I think I just did myself well today
Hello I am new to SMF and I have a little background in scrapping but not as much most of you. Well the last couple days I was trying to figure a way to get in with some companies who aquire quite a bit of scrap. Well today I got my break! I only do the scrapping on the side of my regular 9-5 job. Today my boss called me and told me not to bother coming in because he would be closing early due to the cold weather so I instead decided to take the opportunity to head out and find me some scrap. I started off checking with the local apartment complexes, not much luck but a single washer an dryer in one.
With no luck and about 20 miles from home I decided to head back. Pretty upset I wasnt able to acquire more I figured I'd travel down a different road than i usually take, I see a car pulled over and a younger woman on the side of the road. I pull over to make sure everythings okay. She tells me she had a flat tire and that her cell phone was dead. I offered to change her tire for her and let her and her two daughters sit inside my truck while I do it because it wa negative degrees outside an my truck was toasty. She accepts and I go about my way and change the tire. At the end she offers me a 50 dollar bill, I said I would like to accept it but I am doing it out of the goodness of my heart because I know what its like to be stuck.
She mentions the washer and dryer in the back of my truck, I said yeah I am doing what I can to help keep my bills paid and make sure my family has everything and every little bit helps. She mentions that her husband owns a company where they do shipping of appliances and electronics. She proceeds to tell me that she wants me to follow her over to her husbands warehouse because she knows there is a bunch of scrap I can have over there. Of course i accept the opportunity and we head over. Once we arrive she introduces me to her husband (real cool guy) and tells me that he has a unbelievable amount of scrap that he reall needs to move. I said well hey, I like the sounds of that. Lets go have a look.
He shows me the part of the warehouse where the returns/scrap are stored. I couldnt believe my eyes, I had to double check and slap myself a couple times. I asked him if he seriously would allow me to have all of it and he said yes, He really appreciates me helping his wife and kids, and that I was welcome to take as much as I can take because otherwise he end up paying someone to haul the stuff away and he doesn have the time to break the stuff down. This is my count of stuf, There is 21 refridgerators, 14 sets of waser and dryer, so 28 total, 6 stoves, 5 microwaves. Like I said I am new to this, and all I can see is money signs spinning in my eyes. He asks if I am able to scrap electronics, I tel him yes I can but its alot of work. He says well if you are up for it I got plenty to go around.
He takes me into another room in this huge warehouse and tells me anything I'd like to take is mine. I've got a count of what I seen, 42 desktop towers, 22 laptops, theres well over 20 older style computer monitors, theres 17 LCD Screens, a huge crate of mouse and keyboards, 11 Plasma TVs ranging from 39'' to 60. Countless DVD Players, If I had to guess I would say 75-80. all different makes and models. Then in the corner I spotted 18 Window A/C units, Some larger some smaller. I still havent dug through half of the boxes in the back, but he also gave me about 35 tube TV's.
I litterally was in shock over the situation. He said its been piling up for months because he had a guy who had come in before and asked him for his scrap. He was picking it up weekly, until one week the lock on his dock door was broken and TV's where stolen from him. So he said he quit letting the guy take it because he had a very odd feeling it was him. So he hasnt had anyone take the stuff and he just has piles and piles of this stuff literally. I spent the day loading and unloading stuff from his shop to my house, Its about 3 to 4 miles away. I am using a regular cab long box chevy pickup, so you can imagine how many loads I will need to make to bring it back to where I am keeping it until I can strip everything. First purchase I am planning is a descent trailer with sides to haul all this scrap with. He said it doesnt have to be done in a certain time so thats helpful.
After about my 3rd load I see a guy flaggin me down 3 docks over. He asks if I charge to haul stuff away, I tell him no whatever I make off the stuff is my profit. he asks if I have a minute to look at what he has, and I told him sure I can take a look. Again, I am in shock. He manages that branch of direct TV and he has over 60 of the small satelite dishes that you see now days. Then he tells me he has 2 of the HUGE ssteel ones thatyou used to see on the ground, Asks if I have a way to cut them up and haul them away. I told him I got the tools capable of doing it, and I got his number from him and told him to give me a couple days to gather everything up.
Glad I pulled over to help out!
I have been down in the dumps about truck problems, being a broke ass and everything in between. This really really made my day and changed my whole week. It was perfect. I just thought I'd post on here because I had to tell someone and if I tell my friends they'll look at me like, Wow you got a bunch of junk. Not realizin I walked into a pretty good chunk of coin. I will spend the rest of my night tipping back a few cold ones and watching youtube videos of what to look out for as money makers when I am dissasembling everything.
I think I just did myself well today
The wheel turns, what goes around comes around.
