The Bear Market

Long time browser, first time poster, and I'd like very much if we could just get right into it:

Everywhere I turn I just keep hearing bad news. I'm sure most of you were lucky enough to have ridden the artificial demand from the Chinese building boom. I wasn't so lucky and I'm really starting to reconsider the industry I've gotten myself into. I've heard some yards around here say prices will bounce back in the summer (I don't know why; they usually go down in the summer for me). I really can't see any reason for optimism in the next few years, at least not in the metal market.

I've seen a few posters suggesting now is the time to propagate deals, but I find that harder to do because I'm hesitant to pay for material. Space is at a premium here so I can't hold on to anything for too long, but I'm also operating out of a residential area, so I can't just convert from collections to processing, it'd be too noisy. What do you guys do in situations like this? Hoard and hope?

Everyone here's in the same boat. Welcome aboard, would you like a paddle?

Was hoping for advice. Do you hoard, sell, offer new services, diversify?

just make the money with research and hard work. like right now I am working with other scrapers so I get a great steel price while I can and as for everything else it has not changed enough for me to lose any profits. there is so much money out there I wish I had clones of myself to collect it all lol

Hah, I'd kill to be in your shoes. We have a state subsidized collections system here so e-waste is already hard to come by, but with the metal markets the way they are it's not a good business to be in. I know you're right; the profit is still there, but as a little fish in a big pond I guess I'm just feeling a bit of a pinch. I had wanted to expand this summer, but the yards are starting to fill up already, so I'm not sure the prices will be at a point in the summer where I'll be able to buyout potential clients. Maybe it's time to move into the construction industry; there's sure to be lots of cheap steel sitting around, at any rate, lol.