Thinking of buying a scrap metal business.... Any advice?

I never bought a scrap metal business, but have bought a few other businesses. My general advice about buying existing inventory. Seller is always going to over value the business and existing inventory is almost always way over valued. I would just counter with half of sellers estimated value and meet with increasing counters of lower values! Good advice is use the SBA's guide lines on buying existing business and cut those estimates by at least 10 to 20%. Remember first 3-5 years are going to be tough on any new business, buying a existing business is better than starting from scratch, but also comes with problems as well.