Useful topics worth reading for a newbie?

Hello everyone, I’m completely new in this topic, but when I found out how much scrap metal we have left and nobody cares about it, I decided to find something useful and read about it, maybe I'll do it. My name is Jack, I'm from Chicago, I'm 22, I wanted to say hello to all of you and find out if there are any useful topics worth reading for a newbie?

Hi Jack and welcome to the forum from Las Vegas! This forum is filled with in depth threads about how to maximize your earnings and minimize your risk and effort while scrapping. Highly recommend you make good use of that search box to figure out what will work best for you. But I'd start with any of the basics threads you can find in each section. Very worthwhile to do so

Originally Posted by JJinLV

Hi Jack and welcome to the forum from Las Vegas! This forum is filled with in depth threads about how to maximize your earnings and minimize your risk and effort while scrapping. Highly recommend you make good use of that search box to figure out what will work best for you. But I'd start with any of the basics threads you can find in each section. Very worthwhile to do so

Thank you, I ran through the forum and saw that in the section "Help for beginners" everything is well written. Does it make sense to write questions here or is it better there, can you tell me?

Well, I have one more question, does it make sense to work or open a company like https://junkcarsus.com/, it looks profitable, but there are some pitfalls, i.e. maybe paperwork or something? I imagine this is quite a lucrative affair. Did someone do something like this in such large volumes or is it not worth even dreaming?

Originally Posted by matador

There is enough knowledge here from over the years to write an encyclopedia. Where to focus depends on what you want to do? For example, I work in E-Waste primarily. I've hauled in some loads of steel to clean up the yard, and once to help the neighbor out. But, you get the point- what you do with steel and E-Waste can be totally different.

The largest tip that I can give you that will be true for ANY type of scrapping: "The scrap value of an item should be the lowest price you'll get out of something, not the first". If you can sell something as a whole assembly or as parts, you should make more on it than scrap. If you can't, scrapping is your "Worst option" in terms of gain. But, if you scrap everything out, you're throwing away a lot of money that you could have earned

Thank you, extremely useful information and inference.

Originally Posted by matador

The way any of those franchises work is that you pay them some of the profit in exchange for the "Value" the brand offers. That value is usually advertising and leads. Simply put, I don't think it's worth it. In scrap cars, you can get more advertising exposure by just running newspaper ads and putting a sign on the side of your truck. The scrap market isn't great now. You're better to keep all the money, build your own business, and try to maximize the value of what you get in more than trying to get more stuff in for less profit. If you do your own business, you can also sell parts off the cars. For example, I have a 2001 Audi A6 as a project car. A set of USED headlights for it is about $300 on eBay. If you get one to scrap, you can pull parts like that and make a lot more money on selling parts than you will selling the car to a junkyard or sending it to the crusher

Catalytic converters are very high. If you have a 2.8 motor in that A6, the converters are worth a total of $500-$700.

I will speak in general terms. Most things before 1997 are Platinum based and lower loadings. The market is up but a $50 converter can’t turn into $300. Some older pickups have beaded type cats, they are still worth something if they still contain their beads inside (the plug).

PM or post here if you have anymore questions.

Your 4 cats from your Audi 2.8 are a home run.

Originally Posted by matador

Yep- mine is the 2.8. I'd like to get the car fixed up and drive it again, but if that doesn't work out, it's nice to know that there's a lot of money in the cats.

Not to hijack the thread, but APA, what does the market look like for cats from older pickups? Every farm out here has old 80's pickups sitting in the weeds. Even we have a few- I'm wondering if I should grab a sawzall and sell them