What does it take to "make it" Scrapping

Just wondering what everyone's opinion is on what moved them on from

Beginner --> Intermediate --> Expert Scrapper.

At the moment I am trying to advance past being just a beginner. My only real resource is
my job as of the moment, and my first Curb find was a VCR just yesterday.

I have read this forum repeatedly, and I am now starting to run out of things to read :D

I am now feeling hesitant or even lost in regards to getting in action.

I realize that all I need to do is get the scrap, and it is not about making a big find instantly as it is
about accumulate accumulate accumulate, and over time cash in.

That is not my issue... I am in a rural city of about 10,000.

Whenever I am out driving to a destination around town I have been taking roads I would not usually take
in order to find scrap (not driving the same ones either).

Even with all of my scheming (and strategic locations I am going to investigate), and future plans
for passing out business cards, and hitting every garage sale in town during the summer I feel
as though I am not making enough progress at the speed at I would like.

I have the mentality that if I just had the stuff to breakdown I would be ripping stuff apart like a mad man, but
I am beating my head against the learning curve of trying to find it first.


Anyone else experience this on your way up?

Also while experiencing this I remember all the metal I have thrown out in the past (while a consumer) with some regret.


The only saving thought is society is always going to be exceedingly wasteful :D

unless you know of someone who was a "hoarder" or just liked to stash stuff, then it is going to take awhile to find the areas with the scrap. A lot of networking.

Talk to neighbors, friends and family, ask them to put anything metal or electronic that they are going to throw out in a pile or to call you when they have some. Then when they are talking to someone moving or cleaning out, they might pass on the word that you will take the stuff they don't want for them

My movement has only been from beginner to novice. Many times a person is so caught up on the destination, they forget to enjoy the journey. When you stop to smell the roses, you might just find that pot of gold under the rainbow.

It depends on how hard you want to work. you have a great opp right now to be the kingpin of your city or as i call myself the trash king or tin man as the scrap yard calls me lol. Your city is small enough that a 1man operation can be done full time for work. Now I am not talking about crap loads of cash but good money to be made. All you have to do is advertise as cheap as possible, print out flyers, sent letters to businesses and so forth. You could also spend about $400 to do a full postal mailing to everyone in your town. This will help push out comp and establish your dominance in town as more of a household name. You get the idea and good luck

Do you have any other towns, or communities near you? My sandbar has a year round population of 20k. So, twice as much as yours. What I like to do, is branch out a little. Do the networking, ads, etc the others suggested in your area, an if you do have other towns near by..Say an hour or so, drive over an do the same thing there. I have my sandbar folks, then I have clients/customers across the bridge on the mainland. Hell I even have 3 clients up in Chesapeake,Va that I go get stuff when they call.( Sorry my Va Beach, Hampton,norfolk etc members! I get around!)

Don't be in a huge rush to move up to the next level. Enjoy the ride, eventually you'll get to your destination.

Sirscrapalot - We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us. - Marcel Proust

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Patriot76

My movement has only been from beginner to novice. Many times a person is so caught up on the destination, they forget to enjoy the journey. When you stop to smell the roses, you might just find that pot of gold under the rainbow.

---

While I agree with what you are saying, I am not caught up in the destination. I am merely wanting to get moving on the path to the destination.

I am trying to take the first step of a 1000 mile journey.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jw7783

Talk to neighbors, friends and family, ask them to put anything metal or electronic that they are going to throw out in a pile or to call you when they have some. Then when they are talking to someone moving or cleaning out, they might pass on the word that you will take the stuff they don't want for them

---

Thanks for the idea I will do this next.

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time. - Lyndon B. Johnson

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. - Lao Tzu

Your last post Ryan came as I was looking at quotes! So you get extra quotes to your thread!

Take your time, an it'll come. It did for the rest of us who started this as a hobby, or part time.

Sirscrapalot - Quotes are above!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by travistemple202020

it depends on how hard you want to work. you have a great opp right now to be the kingpin of your city or as i call myself the trash king or tin man as the scrap yard calls me lol. your city is small enough that a 1man operation can be done full time for work. now I am not talking about crap loads of cash but good money to be made. all you have to do is advertise as cheap as possible, print out flyers, sent letters to businesses and so forth. you could also spend about $400 to do a full postal mailing to everyone in your town. this will help push out comp and establish you dominance in town as more of a household name. you get the idea and good luck

---

Haha I like the way you think. When you are known as the "Tin Man" it really shows how much you bring in :D

I am not looking to replace my 8-5 job. All of this extra is going directly into Physical PM :)

As I like to say... dig your well before you are thirsty.

Thanks for all the great ideas.

under my name it says something about a guru but I still feel like a novice when it comes to alot of this stuff........I only wish I knew how to find some of these more valuable metals these guys talk about

Get some flyers or business cards printed. Most supermarkets have bulletin boards for people to hang flyers and cards. Get to every one in your area and get them on the boards. Try putting some up in laundromats, pharmacies, pizzerias, fast food places, local vfw or american legion hall, knights of columbus, churches anywhere that people go on a daily basis. Talk about what you are doing to anyone that you meet.

"I feel as though I am not making enough progress at the speed at I would like."
I think it's a rare thing when we do progress at the speed that we'd like, in any endeavor. However, as I've gotten older/more experienced, I feel that it's only in retrospect that we can truly appreciate our progress or setbacks and how they play into the timeframe of our lives. Please keep in mind Ryan that true progress is slow, while setbacks seem fast and catastrophic (although they rarely really are). Keep at it. Expand your horizons. Don't concern yourself with any lack of "big" scores. If you are dedicated to whatever it is you're doing, you will progress no matter how slow it might feel at the time. Keep working hard and best of luck to you!

You are scavenging. Scavengers take what is available. There is a big difference in scavenging and formulating a plan and executing it.

There will always be hills and valleys; when your at the top you risk falling down, when your at the bottom you'll always be asking how do I get up there? You'll almost always be somewhere in between climbing.

Formulate and execute. If it doesn't work try again.

When I started out the economy was good, everybody was working. People were buying houses and moving evry month. People were throwing stoff out just because they wanted new(things were still in working order). I had more scrap than I could handle. Then 3 things happened (1) the economy took a dive (2) people stopped throwing things away (3) everybody and thiere brother started scrappin. Even businesses that was saving stuff for me began hauling thiere scrap to the yard themselves or giving it to thiere employe's. I'm still trying to recover.

Persistence perseverance for starters imho without those a person will always be in the beginner stages

When i started 6 years ago now i cleaned out my parents shed of dead appliances then got into computer and when i started those all i did was gut and seperate bare minimums (hdd cd roms wires and all the boards went into the same pile) Now i strip down the hdds test the mobos save dvd rw's strip down and i have a slew of boxes that are sitting around collecting various pieces of computers and electronics.

Best advice i can give is if you live in a town with a pop of 10k there has to be at least one computer repair place. Go talk to them and see what they do with their broken parts and see if you can make a deal with them. when i started with comptuers the first place i set up with was charging $5 per piece (monitor tower) then they were paying that out to dispose of them so i set a deal with them where i would take most of it free of charge and they would be able to keep the money they were charging to dispose thus increasing their bottom line. Now they have decided to do free disposal for people to make them more friendly to the college kids and i still get all the goodies including several laptops a month to part out.

so keep working at it and you will get there (6 years into it and i may know more then some of the places i sell to but they had the money to take the bigger step and i would rather earn it step by step

and here is a quote for you

"it is better to pay for each step as you make it rather then to overpay for a big leap and land flat on your face"

What is your rural area like? Farms? Ranches? Go down every dirt driveway in the county and ask the property owner if you can haul away that pile of metal that is sitting behind the barn. How far to the nearest scrapyard? With only 10K people in your area, you will have to hustle. Good luck.

Thanks for all of the responses, advice and encouragement. I am definitely not giving up! You can take that to the bank!

When I got started scrapping I used to take a 1/4 of my paycheck and use it for buying scrap. When I got time outside of work I would prep the stuff. Let the money come back and always used some more off the paycheck from work, took all the profit from the scrap and leave it solely for scrap. Everyone has a little bit of slow times, and faster times. If you don't have cash on hand, your not ready. The easiest way to try to get the work out for example is: live radio shows (Local radio for buying and selling), craigslist, facebook, word of mouth, fliers, cards, town clean-ups, ect.. If you want to be dominant offer $ that you know will kill out your competitors, even if you hardly make money on that particular piece or person you are buying from. It's like the stock market. Buy as low as you possibly can and sell as high as you can. I had always tried to find the biggest buys I could afford. (example: if I had $100 in hand I would look for something as close to $100 as I could and leave myself a little wiggle room for fuel). Invest the most you can and the return is always higher, making you more money in the end. After you get the ball bouncing you can relax a little bit but keep on top of everything so nobody is knocking on your back door. There is nothing wrong with being a little slow starting to a rock solid foundation, with a well built base you can build anything.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Montymoose

What is your rural area like? Farms? Ranches? Go down every dirt driveway in the county and ask the property owner if you can haul away that pile of metal that is sitting behind the barn. How far to the nearest scrapyard? With only 10K people in your area, you will have to hustle. Good luck.

---

Yeah, around here less your paying, you ain't hauling that pile o scrap behind the barn anywhere. Granted I do receive a few calls for come get it scrap, but those calls are far and few in between. I buy, buy, buy, and buy some more. Pays to be a sweet talking guy, but unless your good to you customers, you won't make it here. Got to offer em something no one else will.

Just keep passing out cards, posting flyers on every bulletin board you can find, and knocking on doors when you see something with potential to make a few bucks. I have taken on partners so we can cover a 4 county area, and we pay for a lot of our scrap which helps separate us from other folks in the area. For example, we buy old water heaters from 3 plumbing companies and (after figuring fuel and labor) we generally double our money on them when we make our bi-monthly trip to the yard.

We are growing slowly and are always looking at adding onto our revenue streams. Every time we get a new piece of equipment we try to figure out how many different ways we can use that piece to make money whether it be scrapping or doing "jobs". I've found that we make more money offering services such as demolition and storm debris removal (and cashing in on the labor and the byproducts such as firewood and reclaimed lumber), but we could not afford to quit scrapping because it's all intertwined into one big suite of revenue streams that are dependent on one another... if that makes sense.

Got that right, PR is worth every bit of a good thing. It makes people know you care for more than a guy looking for a cheap buck, makes them feel good to have someone that is understanding of what they are getting (not trying to rip them off, and usually gets a fair amount of future business. Not to mention they tell their friends, family that your a decent person.

We started out as just a computer repair business. After growing that, we expended into the refurbishing/scrapping market. Refurbs are a fantastic way to recycle (and make extra $$ off people's problems/junk).

What we don't use in refurbishing, we scrap.

If you're good with computers, give it a shot! I assure you, if you have excellent customer service people will continue to use you.

Metallic maniac since 2006 .No matter how much i know its not enough. My best lessons were patience and professionalism. I started out doing steel. Scrapping non ferrous off ferrous . I picked up a out of gas scapper one day and forged a partnership. Doing mainly non ferrous . (scrap wars ) .Then the depression .We split. Back to steel and more. Now i do so much but the return is low. I popularized scrap by advertising. Many called to ask why. Lol now my ally sees 4 to 8 different scrappers a day. City wide. I'm saturated. Even the contractors started keeping and cashing in due to my enormous loads every day. Now i off work. Steel , paper ,e and more. I have and do do big but im still new in this game. The options are limit less. Just work safe and learn. Scrap comes when you least exspect it. Be prepared. You will grow.

I have maybe a stupid question has for businesses cards would this be considering a illegal businesses because of not being register like for taxes and stuff ?

Go to Vistaprint and get the cards cheap ASAP! Own what you do and do it! Let people know and go do it! Success comes with little bites one day at a time done over time! The lessons will appear and you will learn them! For many municipalities (cities) you don't make enough "reportable" income to worry about taxes-heck this could be a hobby that you do for fun to see if it is doable as a formal business. As the Ultimate Warrior (RIP) used to say, "DO IT!!!"

I have cards on the way but all my friends bought up the irs and insurance and **** like that

Just keep your receipts from the yards when you turn in metal to report as income, but also keep gas receipts/mileage log so you can write off the driving to the yard, metal pickups, etc. Also tools, supplies, and things like that can be written off as expenses. If you donate to goodwill, you get a tax rebate, so check out the prices for things on their website for what they will write it off as and just bring things there instead of throwing them away.

If you are donating things to Goodwill, please be aware that you cannot write off donations of items you did not pay for.

A lot of common sense and hard work.

Thanks Auburn, I didn't know that. So say you buy a computer for $5, fix it so it functions well, and then donate it, it says on their site it starts at $50. Would you only be able to write off the $5? It isn't very specific so I was just wondering if you knew how that would work.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lalla666

I have maybe a stupid question has for businesses cards would this be considering a illegal businesses because of not being register like for taxes and stuff ?

---

Maybe by your state. Check their laws. All the IRS cares is "Did you report money received as income?" They don't care if you're registered or not.

This is awesome you are asking all of this stuff and getting answers and MORE questions!!! This is how we learn and get better!!! Thanks for this and keep on scrapping baby!!!

watch for stores like DRUG STORES AUTO PARTS FOOD STORES doing resets i got 600 lbs of store from local cvs dumpster tuesday store shelving is good heavy metal
only goes for shred but the way i look at it ozs make pounds pounds makes tens of pounds tens of pounds make hundreds and hundreds makes thousands keep on looking never know where the next load is ill pick up anything from a broom stick
to a bulldozer still aint got my first bulldozer yet

that shelving u probably will make more on craigslist selling to people to use

What it takes to make it scrapping:


Lots and lots of heavy objects, and the ability to move them.

The higher the ability to move those objects, the heaver the object you can move.

Everything else is a byproduct or function of increasing revenue over what heavy object you acquired.






can't get much simpler than that.