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A couple of days ago, I had an elderly guy call me, he asked me if I took old computers and Tv's, I told him yes I do, when I got over to his house he had two old laptops and five television sets, I picked all of them and I am waiting for the scrap yard to open up tomorrow, hopefully I will make enough to pay for my gas that I used to get it.
Thats the most difficult thing for me, I live in a large city and find a lot of good leads; but once I do the math nothing I find ends up being worth the gas to drive 20 minutes away.
I wouldn't even turn the key on my truck for that load. Always ask what they have and if its not at least 10 computers or equal value tell them to bring it to you. What all do you have is always the first thing out of my mouth
Oh, I'd go get it. But there would be a charge for the service.Quote:
Originally Posted by CarolinaEwaste
Funny that people wont go pick something up. I put an ad on CL and a guy contacted me said he had 2 computers, 45 minutes from my house not really worth it but I combined it with a trip to town so it didnt hurt to bad. He asked me what I do with them and I told him that i recycled them. He asked if i wanted the metal or the boards, I said mainly the boards. Guy said cool the repair shop I work at is overflowing with them, I gave him a card to give to his boss and $5 for the computers that he was going to give me anyway.I lost money by making the drive, I lost money by paying him for the computers, but if I get my foot in the door at this repair shop, I will make far more than my fuel and $5. Pluss he has friends that work at 5 other repair shops in the area. Good thing I didnt say no, thats to far.
EDIT: But I would not have picked up tvs.
My CL ad says that I will pick up for free in about a 12 radius of my home. I've kind of of taken upon myself as a local citizen, who knows how to properly recycle electronics, to help out out my neighbors in keeping stuff out of the landfills. I don't pay for the stuff, nor do I charge for pickup. Usually, I make a couple of bucks from the scrap, sometimes I get real lucky and get a good load. Cha-ching! It's all profit and a good conscience knowing I'm doing my little part for the green cause.
I think Im going about things the wrong way. I thought at least three tv's here and there would be worth it but from the way everyone seems to be acting Im just cleaning out peoples garages for free (which is basicaly what my ad claims I will do.) If I got a call for two laptops and five televisions I would jump in my truck and go, whistling the theme song to sanford and sons the whole way there. What exactly constitutes "worth it"?
What IS your time, gas, truck worth to you?? You have to put a value on it, My time is worth a lot, whether people know it or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by sapienza521
Im just curious what other people are willing to leave the house for. I dont have anything steady yet, Im looking, hard, but if the math works out right, and I would make a couple bucks after gas and mileage, Id leave the house for an empty dr. pepper can.
Edit: XZAV38, brandon- If your not comfortable with it I understand, but would you be willing to share your craigslist ad?
If it is worth it to YOU that is what matters, it doesnt matter what the rest of us say. If it makes you money great, just be careful and not lose money. Like I said in my earlier post, I know I lost money on the deal i made today, but some times you have to lose or break even to get your name out there.Quote:
Originally Posted by sapienza521
EDIT: pm sent
Yes, XZ, nobody is trying to tell YOU what to do, but as this forum is for advice, that's what we all do here. Hey, the advice is worth what you paid for it. As a lot of philosophies say, take what you need and leave the rest.
Ive lost money on alot of pickups from CL. Ive also made more money than I thought I ever would. I once went to a pickup from one of my CL ad that I pay $5 a computer. They call and tell me they have 4 computers. They were about 15 minutes from the house. I get there and yes he only had 4 computers and I paid him $20 bucks. But when I was about to leave he was like I have a motherboard in the closit if you want that too. I said sure and when he handed it to me it had a cpu and 8gb of ram in it. Took it home and it all worked great. Was well worth over $200 on ebay but I kept it and use it for my test bench. So you never know what that 2 laptop and a couple tv pickup can turn into.
Absolutely 100% corect sir. Sometimes, I feel that the "its not worth it" brigade appear to be coming from the BIG guns on this forum. Some of us, me included, do NOT qualify for such high "status", so us 'lil pistols will go to larger lengths to get the word out to possible future clients, by picking up whatever they have to offer, especially if its all FREE :DQuote:
Originally Posted by brandon
Weighing in the cost of gas, would be my only concern. In my case "time", matters not.
My 2 roubles worth, ty. Ed.
The fact of that matter is that it was all FREE. My buddy helped me pick it up, so we used his car, probably should have grabbed his truck. So l literally paid $0. No fuel, nothing. Granted I have the "labor" involved in breaking it down and pricing it out, but with what I got it shouldn't take me to long. You have to understand that I've only been scrapping for a few weeks and most of it has been electronics. I have a good grasp on computers and such from by background in networking and just knowledge I've acquired over the years. I handed him a business card and told him if he knows anyone else who is interested and to have them give me a call so who knows what that "might" lead to. Even if its nothing, I'm out nothing so its really a win/win for me Sir.....but the dude abides man.Quote:
Originally Posted by CarolinaEwaste
This forum is a opinion, share your experience with fellow scrappers format,your profile states you are a experienced scrapper and you in your tread say that you have been scrapping for three weeks ok so with three weeks under your belt and useing your friends car to do the pick up i under stand.The information that fellow scrappers give you should be taken seriously we have been there and done that,i dont want to seem rash to you but doing those kind of pick ups with out charging is a recipe for failure just my two cents,
those small loads work fine, i save the contact info and than at a later point in time i can work 3 or 4 into a run it isnt so bad, unfortunatly for the last house i hit i usually dont have anymore room for monitors or printers =)
Again, I'm new and I understand and appreciate the information that is on this forum, and other people's experiences and knowledge. I'm just curious, how you think that not charging is a recipe for failure? At the very least I'm profiting on selling the boards and testing everything that's going to catch more then scrap prices. The server is whole, and I plan on wiping the drive and upgrading it, maybe, then throwing it up to sell. While I just briefly checking the pricing on, they go for around $250. So even if I'm able to get $200 or so, that's still a nice profit in my eyes. I realize that some of the members here are dealing with mass amounts of product, so my little pickup doesn't seem worth it to you. Which I can understand and see why when your at that level.Quote:
Originally Posted by 1956
I'm not sure why I put experienced scrapper, by the way. I'm not trying to portray myself as something that I am not.
Well if you don't put a value on your time,gas,parts,e/bay fees shipping costs and knowledge,good luck to you,but i will tell you that customer called every add on craigs list and you were the only one to do the pick up for free, by the way what are you going to do with the glass tubes from the five TV'S? Best of luck to you I guess you will figure it out,
When I first started out I printed up some cards to hand out, then started to hit the "yard sale" route. Took the local paper on a Fri. and made a route out of it. Got lucky and hit 2 additions that was having a "community" sale that weekend, that's where almost every house has a yard/garage sale. Passed out a big handful of cards and explained that in addition to recycling that we would do haul-off of any yard sale leftovers. Got a lot of good stuff that went into the wife's yard sale. Clothes was sorted out and went to the local non-profit and Goodwill. Don't forget your receipt while your there. Most electronics were old and were recycled.
2 years later and still I occasionally receive a call from some of those houses so someone is saving the cards.
It's a cheap way to network and meet with people as their out in their yard already, not like cold calling, banging on a door.
Just my 2 cents, but when I was in Ohio a few years ago, none of the towns took TVs. They all had recycling drop off days and charged $5 to $10 to allow local residents to drop off a TV or Monitor. And those were only one weekend a year. I was involved in a collection day in Cuyahoga Falls not far from Toledo and we got 2 tractor trailer loads of TVs at $5 each that people dropped off. Seems if that is still the case, lots of people would pay $5 each to have you remove them.
Most of my pick ups are at least 30 miles away. The benefit of rural living. I have family in the bigger towns. i utilize there locations to maximize profit. Someone has 1 or 2 pieces then i have them drop it off there. They pay for it and icollect once a week. The same with our used computer sales. We prep a few computers every week. Drop them off at my parents and sisters house. Advertise in their town and have it picked up there. saves lot of time and gas for the little items
I have been scrapping for almost 6 years and have never charged for a pick-up. Started out part time as I also had a full time job, now I scrap full time. I started curb shopping and dumpster diving and picking up scrap from where ever I could find it, now I have steady pick ups that I do once a week. I have moved out to the country and have to dr 1 1/2 hrs. to do my pick-ups but always come home with a full load. I also have to drive 1hr to my e-scrap buyer but make enough money to cover gas and time. For the newbe's out there just do what you have to do to get the scrap and learn from it and as you go you will find out whats right for you. Just because someone did it a certain way does not mean that you have to do it that way. Good luck and happy scrappin.
I can certainly sympathize with the newbies here, hell I'm not far from one myself. I used to leave the house for a single TV. That's right, I said it! The thing is that while at first I may have given away my time and lost money on gas, I was cultivating relationships the whole time and I wasn't too short sighted to see that. Like several others, I have been to quite a few pick-ups where either they asked what else I took and it resulted in much more on the trailer or (much more often the case) I'd see something lying around and 'randomly' comment on it; next thing you know it's on the truck. Quite a few of the people that I did that with would give my crappy handmade business cards to friends/family/neighbors and that really put me in the game.
Now I'm not sure I'd leave the house for a TV today, but maybe the next up-and-coming scrapper will and that makes me wonder if I don't leave, what kinda connection will HE make instead of ME? BTW, you know who doesn't want you to pick-up TVs and other low-end stuff for free? People who charge to pick-up that's who... Think about it men!
Hello Mech,Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanic688
Thank you for the awesome idea...I will definitely be using that one!
one thing i've learned is that people don't know what you all you take ....
Networking and marketing is one of the most important aspects of any successful business. I'm only a few months into the scrapping biz, but even if/when I start building a legitimate business, I will still drive for a single TV or computer. The reason I would is because, you never know what opportunities that might lead to in the future. Word of mouth advertising is your bread and butter, so if you pick up a single item from one person, they might refer you to someone who has 15 old computers they're looking to get rid of. Obviously that's not always the case, but like others have said, who knows what opportunity you "might" have passed up by not picking up that one item. I've been in customer service/sales for most of my life, so that's just the way I think.
“A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
― Winston Churchill
I changed all my ads to remove for free, but CRT's are $5, $10 or $15 for removal (depends on weight). I don't get many calls, but the calls I get are not a waste of time anymore. I hated how much of my time was wasted on explaining why thier stuff is not worth what they paid 3 years ago, when I said I bought electronic scrap.
Just found this. Both my wife and I thought it was genius. Thanks for the stellar idea.
here is one of my not worth it stories i have a contract with a local computer place i call them every time i am in town last timei called he had 2 towers so i skipped stopping because i had a large buy in a another town i needed room for so i stop in yesterday and see that they watered them and teh pile had grown to 6 towers and 9 laptops 2 of which are a pair one with bad mobo and one with bad screen (new laptop for me :) ) but one time i was gonna skip picking up 2 grills and decided to go anyways and that turned into a full pickup bed of non ferrous so not worth its can be the ones that make your day week month or even possibly your year