Deal with My Local Yard

I found out a guy that I go to church with and I have hung out with him in some circles owns a scrapyard. I finally worked up the courage to talk to him about buying scrap computers. He said that would be fine they dont get them that often but when they do he will set them aside for me. Im pretty sure he is buying them at shred price and they come in large lots when he gets them. Should I just offer him slightly more than shred price so he makes money by saving them for me and makes some more money when I bring him the steel back from the empty cases? Or do you think I would be better off paying him per computer like so many people do with buying from individuals?

This would be my first foray into actually purchasing scrap. All the other computers I scrap out are all free. I'm also a little apprehensive about getting overwhelmed if he gets a large load in. I know thats a good problem to have but I would have to scramble around to come up with the resources to handle paying for the load and handling the material.

The deal I have worked out with one yard is I pay him twice shred price - he makes it going and coming and I still wind up making quite a bit. Last trip there I picked up 18 APC UPS units at 22 cents/lb and sold just the batteries for 28 cents/lb. The boards will get me another 20 cents/lb and the transformer will get me around 32 cents/lb. The batteries were easy to yank so that's all I've done so far. Not to mention the power cord with around a half pound of copper.

There were 4 huge rackmount servers and around 10 PCs and a few laptops.

The best though was all the boards. Three or four boxes of them. Just loose boards, some still attached to a case of some sort - all testing equipment. Got that at 22 cents/lb and will sell it for between $1.50 and $2.50 a pound.

Yard was happy and I was happy.

Shred is cheap now so if you did want to pay, offer per piece unless you want to pay by the pound. For me, by the piece is easier to figure out. I buy them off my trash company, it helps them be compliant with the State keeping electronics out of the landfills.