

I don't remember everything in there at the moment, but I was putting some stuff in the vehicle, and I didn't notice that on one side an old lady was looking through some of those things. I seen her grab one of those dish rack things. Im just chucklin to myself. Then two guys in a truck pull up, dumping stuff off. They look like the staff's friends or co-workers. They park the truck in another spot down from there and start grabbing stuff as well. And then somebody that was moving pulled a yellow box truck and backs up with stuff to toss. Dude, we all just start chattin, asking if hes tossing it all. Me, the maintenance guy and his two buddies are taking stuff off this guy like it was some auction. They got some stuff I wanted I remember that. It was a table i still have right now in the yard matter of fact. Those new entertainment centers that hang a flat screen, they grabbed that for themselves thats what it was!

Three of us picking up, two of them dropping off. Thats a scrap party. Hell just the other day on of the containers I pass by had two guys already rummaging. I usually just open with "picking up or dropping off?" They were picking up so I respected that, but they had a car and it was filling up. They had taken the guts out of a fridge, but couldn't get the shell onto their car. I asked them if it was cool and they let me get it. Thanks guys if you see this, that and some other shred I had already picked up got me the gas I needed that day. The flat screen tv they had picked up had a cracked screen, but I have a friend who looks out for me thats a repair guy. Blesses me as long as the tv turns on. He serves that niche with the parts he harvests, God Bless him.

Competition actually turns into cooperation around here funny enough. Being on a coast in a high density urban area , some weeks it feels like its raining mana from the heavens
The city produces lots, like $150 brand new clean fresh mossy oak hunters jacket. Or a pair of $210 diamond earrings (thats what I got for them cash from the diamond center), a $150 scooter (after paying 35 for a battery and a lil tlc). The city giveth, I cleaneth it up, and I selleth it back to the city. internet age is awesome man! And pallets when I see them. I stack those for $3 per A . 48 x 40 gma.

I don't drink often, but when I do its tequila, and then I never stfu.....