Who Do The Big Fish Sell Their Stuff To?

Since there is no one else within 160 miles of me who buys E-Scrap, I was looking into the feasibility of buying scrap, and selling it on in bulk.

My issue has been finding anyone who buys in bulk, that can make it profitable ... the best I have found is listing my stuff on Alibaba and hoping to compete with the Chinese sellers. E-Waste refiners in the US seem to be extremely difficult to find, and all of the small buyers do not pay enough to cover bulk shipping costs ( average of $3.75 per mile + fees + $65 per gaylord ).

So my question is: were are all the American bulk buyers ?!

how much would be considered bulk?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

how much would be considered bulk?

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1 truck load ... 2 to 10 US tons per shipment

Please go to the buyers/sellers forum and read the reviews. We have some of the best buyers you can find. Make certain the buyers are currently involved with the forum. Figure out what you mean by bulk. Get some experience shipping small loads for a while.

You could do well being THE guy to send ewaste to in your area. Take your time and be certain you understand what your are doing before you spend a lot of money. 73, Mike

There is a big market out there of buyers & sellers of e-scrap. Things you should consider when choosing;

Payment Terms: How do they pay, whats the schedule (i.e. time until you get paid), reliability of the buyer to actually pay you and pay you what is previously agreed on.

Logistics: If you are truly putting together a truckload of material you should be buying the product at a price in consideration of your shipping costs. Whoever your getting this stuff from would have the same costs if not more because they don't have the same volume you do. Either way, there's a freight broker in the buyer's/sellers area as well a high volume e-scrap buyer who I can personally vouch for that can pre-pay shipping and charges you from the total payout but is certainly a highly competitive rate.

Market Segment: What position are you in the market or are hoping to fill; do you want to take material all the way to a refinery? There's a great deal of risk in market fluctuations and refineries trying to misrepresent the value of your material during your wait of 60-90 days for them to process it...Higher margins, higher risk. Is there really no middleman in your area to aggregate E-scrap? Sounds like money to be made and in today's market one in the hand is worth two in the bush. In that, it can better to buy and sell E-scrap at a comfortable margin than speculate as I've seen many lose everything to speculating on E-scrap. Scrapyards make there money because they are providing a service; they are buying out your risk of the value changing in the material and you receive a cash payout but you aren't going to make what the yard makes because they also produce truckloads of material.

These factors will always be changing and so can your business model. It's nice to ask advice and get input from your peers but at the end of the day there are a lot of things we don't know about your circumstances but it sounds like you can enjoy a nice monopoly in your area. In today's market, cash is king and everyone's initial asking price is rarely there walk-away number; you may be able to get the material in your area cheap and sell it outright.

Don't take offense as I like your little videos (KINDA CUTE).......but to get to that level its going to take more than a few old DVD players and car radios.........I process 1000's of units per year (that is towers) and I am nowhere near that volume......It is hard to buy boards at a competitive price as everyone basically knows what they are worth......Our buyers pay more than BOARDSORT but seems everyone knows about them and they can see prices there.........I have met many people who didn't know about this forum but they knew BOARDSORT.........I personally use multiple buyers on this forum and only had a problem once or twice........I wish you best of luck and I would put out some local ads to buy ewaste locally and see what type of response you get.....anymore I can get the complete units cheaper than boards because of the labor involved

Why do folks find it surprising that there are no E-Scrap buyers out here in mid-western Pennsylvania? I live in the middle of the proverbial sticks !

I actually do more than rip stuff apart for YouTube ... electronics scraping is my part-time job when I am not working ...
The problem now, as when I started, is the very high cost of shipping. The small buyers can not pay enough to cover shipping costs.
I have quotes from 14 different trucking companies ... They range from $3.40 to $4.10 per mile ( + transport fees ) ... which is a far cheaper than the $1.20/lb +- I am currently being charged by UPS, FedEx, and USPS . [*1] [*2]
I currently have roughly 800 lbs of hard drives sitting around. Small buyers don't pay enough to cover shipping + the gaylord [*3], and I can not find a trustworthy refiner (yet) that I can ship them to ...
I can not ship low & mid grade boards, again because of price vs shipping.
My break even point is $0.59/lb shipping bulk and $1.60/lb in small quantities [*4].


*1 - my rate would go down to roughly $2.80 a mile if I would ship once a month
*2 - shipping LTL is slightly cheaper, but not by much
*3 - buying in bulk, a gaylord and plastic pallet cost $65 ( including shipping costs )
*4 - small quantity = 1 ton or less

currently shipping 750LB pallets to Ohio from Knoxville for around $100.........that averages out to about .15/lb.........I can't drive to Ewasted and back for that

Links and/or phone numbers please !

No LTL shipping company I have talked to comes close to that price. Cheapest price I have is $490 from my door to the buyer. (A loss of $395 for the hard drives)

Edit: even if I could get shipping for $100, I'd have a loss of $5 for the hard drives.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RLS0812

Why do folks find it surprising that there are no E-Scrap buyers out here in mid-western Pennsylvania? I live in the middle of the proverbial sticks !

I actually do more than rip stuff apart for YouTube ... electronics scraping is my part-time job when I am not working ...
The problem now, as when I started, is the very high cost of shipping. The small buyers can not pay enough to cover shipping costs.
I have quotes from 14 different trucking companies ... They range from $3.40 to $4.10 per mile ( + transport fees ) ... which is a far cheaper than the $1.20/lb +- I am currently being charged by UPS, FedEx, and USPS . [*1] [*2]
I currently have roughly 800 lbs of hard drives sitting around. Small buyers don't pay enough to cover shipping + the gaylord [*3], and I can not find a trustworthy refiner (yet) that I can ship them to ...
I can not ship low & mid grade boards, again because of price vs shipping.
My break even point is $0.59/lb shipping bulk and $1.60/lb in small quantities [*4].


*1 - my rate would go down to roughly $2.80 a mile if I would ship once a month
*2 - shipping LTL is slightly cheaper, but not by much
*3 - buying in bulk, a gaylord and plastic pallet cost $65 ( including shipping costs )
*4 - small quantity = 1 ton or less

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We have a freight shipper here on the forum that has very good rates. I have used his services several times and my shipping cost averages 9-10 cents/lb.

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...tops-lcds.html

If you are shipping only hard drives, you are not going to make any money. You need to add some higher value material to make it worth it. When I send in my hard drives I fill the rest of the gaylord with telecom boards or RAM to offset the cost.

If you are paying 65.00 for a gaylord and a pallet you are being taken advantage of. Any scrap yard around here will sell a gaylord and pallet for 5-10 bucks each. I have a good relationship with my yard and the guy gives them to me for free if I only need a couple.

You have received some very good advice from 2 top contributors so far.

One told you to check out the buyers and sellers section here on the SMF and the other even mentioned the name of one of the top buyers and you're asking for links and numbers?

Agreed.......You do not need names and phone # of shipping companies........The larger buyers on here can get a better price than any individual.......They are receiving multiple pallets daily and they are already on the FREIGHT "routes" so to speak...........Oh well if any of those HD's are SATA check out my buyers thread would love to have some

You are getting some real good advice right here. The last pallet I shipped was 718 lbs ( I am averaging a pallet a month right now ) mixed value , low and high value goods. net $801.00 after shipping from CT to Ohio.
Shipping was about $90.00 +- . If heed this good advice above you will be in good company. These guys have tons of experience... but you do some footwork yourself to learn what works best for you. we are all different
in how we handle out biz. Sounds like you have the product-thats the hard part for some of us,now you just need to figure best way to move it. Good luck

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Agreed.......You do not need names and phone # of shipping companies........The larger buyers on here can get a better price than any individual.......They are receiving multiple pallets daily and they are already on the FREIGHT "routes" so to speak...........Oh well if any of those HD's are SATA check out my buyers thread would love to have some

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YEA, but you'll have to supply him with some links and a #, lol

There are buyers in PA. Might not fit your idea of "Big Fish" tho.

There are also several nearby in NY, NYC, and other various areas around PA.

We have a shipper/broker/transporter right here on the forums, who has been mentioned in this thread and many others. Those rates you got quoted, make me laugh, as I can get better an I'm on a sandbar two miles out in the Atlantic. I'm also able to ship an make a decent profit. Not sure how someone in PA, not on a sandbar, or out in the Atlantic can't make shipping rates work. Perhaps you need to make your loads smaller?

I know Ewasted pays shipping upfront, as does Mudlucky I believe he just recently even updated his thread stating such. Perhaps expand out of your..comfort zone, an look to your neighbor states, or ones not to far off. PA to OH ain't exactly California to DC. Back to shipping, several buyers will prepay shipping. IF your looking for totally free shipping, well..when you find it let the rest of us know.

I do this full time, in a tourist dependent area 2 miles out in the Atlantic. If I can do it, I'm sure you main landers can figure it out. ;) I'm not trying to be a jerk here but..all this info is able to found right here on the forums an no need to dig that far back in the archives. I'm also not sure why WE need to provide you with links an numbers, when the info is readily available thought everyone's favorite personal researcher...Google.

Sometimes you gotta deal with a bunch of no's to get a yes...this also applies to calling for rates. Keep calling till you find the ones that work for you. Try smaller companies, try the big ones. If you settle for the first few, you'll never find the lower end rates. I can think of several ways you could get transported via LTL loads an it not cost you 4 bucks a mile.

Remember most of us started out doing this as a hobby or part time an now do this full time. We're not just typing/talking to hear ourselves do so. It works for us, so it CAN work for you, nobody said it'd be easy tho.

Sirscrapalot - I need a drink. - Me.

The last load that I shipped from the middle of Kansas to the state of Ohio ended up costing me .07 cents per pound for 6500 pounds. I did fine on hard drives, power supplies and monitors. You will find, as has been mentioned previously, that the buyers on this forum can help more than one might realize.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

There are buyers in PA. Might not fit your idea of "Big Fish" tho.

There are also several nearby in NY, NYC, and other various areas around PA.

We have a shipper/broker/transporter right here on the forums, who has been mentioned in this thread and many others. Those rates you got quoted, make me laugh, as I can get better an I'm on a sandbar two miles out in the Atlantic. I'm also able to ship an make a decent profit. Not sure how someone in PA, not on a sandbar, or out in the Atlantic can't make shipping rates work. Perhaps you need to make your loads smaller?

I know Ewasted pays shipping upfront, as does Mudlucky I believe he just recently even updated his thread stating such. Perhaps expand out of your..comfort zone, an look to your neighbor states, or ones not to far off. PA to OH ain't exactly California to DC. Back to shipping, several buyers will prepay shipping. IF your looking for totally free shipping, well..when you find it let the rest of us know.

I do this full time, in a tourist dependent area 2 miles out in the Atlantic. If I can do it, I'm sure you main landers can figure it out. ;) I'm not trying to be a jerk here but..all this info is able to found right here on the forums an no need to dig that far back in the archives. I'm also not sure why WE need to provide you with links an numbers, when the info is readily available thought everyone's favorite personal researcher...Google.

Sometimes you gotta deal with a bunch of no's to get a yes...this also applies to calling for rates. Keep calling till you find the ones that work for you. Try smaller companies, try the big ones. If you settle for the first few, you'll never find the lower end rates. I can think of several ways you could get transported via LTL loads an it not cost you 4 bucks a mile.

Remember most of us started out doing this as a hobby or part time an now do this full time. We're not just typing/talking to hear ourselves do so. It works for us, so it CAN work for you, nobody said it'd be easy tho.

Sirscrapalot - I need a drink. - Me.

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Amen and just finished a nice icy glass of Makers Mark. Now that makes medicine go down smooth. 73 Mike

Mother to daughter advice:

Cook a man a fish and you feed him for a day.
But teach a man to fish and you get rid of him for the whole weekend.

Give a man a fish and feed him for a day.
Teach a man to fish and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.

The only reason your husband likes to go fishing so much is that it's the only time he hears someone tell him, "Wow, that's a big one!"

I can't believe none of you guys are hopping on a plane and offering your services to him personally for free in hopes that he can become your competition one day.

Honestly, this one sounds like a flounder... Anyone who uses Alibaba for anything serious, makes me wonder.

Which, in hopes this gets hijacked... are we coddling the slow people of the world too much?

It honestly sounds like he is paying top dollar for his ewaste, which is why he is looking at a loss when shipping. Otherwise nothing said makes sence. Thats where I think his problem lies. Any way good luck to you!

If you are in Ohio, as your location states, then you are close enough to personally drop off truckloads at one of our VERY best buyers...

That's what I would do.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ScrappinRed

If you are in Ohio, as your location states, then you are close enough to personally drop off truckloads at one of our VERY best buyers...

That's what I would do.

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^^ I was thinking along these same lines. If your in the sticks, load your truck and drive to a more metropolitan area for better shipping rates. If you're 100 miles from anywhere, of course you will have higher shipping costs. But you can fix that..

must not have used the google, google knows all and with a few questions you can find hundreds of answers seek out the google and its wise information as I too once had these questions and found buyers and sellers and the SMF ohh myyy

I drove one load to Cleveland to get paid. At the time, the four hour haul one way seemed easier than creating a pallet shipment. My payout was around $760 and it cost me about $60 in gas. Probably not the best use of time, but it was really good to see how that buyer operates.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by HipoGear

I drove one load to Cleveland to get paid. At the time, the four hour haul one way seemed easier than creating a pallet shipment. My payout was around $760 and it cost me about $60 in gas. Probably not the best use of time, but it was really good to see how that buyer operates.

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I also made the trip to Cleveland myself with my wife. The trip cost my wife and I a lot more but it was well worth it. We met Mario and learned more about ewaste from him. We also had a bigger load and got to visit my family. I recommend that the trip can be worth it

For us it was about 688 mi to one way to Cleveland. Mike

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mikeinreco

Agreed.......You do not need names and phone # of shipping companies........The larger buyers on here can get a better price than any individual.......They are receiving multiple pallets daily and they are already on the FREIGHT "routes" so to speak...........Oh well if any of those HD's are SATA check out my buyers thread would love to have some

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There are 6 active tech buyers on the forums ... and yes I have attempted to contact anyone with a thread that has been updated within the last 5 months.
Any way, hard drives are worthless when they have a hole drilled into them, and are missing the boards. It doesn't really matter any way. I sold the lot to the local scrap yard for $0.08lb.
This is kind of interesting thread. I request information for a shipping company, and several individuals become hostile. Why are you's afraid to give out information?
I now have a list of 31 shipping companies that I have quotes from. None of them come close to the the prices mentioned above. Unfortunately this leads me to believe some folks may be "fudging" the numbers - after all, if the prices are genuine, why the hostility when asked what company provides the service?

On a side note: the closest buyer in PA is 210 miles from me, closest NY buyer is 253 miles. ( and yes I actually used Google Map )

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RLS0812

There are 6 active tech buyers on the forums ... and yes I have attempted to contact anyone with a thread that has been updated within the last 5 months.
Any way, hard drives are worthless when they have a hole drilled into them, and are missing the boards. It doesn't really matter any way. I sold the lot to the local scrap yard for $0.08lb.
This is kind of interesting thread. I request information for a shipping company, and several individuals become hostile. Why are you's afraid to give out information?
I now have a list of 31 shipping companies that I have quotes from. None of them come close to the the prices mentioned above. Unfortunately this leads me to believe some folks may be "fudging" the numbers - after all, if the prices are genuine, why the hostility when asked what company provides the service?

On a side note: the closest buyer in PA is 210 miles from me, closest NY buyer is 253 miles. ( and yes I actually used Google Map )

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Not hostile at all..........The bigger buyers on this forum shop the best rates for you..........I use Central Transport..........I did not even know they had a drop off here in town..........It is less than 7 miles from my house I pull up with a wrapped pallet and they unload it off my truck with a forklift...........The process could not be any easier..........Why would I lie.........Just sent off another load Friday....was quoted $106 for a 750LB pallet...........Oh well

I've never used this buyer but they have been mentioned several times in this thread.

Their prices were updated on 5-2-16 and they will give you a quote to pick up at your door.

Did you try them?

No hostility meant from this post just 1 statement and 1 question.

I've been working my ass off for the last 4 years learning from the SMF about ewaste and finding buyers to sell it to and also figure out how to get it to them.

Why should I wrap all of that information up in a nice little package and give it to anyone?

https://iusedtohaveamonkey.files.wor.../goat-mimi.png

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jimicrk

No hostility meant from this post just 1 statement and 1 question.

I've been working my ass off for the last 4 years learning from the SMF about ewaste and finding buyers to sell it to and also figure out how to get it to them.

Why should I wrap all of that information up in a nice little package and give it to anyone?

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Agreed.........I have literally shipped items to dozens of the buyers on this forum........I will say for the most part everything has been good..........I took the chance upfront and shipped items to all these individuals with nothing more than an email............I took the chances and profited from my experiences in both knowledge and cash.........Back to the shipping rates there is no need to contact 31 companies when there at least 5 in the buyers thread that would love to broker your freight and have your ewaste shipped to them.........As a matter of fact one has a website where you just sign up then input the amount of pallets and weight and normally within 24 hours they have a freight quote sent to your email.........Not rocket science people we are just dealing with scrap

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RLS0812

There are 6 active tech buyers on the forums ... and yes I have attempted to contact anyone with a thread that has been updated within the last 5 months.
Any way, hard drives are worthless when they have a hole drilled into them, and are missing the boards. It doesn't really matter any way. I sold the lot to the local scrap yard for $0.08lb.
This is kind of interesting thread. I request information for a shipping company, and several individuals become hostile. Why are you's afraid to give out information?
I now have a list of 31 shipping companies that I have quotes from. None of them come close to the the prices mentioned above. Unfortunately this leads me to believe some folks may be "fudging" the numbers - after all, if the prices are genuine, why the hostility when asked what company provides the service?

On a side note: the closest buyer in PA is 210 miles from me, closest NY buyer is 253 miles. ( and yes I actually used Google Map )

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Auburn E-waste basically spoon fed you in post # 10. You will have to look at the buyers thread and analyze his post a little, but it is all right there.

I don't think that people are being hostile with you, but are extremely frustrated that someone that has been a member since 2014, either hasn't been paying attention or hasn't done any reading on his own. I can vouch that there is a shipper on here with excellent prices. I have shipped loads between 800 and 1200 miles, weights between 500 and 2000 pounds and paid between 10 and 20 cents a pound. In addition to shipping LTL, I have personally looked into FTL shipments and anything within a days drive of me is less than $1000. A 10 ton load sent FTL would only cost about $0.05 per pound.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RLS0812

Why do folks find it surprising that there are no E-Scrap buyers out here in mid-western Pennsylvania? I live in the middle of the proverbial sticks !

I actually do more than rip stuff apart for YouTube ... electronics scraping is my part-time job when I am not working ...
The problem now, as when I started, is the very high cost of shipping. The small buyers can not pay enough to cover shipping costs.
I have quotes from 14 different trucking companies ... They range from $3.40 to $4.10 per mile ( + transport fees ) ... which is a far cheaper than the $1.20/lb +- I am currently being charged by UPS, FedEx, and USPS . [*1] [*2]
I currently have roughly 800 lbs of hard drives sitting around. Small buyers don't pay enough to cover shipping + the gaylord [*3], and I can not find a trustworthy refiner (yet) that I can ship them to ...
I can not ship low & mid grade boards, again because of price vs shipping.
My break even point is $0.59/lb shipping bulk and $1.60/lb in small quantities [*4].


*1 - my rate would go down to roughly $2.80 a mile if I would ship once a month
*2 - shipping LTL is slightly cheaper, but not by much
*3 - buying in bulk, a gaylord and plastic pallet cost $65 ( including shipping costs )
*4 - small quantity = 1 ton or less

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How about you tell me exactly what town you are in and I will tell you of a buyer within driving distance for you. Can't guarantee you'll be happy with prices as it may be a scrap yard that also buys ewaste.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RLS0812

Since there is no one else within 160 miles of me who buys E-Scrap, I was looking into the feasibility of buying scrap, and selling it on in bulk.

My issue has been finding anyone who buys in bulk, that can make it profitable ... the best I have found is listing my stuff on Alibaba and hoping to compete with the Chinese sellers. E-Waste refiners in the US seem to be extremely difficult to find, and all of the small buyers do not pay enough to cover bulk shipping costs ( average of $3.75 per mile + fees + $65 per gaylord ).

So my question is: were are all the American bulk buyers ?!

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We are an American bulk buyer and processor.
If you have reached out to over 31 shipping companies and still feel like there is room to improve on those quotes, we can help! Shoot us an email for a quote on your freight info@cashforcomputerscrap.com
At this point, I don't expect you will exhaust much time into us to determine whether or not there is some feasibility to conduct business.

Someone's knocking at the door
Somebody's ringing the bell
Someone's knocking at the door
Somebody's ringing the bell
Do me a favor, open the door and let them in.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ewasted

We are an American bulk buyer and processor.
If you have reached out to over 31 shipping companies and still feel like there is room to improve on those quotes, we can help! Shoot us an email for a quote on your freight info@cashforcomputerscrap.com
At this point, I don't expect you will exhaust much time into us to determine whether or not there is some feasibility to conduct business.

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^^^^^here is your answer...Mario has one of the largest threads in the buyers section with NOTHING but praise. I have personally dealt with them on many occasions. Maybe stop and give him a call and get your stuff taken care of.

http://rlv.zcache.co.uk/funny_goat_c..._8byvr_512.jpg