I'm just asking this in general. There used to be a lot more active scrap buyers on the forum for electronic scrap. Does anyone have any thoughts about this? Quite a few have ceased operating. Also I'm looking for any electronic scrap buyers (circuit boards and such) in Georgia, specifically Atlanta. I know about Fulton Metals and RCM Recycling.
There have been a lot of changes in the e-waste stream over the past fifteen years. There's been a trend from large to small. Desktops & towers transitioned into laptops. Laptops transitioned into tablets & pads. Tablets & pads transitioned into the smaller hand held devices like the i phone.
Every step of the way ... there became less and less material to recycle until most were pushed out of the business.
Another factor that killed the small timers was that shipping costs went way up after the pandemic hit. Many items that were profitable to ship became unprofitable to ship once inflation kicked in.
Over 90% of the materials i see entering the waste stream these days are flat screen monitors, bubble back tv's & flat screen tv's. There's no money in this for your average scrapper. There's no money in this for your average e-waste buyer.
It really needs to be a situation where you are moving through tons of material on a regular basis for it to be profitable.
~ This is just my take on it. ~
We are still here!!!
At this point there are two big mail in companies it looks like ....even though commodities are up so is the cost of doing business so guys like me that utilize the mail in companies pay about 75% or less than those bigger companies and we just ship it to them......I'm in Knoxville and am always up front and tell people you either take the cash I'm offering or ship it yourself.....in the long run the cash option for most is beneficial to everyone involved because they cash out and I get more materials.....I've about quit refurbishing units just because of lack of time but good money can also be made doing this
Everything said here is part of a logical explanation to my original question. I have a client who has a large amount of scrap material who had been approached by a buyer who in turn is selling to another buyer in Atlanta (supposedly). The buyer's offer was about two thirds less that what he would get from Boardsort or Ewasted. My client asked me if I could locate the Atlanta buyer if possible to sell directly to them to save shipping costs to Ohio. I've had no such luck locating such an Atlanta buyer and I'm quite suspicious my client's buyer who approached him is simply sending his purchases on to Ohio. My client has sold to Ewasted before in years past.
What has been said here so far draws this conclusion with me. At this time even with the recent increases in scrap metal prices of gold, silver, copper and so on it is still not enough compared with inflation in general to take pressure off profit margins buyers of scrap have to have to operate. Scrapyards, refineries and everyone else involved are still dealing with a multitude of problems including little available labor, bad supply chain for replacement parts for machinery, slow logistics, fewer people selling scrap, etc., etc. etc. I do believe that in the near future that metal prices will accelerate in price overcoming general inflation effects. In other words being in this business will become quite profitable again. But we are not quite there yet. Could be right around the corner.
These are some of the strangest economic times I've ever encountered. For example, I know several people who have large amounts of scrap material on their premises they could process to generate a lot of money but don't do anything with it. And they are on the poor side. Why don't they work it? They say, "I've got bad knees so it hurts to do labor", "The scrap yards cheat me on their scales always", "I need money immediately, scrapping takes too long", "Social media takes up most of my time". Somehow, someway these people don't really work anymore. They are living on easy money. That's going to change in the future also. They will work again eventually. Or starve. I hope I haven't offended anyone.
Honestly .... there really isn't much money to be made scrapping. You maybe make a few dollars per hour after expenses. It's pretty labor intensive. None of the scrappers that i know and see on a regular basis are doing very well. You need something else as your primary income source. It might be Social Security or one of the entitlement programs. Maybe your prime gig is refurbishing computers or maybe you do youtube videos on how to scrap.The point is that it's really not about the work ethic. If you have the work ethic ... you could make much better money working at a fast food joint than you could at scrapping.
There's been a pretty big paradigm shift from small to large over the years. It's the industrial process and the economy of scale. The value is there in the material but you need to do it on a large scale in order to extract it profitably.
Us scrappers ... we're a dying breed. The forum here used to be much more active but there aren't many of us around anymore. There are more people leaving the trade than there are younger hands coming in to replace them.
It's sort of like the old time cobblers. If you lived in the 1960's ... you might remember that every town had at least one shoe repair shop. Things changed in the 1970's and footwear was made in factories overseas where the labor was cheap. Shoes became a disposable item. No more need for the shoe repair man anymore and they slowly faded away and were forgotten.
Anyhow ... i get that you are frustrated that you can't find a buyer in the Atlanta area. The best answer i could offer is that times have changed.
Thank you for your reply, hills, but it not a frustration thing with me in finding a buyer in Atlanta so much as understanding what is currently going on in the recycling industry concerning electronic scrap. I have been able to draw some good conclusions with the comments from you and others here on the forum.
I do agree with you that a lot of people have quit scrapping in recent years for better income some other way but that is changing also. The other ways of making better income are now under increasing duress with tariffs, government crackdown on waste, inflation and other pressures. You are right about a lot of items being disposable now but people are also getting fed up with that end result. Product quality has gotten too bad overall and people are now expecting better products. The recent increasing hostility toward Chinese products indicates that. I do believe that in the future people will return to scrapping as metal prices continue to increase. No. 1 scrap copper hit $4.06 in my area today. That's a new record. I appreciate your comments again. I'll continue to be the optimist.
Hills nailed it.
Shipping costs can ne minimal depending on the weight you have any questions about freight you can call me anytime 814-442-9060