maximizing profit on appliances

One of the contracts I have is hauling off appliances. The only restrictions on the contract are that all refrigerators have to be evacuated and the compressors removed. Also none of the appliances can be re-sold as working units. I get 75-100 pieces a week of late model upper end appliances. Right now I only hold back parts that people have asked for ie: dishwasher racks and refrigerator parts. I'm wondering if I should be pulling a lot more parts and starting some kind of on-line store to sell the more in demand parts. Has anyone had experience in doing this?

You could, but me personally never had no luck. I dont like evilbay, so didnt bother trying that. But have tried craigslist, paper shop, and local paper to no avail. Never sold anything. Im still sitting on the control boards from 6 vending machines I broke down a month ago, not one bite. I even had a 7th complete manual vending machine with no key, not one call.

I usually rip them down for all motors, wiring, switches, etc. Strip the wire and copper motors. Alu motors go into motor pile which u should know. Break the switches down for brass. Then when I get time I cut the compressors open with torch and free the copper. I usually break the average appliance down in 10mins or less. One thing to note is some older washers got all aluminum transmissions and connecting pieces. So may be worth to break those apart, but the oil is sticky like molasses and stinks to high hog heaven.

So I wish you the best of luck,but in this economy people who has money aint spending and most dont. Last thought is maybe try a appliance shop to see if they need any used parts. There is a dude by me who fixes and resells used appliances. I usually run 10 yr old appliances or newer to him. He usually buys them 25 a pop for parts or resell. Might be a option there.

With that much volume you could easily have a huge collection of parts in no time.

Saving the harder to find parts would be a good idea also.

FreonJoe's Used Appliance Parts Emporium

I have a similar problem. I end up with a fair amount of very obscure but new in original packaging electronic components. fire alarms, alarm system auxillary boards, cable kits, camera housings. difficult to find a channel. ebay is such a pain, and its too specific for CL.

How about maketing to the appliance repair guys in the area. Also check ebay, I remeber one of our members saying things like refigerator shelves and dishwasher racks sold well. Here i believe selling via CL would be a waste of time and you sound like a busy man, Mike.

I do the same thing in a couple other industries (not appliances). It's nice to sell a part I can drop in an envelope for $30-$60, that cost me virtually nothing and would have brought almost nothing as scrap. Here is the hard part.

1. You need to be the expert on the parts, I have about 10 filing cabinets and a computer database filled with specs. You have to be able to tell the person accurately that something will work for them.

2. You need to have the customers coming to you. I have the original product manufacturers sending me dozens of calls a day that come into their switchboard. They know I have the inventory to fill their customers needs and I take work off of their hands.

Without these two things, you can still make some money, but will not maximize your income.

Someone else already suggested this - but what about having a swap meet of sorts on this site? A seperate section for of stuff people are looking to sell or trade and listings of things people are trying to find all in one place?

Most appliances are not repaired anymore....It is a throw away society. I would recommend you join one of the appliance repair forums and market your wares there. Pay for their premium membership and let everyone know that you are a scrapper and sell these item on the forum, don't try to hide anything and do what you say you will do. You can get a bad rap fast. And get good documentation on what you sent and what you received, there are a lot of trolls on these forums that just want to screw people.

If your not getting the compressors your missing out on a couple hundred bucks a week goin by your numbers.

I agree with midnight, there's a market but you need to be visible and in a form that makes people comfortable coming to you. i.e. an internet presence or storefront.

Ebay is still a good venue while it lasts, if you're willing to play by their rules.

Is there a local appliance repair shop you could hook up with for some guidance, or maybe get a 'want list' from them of pieces they'll buy?

Letting the locals know about parts is on my list. They all know me anyway so that is one of the things on my to do list. Since I only scrap part-time, I'm just trying to maximize the return on my time invested.

wow your gonna handle 75-100 appliances a week. Part time. yikes.

It's only 3 trailer loads a week. Only time it gets a little out of hand is around Christmas time when everyone is trading in for new appliances. Got 25 trailer loads just from that customer in December.

Assume you take the motors and remove any copper and or brass fittings. Do you take load directly to the lot or do you store and do further breakdown. What would be an average ticket on a load? Sounds like a pretty good gig to me.

I take the cords, brass fittings, wiring and easy to get to aluminum off as I'm loading the trailer. Then straight to the recycler. Unload, go back and pick-up the refrigerators and take them back to the shop to get evacuated and compressors removed. Takes about 2 and 1/2 hours per load. Averages around 3500 pounds a load.

Takes another hour or so to process the refrigerators and load them back on the trailer.

Do you still have this contract?

Yes, I still have this contract.

That's awesome to have a contract like that. My brother and I have just started our scrap removal business and this is something he and i have talked about. Keeping parts that can be resold separate from the scrap. Anyway best of luck to you on this

have you called the local repair shops to see if they are looking for any specific parts?

JG, I have. They are mostly looking for direct drive transmissions and Kenmore faceplates. Working on getting helpers trained on pulling parts. I end up mostly chasing computers and sorting buckets of CPU's. Need to spend more time on the training aspect. Did find a few Pentium pro's in the last bucket I bought though!