curb stalker in West Virginia

Hello, my name is Joshua, and I live in Charleston WV. I started scrapping when my grandfather passed away in August while clearing out his property for my mother. A lot of aluminum boat motors, totes of pre sorted copper and brass (paw paw was a scrapper in the great depression, old habits die hard).

As I have been clearing the buildings and property and supplementing my income, I have been watching the curbs on trash day in my neighborhood and watching the roadside as I travel for my job. Scrapping has become a fun hobby in the last few months and I hope it continues. Mainly breaking down microwaves and fans, not much e waste or larger appliances in my path yet.

This site has been benificial as I lurked in the shadows for a few weeks, figured I could join and possibly share with others in time like has been shared to me. Anyone else live in Wild and Wonderful WV?

Welcome to the forums from a sandbar off the coast of NC.

Don't live up in WV, but have visited when I still lived in Va. Love me some horse racing an slots! Beautiful country you folks got up that way. Glad ya decided to step out of the shadows an join us. Be sure ya do much reading of past threads if you haven't yet, but I suspect you have started on that lengthy road already going by your post.

Be sure to do a search for any questions you have, an if you still don't find what your looking for, feel free to ask away. You'll also notice their are usually suggestions at the bottom of a thread pointing you in the general direction of similar topics. By using all those options you should always find what your seeking.

Good luck an hope to hear more of your scrapping adventures.

Sirscrapalot - Keeper of the traveling cooler.

welcome to the forum from jersey. man I wish I could get a lot of microwaves and fans been dry around here.

Haven't been on much lately. Thanks guys for the welcome, scrapped my first vehicle in the last few months, 1995 dodge ram 1500 extended cab long bed. That was a good learning experience. Picked up a inexpensive hand crank wire stripper and processed my 50 gallon trash can load, it was almost $120 in itself, made the $55 stripper pay its self off in one use twice over, lol. Curbco has been bare lately, noticing more and more trucks full of metal and appliances around my area. So guess its time to open up to businesses and see if I can get a group of contacts going. Gonna stop by the local muffler shop, radiator and small motor repair shop and a few others within a couple miles of my home. Good thing is working for a medical supply company I have a somewhat steady stream of hospital bed frames and motors, small electronics etc. I still lurk more than post obviously but hope to change that in the coming months.

Seeing the loads and jobs others get keeps me motivated when all curbco offers me weeks on end is a single pot coffee maker and a cut chord tv :). Did find a window AC in a trash pile outside a local cash for gold/pawn shop with "broken" written on it and a price tag of $50 marked through... Guess he had a bad purchase, should add them to my contact list, probley won't have a lot of items, but the odd ball item would be worth it and could lead to a lot of connections... Waiting on some calls from individuals cleaning out garages in a last ditch effort to make room before winter. Saw a guy dragging a busted outdoor fireplace cover and screen to the curb. Stopped and offered a hand to the curb. Then asked if he had any other scrap, ended up with a indoor fireplace insert and the cover and a contact that has some car motors and parts to clear out later. Can't wait for business cards to come in and make things look better. I feel a lot of people associate me with other 20 something that are saying they are "scrappers" and leave messes from busting tv's just for the yolk and steal things from yards and garages while "digging through trash". The guy with the cover actually asked why I scrap and a few other questions just to judge my character I guess. I'm the type if I'm in a persons home or property I keep my hands folded in front of me, not in my pockets or behind my back where I could be holding something waiting on a secluded moment to be shady. Excited to set a better example and see where it leads me.

Sounds like you've got your ethics in the right place. When you get your cards going and start networking I think you'll find much more to scrap than shopping curbco. Word of mouth (with good reviews) can mean a lot to your business.

Keep on being a stand up guy and keep us updated on your progress.

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So guess its time to open up to businesses and see if I can get a group of contacts going. Gonna stop by the local muffler shop, radiator and small motor repair shop and a few others within a couple miles of my home.

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Like was mentioned, get you some business cards and start passing them out to anyone and everyone and slowly the call will start coming. Good idea on the pawn shop also. If you can't afford to buy them then you might want to think about these for starting out.
http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...ess-cards.html

Glad to see your still hanging around, the info just keeps flowing.

im pretty close to you.....im in southern ohio,,,,near south point,ironton,ashland , i used to deliver furniture for big sandy in charleston when i was laid off..i like it over there out in the country.... we used to get lots of scrap also....we would ask all our customers when we had room, many were happy to give it to us

I'm on the west side of Charleston near the civic center arena. I've gotten a few things from deliveries at work, including a working gas wall heater a guy was throwing out, just needed gas jet cleaned good. Keeps the upstairs bedroom toasty better than the worn out 1930's one it replaced. My house was built in 1921 and never renovated much at all until I bought it about 2.5 years ago... :D