Small timer from Wiisconsin

Hello everyone. I just stumbled upon this site when doing a google search on scraping AC compressors. Very interesting to say the least.

I got started when my pet store business was slow and my landlord gave me a bunch of computers to scrap. Another tenant in the complex had a computer repair business and he gave all this old machines to the landlord rather than scrap them himself. The whole time vs profit thing and all.

The landlord was retired and he sat around all day breaking things down and he got me started.

So far I've done about 3 loads to the scraper and made about 275.00. Not a lot but when you consider it almost free money it does come in handy.

The most interesting story I have though is about my 10 year old nephew. His dad has an old restaurant foundation on his property and he uses it as a containment pit for burning his construction scrap. There bits and pieces of old broken down equipment scattered about and one day while burning my nephew found a 2 foot piece of copper off of some type of machine. I mentioned to him that he could get rich from scraping ( I know but you have to entice kids with big promises these days) so he started collecting anything and everything he could find. His dad humored him and even got into the act. When he had to replace some aluminum windows on a jobsite he told his kid he could have it. After about 4 or 5 months of just nickle and dime stuff I decided it was time to take him to cash in. I didn't want to get his hopes up too much so I said "you'll probably get 30 or 40 bucks" That sounded good to him and we set off to the recyclers.
On the way there he said "I hope I get at least 20 bucks"
We unloaded and the guy handed me the slip and my jaw dropped.
My nephew looked at me and said "not too much huh?"
I said "I think you are going to be pretty happy with this"
How much?" he asked.
" $110.00 bucks" I said.
Now it was time for his jaw to drop and his eyes got to be the size of saucers "How much really? he said
"$110.00" I said.

Needless to say I have created a monster. Everything he sees now is "is that scrap?" or we drive by a junky house with old machines in the yard and he will say "I wish I could scrap there" Best of all (for him) his dad is taking the whole thing a bit more seriously now. Stuff that used to get tossed now gets saved.

Anyway, that's my best scraping story and if I don't make another dime doing it seeing the look on his face when that $100.00 bill popped out of the machine was worth every minute I spent helping him haul it.

Well, I'm off to break down a few electric motors now.

Steve

Welcome, Steve from Cincy!

Great story and thanks for sharing it.

What part of the State are ya from up there??

I am also from WI. Started out scrapping when I had to move back in with my family because of financial reasons. Needed the money and our basement was kinda a resting grounds for broken and out dated electronics. So far in just doing stuff from home or from the neighbors and one account from a township landfill, I have brought in about $750.

My brothers love to help out and it gives them some spending money. I pretty much do all the bigger stuff and they have been working on unwinding all the copper. They love seeing what they take apart being exchanged at the yard from some cash.

Originally Posted by BroJer

Welcome, Steve from Cincy!

Great story and thanks for sharing it.

What part of the State are ya from up there??

Twin Lakes about midway between Kenosha and Lake Geneva

Originally Posted by KzScrapper

Hello and welcome from Denver. Great story about getting bit by the Scrapping Bug (don't forget about the extra "p" in scrapping) as it all adds up in the end to make for a great payout, as you have found.

Noted, the funny thing is I had them all with the extra p but for some reason I didn't think it was right. I messed up the drop the "E" and add 'ING" for scrape and the double the last consonant and and "ING"

But hey, I was scraping (mostly my knuckles) during a lot of my scrapping so it isn't too far off.

Welcome! I'm not that far away from you, I'm located in the small town of Mukwonago!

Welcome to the forum. It is absolutely amazing what you are going to learn on this forum. I am an hour north of you in sheboygan,WI. Go pack go.

Welcome!

And a side note...we should get all of us Wisconsinites together...I'm just north of Milwaukee.

Welcome from a sandbar off the coast of NC!

On the brightside..lest ya didn't leave off the S in scrapping..

Sirscrapalot - Keeper of the traveling cooler, an the cooler is available for private parties, Bar Mitzvah's..and other special occasions.

Welcome from nearby Waterford. Also agree with Mudlucky lots of SE Wisconsinites on here lets get together.

I'm from SE Wisconsin too, same area as the OP. I just pick up whatever I happen to see during my day as I'm driving around so I guess that makes me a casual scrapper. I have a trashcan full of circuit boards out of TVs, can anyone give me an idea of what that might bring? I would guess probably not much but I'd like to figure out where to go with it.