the FUTURE OF SCRAPPING or

Originally Posted by Tcgs

With so much uncertainty in the world today. Where is the scrapping business going to end up?

There has always been uncertainty, when Europeans thought they had it right, life happened, so they boarded ships by the thousands and traveled to the United States to start a new life, not knowing what life was going to bring, but with that spirit that has served Americans well since.

The only constant is change, life happens while we are making other plans, such is life, we don't know what the future holds, all these sayings have been passed down through the years by people who experienced uncertainty first hand. Fear mongering is going to do nothing but cause panic. We should instead embrace change as an opportunity.

Originally Posted by Tcgs

Any ideas on the kind of prices we might see? High or Low?

As long as you adjust your business practices, your turns, your profit margin and labor percentage, as need be, the prices rising and falling will not affect you much, specially if you are hedging, and specially for those people you label as level 1-2 scrappers who get their scrap from the street, for free, and specially for those doing so for extra income, after all these are particular people are most able to bear any change than anyone else as they have fall back plans and different sources of income, which so far as I am concerned is brilliant on their part.

Originally Posted by Tcgs

Maybe a new hot commodity?

I think the entire point in the scrap business is not to bring a hot new commodity to market, but instead to look for the old commodities no longer useful or wanted, and scrap them. I'm not sure what you mean by this statement, unless you are talking about people taking recycled goods and turning them into new products or commodities. I do that, but that's refining, not really what this post is about I think. So in this respect, I would be very interested to know what you consider a hot new scrapping commodity. Maybe if I understand the question better, I can comment.

Originally Posted by Tcgs

New Laws? Ones that restrict free scrapping?

This is a very well talked about subject on this forum, you can do a search and quickly be overwhelmed by the volumes of information and discussion on this particular subject.

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/disma...s-florida.html

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/gener...-changing.html

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/gener...olina-law.html

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/misc-...wire-laws.html

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/gener...n-program.html

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/misc-...laws-suck.html

Actually I just realized there are over 10 pages of threads that have been discussed about this particular subject, here is the link to the pages:

Scrap Metal Forum - The Official Scrap Metal Recycling Community - Custom Search

Originally Posted by Tcgs

Insane fuel prices?

Again another search of the forum turns up over 10 pages of threads that discuss fuel prices and how it might affect scrapping:

Scrap Metal Forum - The Official Scrap Metal Recycling Community - Custom Search

Originally Posted by Tcgs

Precious Metal Currency?

I already barter with precious metals, I sometimes trade precious metals for scrap to process, or purchase goods and services from people I know and have done business with by trading precious metals. Individual states may institute precious metal currencies, but I don't think outside trading the raw metal back and forth that we will ever see precious metal currency on a nationwide basis. There are a lot of reasons for this, and you can google them all day long but the short of it is that we just don't have the precious metals on hand to create enough currency to even pay the interest on the money owed on the credit card debt carried in this country. If you really want to understand precious metals, you might be better served asking on GRF. There are people who specialize in this specific area who frequent that forum.



In the future, you might be better served if you honestly desire to know the answers to these questions, and are asking the forum members because you do not know already, to search for the answers before posting your questions. I have said this before, and I guess I'll keep saying it as it pertains. There is a huge wealth of accumulated information on this forum, it is probably the single most important repository of information in any college, library or anywhere else on the internet that pertains to scrapping.

Scott