Big day on the road today!

So I do my e-scrap on the side. Pickups on my lunch hour, before or after work. Whatever it takes.

Went over to a school today, and did a pick up that took my entire lunch hour. I picked up:
20 desktop towers
20 laptops
16 LCD monitors
1 LCD projector
1 overhead projector
1 dj style cd player
2 network hubs
3ups units
And 5 laser printers

I got everything for free, but for schools I make a donation of $2 a pc to their school band boosters. I think i'll round it up on this load! Wow! I'm exhausted. Just got everything in the garage, but tomorrow I have to pull and catalog all of the drives for a certificate of destruction.

Good grief Thor....your working two fulltime jobs....way to go.

Congratulations. That's quite a haul. I'm fascinated by the networking part of this job -- the process of establishing your own niche sandwiched within the big fish (tuna)-medium fish (bass)-and small fish (guppy) E-cycling hierarchy.

I'm starting to think of E-waste production as a distribution with Big Gov. and Big Corp. comprising the peak of the distribution. So the real question for a potential E-waste entrepreneur/hobbyist is:
Is the E-waste in my region distributed normally or with a fat-tailed distribution -- and how fat is the waste stream tail composed of medium-to-small businesses/non-profits/local gov/individual households. Different regions of the country may have different E-waste distribution shapes, thereby creating different economies of scale for E-waste collectors/sellers. Small E-waste operators may work well in one region but not in others depending on the shape of the waste stream distribution. And there's of course a dynamic element to this since the E-waste distribution is probably always changing due to local competition and macroeconomic factors affecting local businesses.

Anyway, it's food for thought that I'm currently munching on.
Thanks for sharing the story thortek.
It really sounds like you've built a great local collection network for the scale of your operation.

That's very good of you to make the donation, not many people would do that. As a marching band member myself, I really appreciate your contribution to the band program at the school. Equipment is NOT cheap, and with all the budget cuts, they probably needed that.

Hmm...distribution curves...neat concept.

One of the suburban school districts down here is auctioning 50 or so dell towers by the piece on-line...they're going for close to $20/per. Good thing you're getting yours for $2 thor!

nice load! No CRT monitors???

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Originally Posted by Ewasted

nice load! No CRT monitors???

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I picked up 2 along with two really old towers from a govdeal auction with the city. But those werenT included in that tally

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Originally Posted by ElectricMetal

Congratulations. That's quite a haul. I'm fascinated by the networking part of this job -- the process of establishing your own niche sandwiched within the big fish (tuna)-medium fish (bass)-and small fish (guppy) E-cycling hierarchy.

I'm starting to think of E-waste production as a distribution with Big Gov. and Big Corp. comprising the peak of the distribution. So the real question for a potential E-waste entrepreneur/hobbyist is:
Is the E-waste in my region distributed normally or with a fat-tailed distribution -- and how fat is the waste stream tail composed of medium-to-small businesses/non-profits/local gov/individual households. Different regions of the country may have different E-waste distribution shapes, thereby creating different economies of scale for E-waste collectors/sellers. Small E-waste operators may work well in one region but not in others depending on the shape of the waste stream distribution. And there's of course a dynamic element to this since the E-waste distribution is probably always changing due to local competition and macroeconomic factors affecting local businesses.

Anyway, it's food for thought that I'm currently munching on.
Thanks for sharing the story thortek.
It really sounds like you've built a great local collection network for the scale of your operation.

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I'm building my network. Thanks for e kudos! I've been using a lot of e,ail to get the job done. I now have some word of mouth too. I just need to get some $$$$ coming in to offset the costs. We live in a county of 115k people, so the stream is small, but I'm the only fish swimming towards the worms. I hope to get my name out there before anyone else catches on!

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Originally Posted by CanIScrapIt

That's very good of you to make the donation, not many people would do that. As a marching band member myself, I really appreciate your contribution to the band program at the school. Equipment is NOT cheap, and with all the budget cuts, they probably needed that.

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I allow the companies I pick up from to choose where I make a donation to as well. I was in band. It really afforded me a lot of opportunity, and made a lot of friends too.

http://www.lima4sale.com/scrap/2012-...7-22-45_85.jpg http://www.lima4sale.com/scrap/2012-...-22-19_571.jpg Turn your monitors sideways please...LOL!

Nice haul you have there. All the schools, etc. around my part send everything back to the county who then auctions it off. Sometimes you can find an ok deal but many times the stuff goes higher then scrap value. We have 5 scrap yards all close to each other so every tom, ****, and harry....plus the drunks scrap around here.

Great Haul!

I find it amazing that some of you get to strike deals with schools. I Wish!!! Out here in the Virginia suburbs, the school systems know that they can make a great deal of money through auctioning the stuff off. It goes to the highest bidder (which is extremely high [mentioned in another thread])

It's a blessing and a curse I suppose. There are so many accounting/consulting/government contracting companies in the area with tons of end of life electronics, but that also is evident by the amount of competition in this area.

Keep working those connects!

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Originally Posted by prgiva

Great Haul!

I find it amazing that some of you get to strike deals with schools. I Wish!!! Out here in the Virginia suburbs, the school systems know that they can make a great deal of money through auctioning the stuff off. It goes to the highest bidder (which is extremely high [mentioned in another thread])

It's a blessing and a curse I suppose. There are so many accounting/consulting/government contracting companies in the area with tons of end of life electronics, but that also is evident by the amount of competition in this area.

Keep working those connects!

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@prgiva, what part of VA are you in? I oppperate out of the Winchester area

Manassas/ Haymarket Area.

Somewhere in the same vicinity as GeorgeB

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Turn your monitors sideways please...LOL!

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I did! I flipped my flatscreen over and it fell off the desk; NOW WHAT???

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Originally Posted by Mechanic688

I did! I flipped my flatscreen over and it fell off the desk; NOW WHAT???

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now using a series of mirrors and lenses create a projector screen from simple household items....or at least that's what it said on eBay...lol!