New Member

Hello,
At 51 broke, divorced and out of work, I Happened on an Idea. 3 years ago I showed up at my Mom's house in Texas. I came to visit her after she had breast cancer, surgery and radiation. She responded well to the treatment, but I on the other hand was very sick. I had developed chronic pancreatitis. I suffered for two years spending almost 45% of my time in the Hospital.

To get to the point. I am debt with medical bills. Close to a million dollars. I am trying to claim bankruptcy but that cost money. Cannot work a regular job because I would still miss about 3 to 5 days a month of work do to the pancreatitis and other chronic pain. Plus my wages would be garnished because of the debt.

So, about 4 or 5 months ago, I helped a friend of my stepfather's take down the 3 radio towers we had in the back yard. The friend got the radio towers, my stepfather stop using his HAM radio due to health problems, and I was left with 180 lbs of an assortment of cable. A mix of RG's whatever and about 120lb of twenty five pair cable. My stepfather who thinks I am an idiot, and maybe I am wanted the 25 pair discretely gotten rid of since he kind of found it at his old job. He did not think I could manage to take it the dump because he thought I was not a resident, but I am.

I spend some years selling telecom equipment, and networks services. I knew there was copper in the cables and thought maybe I could take them to the scrap yard with I did. They took the 25 pair but not the RG.. I called it coax. and they said they did not take that stuff,

Anyway to get to the end, I knew the cable that I had was worth something. I started stripping it, then reading about bare brite, and then it hit me. Why not start scrapping. I started picking up cans, when I was out looking for those cans I found all kinds of things including scrap metal.

Yesterday I made my first little score. When picking cans I saw a business with 5 or 6 appliances in their parking lot. Stop by and ask if they wanted to get of them. They told me to come back some other time. Which I did. I know have 6 appliances for scrap. And all I did was ask.

I hope to learn a lot. Sorry for the tale for anyone who read the whole thing.

Congrats on your score.......I have found in this business with a little bit of advertising and word of mouth you will end up with more material than you could ever process.........Hopefully getting a little money in the pocket will help "HEAL" what ails you and motivate you to work harder

Welcome to the forum. Reading the old threads will be the very best use of your off time. They will educate you so you will be able to better profit from scrap.

The problem with coax at scrap yards is that most of what they get is coax from cable tv installations. The center conductor of this type of coax is steel with a thin coating of CU. A magnet can tell you if the coax is steel or CU but the workers at the scrap yards are told not to take any coax and you will not change their minds.

You might have gotten more money for the coax as used coax to ham radio ops and cb ops. Of course this depends on the condition and your access to ways to sell it.

There are markets for used radio gear. I am a ham, ke4ilg, so do have experience with that material and have striped coax myself for the same reasons.

On to your employment/medical bill issues. If you have not had a judgment against you authorizing garnishment then it will not happen automatically. I would guess the only way out is bankruptcy and delaying it will not help. I am surprised you were not offered Medicaid by a hospital social worker. If you had you will not be facing your current situation.

If you are not physically able to work a job then I suggest you apply for Social Security Disability. If it has been more than 5 years since you have last paid into Social Security then you would not get it but be awarded a much less amount under another program whose name I don't recall. If you apply today and its not approved even for 5 years(my case) you will receive back pay from the time you applied. By the way most cases don't take that long, mine was a special case.

Good luck, 73, Mike

$1,000,000.00 in medical debt. Only in America. I am very sorry for your situation. Mike has given you some great advice.

Sometimes getting social security disablility is not easy. I have heard that people often get rejected the first try, but have better luck when they appeal. Having someone represent you is the best way to go for getting approved right away. That might not work for you though if you would have to pay them upfront.

Good luck to you, and Welcome!

Keep reading the threads here. You will come across ideas and information. Thrift stores are frequently good places if they themselves don't scrap. Do some investigating, then stop by right after the workers leave. Learn their cars and timing. You will get more stuff that way. Odds are they won't just say yes you can scrap if you go and ask, but, if you build a rapport over time, it is possible. That's how I did it at my places, though I do live right behind them, so it's a bit different than a random joe.

Facebook and CL ads can get you some stuff too.

Construction sites can be good too. You can either ask the superintendent permission, which is basically a 50/50 shot, or just show up after they leave. Be ONLY by the dumpster. That way no one can accuse you of doing anything else. If you ask the super, a quick bit of interest in the project, then ask if you were to be "safe, quick, and respectful" if you could scrap their dumpster. If they say yes, stick to it. If he says after hours is ok, ask if you could get a biz card from him that has his permission written on it just in case the cops show up.

I hope things start to get better for you and the cash starts flowing!!!!