Young professional female wanting to enter the scrapping business

Hey everyone
I’m very interested in starting and running my own business. A friend mentioned the scrapping business and I began reading about it. It piqued my interest and here I am. I would really appreciate advice about what avenues/ streams are present in the metal scrapping world. So far I have read about e-scrapping and about scrapyards taking in whatever scrapped appliances you can bring their way. What other alternatives are there in this field? What do you feel might be good options for me as a woman in this industry? Also any other tips and advice resources, such as how to progress and succeed with this business would be very much appreciated.

E-scrap is tough. You have to get the stuff for almost free, it’s labor intensive. If you do it well, you can make money.

You have to find your niche. Work long hours, do what other companies WONT do (weekends, small piles, free pick ups, etc), treat your customers 100% always, have the RIGHT equipment, look-act-talk professional.....

Just an opinion but i would say that you might think of scrapping as recycling. Find an aspect of recycling that strikes a chord with you. There are many different kinds of recycling.

Here's one out of left field:

A high end furniture maker in the area has a lot of environmental concerns. It's almost like a religion with him. Anyway ... he stopped by our business about a month ago to see if our recycling efforts measure up to his standards. I walked him through our recycling operation and he seemed fairly well satisfied.

We got to talking and i learned something new that day. Locally, we have a very big lobster fishing industry. The biggest on the entire East Coast. That industry generates a lot of waste polyethylene rope. That rope is being collected and sent out for reprocessing into sheets of new plastic. The furniture maker has introduced a new line made from that plastic and is selling it all across the U.S. to his high end customers.

Point being: There's a lot more going on than just metals. You have to look around.

Don't let being a woman stop you. There are a few of us around. Sure, some people won't take you seriously and you may have to prove yourself but that happens in a lot of fields.

I stick to ewaste, but I am only very part time. If I had the resources and time, I would probably get into doing cars. There is great potential there if you can pick them up for $250 or less. You can resell a lot of the good parts, and separate the more valuable scrap (wiring harness, battery, catalytic converter, aluminum rims, etc.).

Good luck and be prepared to work!

Never let gender be a barrier. A woman can hold her own in this world every bit as well as a man.

Your presentation of self, your attentiveness to customers demands (and they will get demanding) and how you take those things will be the most important. I moved from cars to e-waste. I felt it much more rewarding (and profitable) to break down computers inside my garage, than I did rolling around under a car cutting converters in the snow and cutting out dashes for wire. Tired of fixing a trailer constantly, and pulling cars out of the woods or mud. People get attached to cars (lots of memories) and they think they are worth far more than they are. Car scrapping is FAR more competitive than e-waste. When I was hauling there were a dozen guys within 5 miles of my house that hauled cars. Computers- eh, it's a computer- it's broken, take it away is more the attitude. Same with larger clients. IT folks are paid well and not too many companies want the guy they pay 80K a year to worry about "maximizing computers" they just want it gone from whatever precious space they are taking up.

Your upstream will be something you want to consider. To stick with the cars vs e-waste example, when you sell off your "wares" with cars you are heading to core buyers and I know we have some solid and reputable folks here (So please none of you take offense) but imo they are the exception and not the norm. E-waste has been much better. Easier to make good relationships with upstream buyers.

As with any scrap, you have to be on your toes, know what you have, know what you should get for it, know how to process it to maximize profit and ensure it is cleaned so that it can be. The game changes daily at the yard. One day it is #1 copper, the next it is #2, one day wire with ends is ok at $x.xx price, the next it is half the price. You'll have to roll with the punches, but I've found e-waste to be much more consistent.

Welcome to the forum. Get educated, read every thread in the forum til you can't read anymore then read some more.

Seriously we have a very wide variety of experiences in these threads. Keep in mind prices have changed.

Start small and refine your process along the way. I think someone else stated to think of recycling in a different way. Reuse of the item is 100% recycling and normally results in higher profit margin than selling for scrap value. 73, Mike

... and, they're gone...

Sort of an afterthought :

There's something that i think i would recommend to any young person just starting out. You probably weren't born knowing how to run a business. A college degree can help but that only goes so far.What you need is the practical experience of running a business. In the end ... that may turn out to be far more important than anything they taught you in school.

There's a "trial by fire" that lays ahead for you. Every business owner goes through it at least once.

Do you have the force of will to endure ?

Do you have the work ethic ? Fifty to seventy five hour work weeks are the norm for most business managers.

Can you manage your emotions ? Can you keep a cool head and think rationally under duress ?

Are you a leader or a follower ? Is there something inside that drives you to blaze your own trail -or- are you more comfortable in a structured environment with clear rules and boundaries ?

~ Just a few thoughts ~

Business is a metaphor for war. War can be most clearly be defined as a competition for resources.

Are you ready to get in the boxing ring and duke it out with your competitors for your own slice of the pie ? :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by t00nces2

... and, they're gone...

---

.. it's only been 2 days.

and last visit was making that first post.

Can't blame T2(Haha..pun intended).

As your well aware plenty of one post wonders come through.


Either way...Good luck to the OP. Assuming they return an see this...

Sirscrapalot - Learning curve grade 45%

Thank you for all the feedback everyone! I am very much interested to start in this field and I’m not afraid of putting in hard work. And I do have tons of questions. I loved hearing from all of you.
It seems that the niche I’m trying to focus on is taking the scrap from the recycling places and then shipping it off to eastern countries such as India. I’m comparing that with finding a niche locally such as someone suggesting cars or escrap. I’m not sure at this point probably since it’s too soon for me to get all the info together to figure out which is a more lucrative niche out of these three. Any suggesting and help in that regards would also be very appreciated. =) looking forward to staying in touch with everyone here!!

See all you impatient old goats.. OP returned.. plate of crow in the corner!
HA!

Hi everyone.im from San Antonio I'm trying to sell some cats that I got from work..just don't want to get ripped off.. there from a bmw

Hi Young Professional Woman! Welcome to the forum from Las Vegas. One of my two partners in the scrapping business I launched a few months back is a woman who comes from a hazmat background. Currently all of the buyers we deal with are men and locally here the labor is quite gendered with women mostly confined to the office work. You'll run into similar situations working in scrap beyond the disassembly and local buyer/seller level. So that means suffering a lot of men who are accustomed to dealing mostly or exclusively with other men. I apologize on behalf of men in advance lol.

I strongly second miked's advice to take the time and read through the old threads in this forum as well as the pdfs in the first message you got when signing up. Even if your path doesn't take you personally to a lot of disassembly for scrap, knowing your metals, scrap lingo, common sources for various commodities iand lots of stuff you learn doing the work of disassembly s going to give you a strong knowledge base and perhaps the ability to find some of those those niches you're looking for. For my part, I wouldn't have a business right now were it not for this forum and the knowledge shared here. And really when it comes to selling metals the niches you need are the ones that make you money as ethically as possible. Sometimes that means shipping to refiners in China. But that can also mean sending items to commercial refineries here in the US. If the buy price is higher and the environmental cost of shipping is lower to send to, for example, Wisconsin, then having a particular geographic focus as a seller becomes less helpful. Anyway read up and I look forward to your questions and contributions here.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Sirscrapalot

and last visit was making that first post.

Can't blame T2(Haha..pun intended).

As your well aware plenty of one post wonders come through.


Either way...Good luck to the OP. Assuming they return an see this...

Sirscrapalot - Learning curve grade 45%

---

Looks like I missed on that one...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kikampus

Thank you for all the feedback everyone! I am very much interested to start in this field and I’m not afraid of putting in hard work. And I do have tons of questions. I loved hearing from all of you.
It seems that the niche I’m trying to focus on is taking the scrap from the recycling places and then shipping it off to eastern countries such as India. I’m comparing that with finding a niche locally such as someone suggesting cars or escrap. I’m not sure at this point probably since it’s too soon for me to get all the info together to figure out which is a more lucrative niche out of these three. Any suggesting and help in that regards would also be very appreciated. =) looking forward to staying in touch with everyone here!!

---

Sorry I was a little cynical to start with, there are a lot of posts that drop with lofty goals and dreams and just never ever post again. Longtime members post lengthy, well considered answers to a drive by who never logs on again.

What skills do you bring to the table? Have you ever worked with any scrap material before? Have you ever shipped any products overseas? Do you have connections that would get you a large supply of scrap material cheaply? Scrap is no different than any other type of business, there is no easy money.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sledge

See all you impatient old goats.. OP returned.. plate of crow in the corner!
HA!

---

It will be a nice change from all the crap I have had to choke down lately!

OP, have a close look at some escrap.
Particularly the windowed Eproms & any digital camera image sensor.
Along with optical mouse image sensors etc. The sensors are also used in DVD & CD read/writers (and also have some very small strong magnets) photocopiers & image scanners & printer/scanners.

I use a magnifying lens from a photocopy machine to get a good close up view of them.
They are quite beautiful, sorta like jewellery and could be a new 'thing', 'escrap jewellery'.
The CCD image sensors (cameras) have a unique ability to replicate the 'red eye effect' in photos, just like the human eye does. A direct digital or film photo of a CCD sensor will have a 'red eye reflection'. It'd be quite neat in a 'Eye of Horus' pendant (The 'All seeing eye'. Eye in a pyramid like on the US$)

https://www.scrapmetalforum.com/more...re-crafts.html

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by eesakiwi

http://i.stack.imgur.com/yoYOf.jpg http://www.racktopsystems.com/wp-con...s1-300x168.jpg

http://i.stack.imgur.com/4ZZQL.jpg

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cent...6dx2-large.jpg

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d60/images/sensor.jpg
http://www.cmosis.com/assets/images/...OS_Sensor1.jpg
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...6dx2-large.jpg

---

I prefer pie.

Crow is for the...wait for it...birds.

An welcome back to the OP.

Since the goats were mentioned...
https://memegenerator.net/img/instan...ello-there.jpg

Sirscrapalot - *munch,munch* - A goat, eating.

Hi Kika,

Going by your last your last post i would guess that you're interested in being a middleman. You buy from the scrap yards and ship overseas ?

That might be a tough nut to crack. The business trend here in The States has been a process of consolidation.It's in almost every sector of the business world here. Little mom and pop grocery stores have been forced out of business by larger chains like Wal Mart & Lidl. Local hardware stores have been forced out by Home Depot & Lowes.

The same process of the little fish being swallowed up by the big fish has happened in the metals recycling business as well.

The few big fish that survived our recent economic recession are quite formidable ! They have economy of scale.

It would be like going into the boxing ring with an Olympic gold medalist ?

I would suggest studying the supply chain from the small scrap yard all the way up to the top. Look for places where you might be able to jump in as a " Middle Person " ? I would suggest studying the transportation network as well. What moves over the highway system ? What travels by train ? Where are our major seaports ? Which seaports serve the Eastern countries like India ?

The logistical details are important.

It's a good video all on it's own but go about 40:23 in. It tells a little bit about the middlemen that buy here in the states and ship overseas. Interesting stuff. :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAXUmOJ6Fwc

Hills posted another video by Adam Minter that might be the answer you are looking for. Recycling Christmas tree lights in the US would save the transportation costs of sending them to China. Profit margin could be great. The key would be obtaining the financing to pull it off.

I had not posted in 3 days.. didn't want all of you to think I disappeared!
>:)