Have you ever received a request like this?

One time a guy asked me if I would rip down his basketball hoop. He was an old landscaping client of mine. I told him that I couldn't drive half an hour in my truck, chain up his hoop, rip it down, and then scrap it and expect to make any money. In fact, I would lose money. So, I told him I would do it for $150 and he said, "OK, but for that price I also want you to take an old wheel barrow, soccer goal, and some other stuff I have out back." He's a rare one, though... very, very well off. (I also don't think he realized that had he offered the soccer goal and old wheel barrow I may have done it for free, or much much less.)

That's my thing with the whole scrap metal gig... I have never been able to make it work by itself (until the past job I found where I started ripping out an old metal dump, but that is a unique situation). I have found that (for me) I can make the business work when I am already on my client's property. Then, the metal I find is just like a tip. The other day I found two gigantic steel handrails and about 20ft of 1.5in copper pipe under some leaves. I was already getting paid to remove everything from the back yard, so the scrap was an added bonus to the whole process. Here's my main issue with the "free junk removal" ads: I don't understand how it is worth it to drive somewhere to pick up a washing machine. Perhaps if my truck got better mileage, but even so, if it takes two gallons to get the machine, doesn't that eat up most of the profit?

"free scrap removal ads" only work if the trip is worth it.. its part of the business, i always ask "what do you have" if i think its worth my trip i do it free, if not i let them know there will be a small fee.. when dealing with residential clients, 9 out of 10 times its not worth it.. Sometimes i think if no1 ever started with the "free removal" then these customers would not have gotten the idea in there head that there washer in the basement is like gold to a scrapper.. scrap guys are a dime a dozen, soo the customer knows eventually they will find some1 to take that appliance out of there basement for free.

I almost bit off more than I could chew when I agreed to haul an old furnace away from a rental house for free that had been left there by the new furnace installer.
The thing was very big and heavy but it took me about four hours to get it into small enough pieces to carry up and the heat exchanger was still almost more than I could get up the stairs and loaded onto my trailer. I should have told the landlady there would be a charge to do it but I like to stand by my word and had already said that I would do it free before seeing it and being a retired HVAC contractor figured "it can't be that bad". I probably made about thirty five cents an hour but I learned a good lesson and the landlady was happy. Maybe she'll call me sometime when she has something more lucrative to get rid of, hopefully an old HEAVY vehicle that some tenant abandons.