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Def wasn't meant to be degrading 95 percent of the scrapyards in America are run by people of Jewish decent. The families came over as poor immigrants collected rags and scrap with a cart and 100+ years later most of these yards are still going strong. I not sure many members realize how many of these yards are owned or run by people of Jewish decent and religion. I hope that clears that up.
Give P. a break. The Question "are you Jewish was, I'm sure. an analytical one not a political one. We may be in the throws of political correctness these days but, the reality is, who would be better off. me of Irish decent (refereed to as a "white paddy" by my first wife's Lakota relatives) buying a bar in, say,.... downtown Avoca IA. or, some Peruvian immigrant. Political correctness is one thing,, reality is another.
Let's see what kind of flack I get from this bit of reality.
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Originally Posted by EcoSafe
You will get no flak from me. Neither was my question in any way about PC. I am not a fan of such things. It also was not, in any way, an attack on the individual I asked it of. I simply did not understand how the question was relevant to the discussion so I asked. I still don't see the relevance but I do understand his curiosity now that I know the history (which, as bigburt said, I did not).
In my opinion, there are a few things you need to look at. Of course some of them have been mentioned before. Are you buying the name of the yard? And is it an established name, where everyone one in town knows that as "the place" to get best prices for recyclables? Being that you are buying the material already in the yard, did the previous owner give you the names and phone numbers of their contracted buyers? I'm not sure how other places work, but in Florida, (where I'm familiar and my friends that also own yards are the same) we get a one month contract with a "guaranteed" price at the beginning of the month, good till the end of the month, as long as we meet the 10% or less margin for foreign contaminates. Also see if your yard sells to other yards and what deals they have in place. One thing that It seems like a bunch of people don't think about is what type of machinery do you have on the yard that you want to purchase? How old are they and how well are they maintained? My machines are very well maintained but yet due to their environment, my excavators have roller issues and electro magnets can over heat If not watched closely and the guys running the balers don't care because its not their machines and hydraulics blow seals and I can keep going for hours lol. And of course diesel and man power is expensive. I'm not trying to tell you what to do but I would also look at all of that as the "big picture". I'm glad to PM if you want to ask me more, and I wish you the best of luck, because if you are motivated and not afraid to work and get dirty, you can make an empire in your area.
I copied a couple of sentences from a story about the "Good old Times". Thought it might help all understand one another! Most of us are all immigrants, it is what it is.
They were both immigrant Jews with their own horse drawn wagons.
The Rag Man would sit up on the buck board with a whip in hand and ride slowly through our street at least once a week. He would yell out in a monotone "Rags, Rags". He would take rags, newspapers, scrap metal, metal foil ,water heaters, pipes batteries etc. In turn he would pay you in cash what he felt the material was worth.
When you stop and think about it, they were 50 years ahead of the times. They were actually the first of the recyclable movements
I have a great love and respect for Isreal and the Jewish people.
It has been written " I will bless those that bless you, and curse those that curse you" or something to that effect.
Without getting too political, It pains me to see US/Isreali relations being strained by the current administration.
That being said, round these parts copper is often reffered to as "Jew's Gold".
Not very PC, but no disrespect or racism intended, just a slang term.
Uggh .... this thread has taken a turn.There are things you know, but some are better left unsaid.
How the heck do you define what a Jew is ?
1: Is it a person of the Hebrew faith ?
2: Is it a person of the Jewish culture ?
3: Is it a person who can trace their genetic lineage back to one of the three cities Goshen ?
It's problematic ................
Without saying much more i would ask the question:
What happens when you ruthlessly persecute ANY race of people for thousands of years so that only those MOST fit to survive in the world are allowed to reproduce ?
You get the cream of the crop of what humanity has to offer ? ;)
Tread lightly guys .... that's a hornet's nest you don't want to mess with.
~ Just sayin' ~
Let's get back in the direction of the OP's question about buying a scrap business but expand on it a little. What do we call that type of business or ourselves who work in that business. In the past a Rag Man, was a scrap man. Are we peddlers? A term most scrap yards refer to us scrappers. Are we recycle-rs?