Specialize your recycling efforts

I see sometimes on some threads people talking about acquiring different kinds
of scrap copper and other commodities. Acquiring a good load of profitable
scrap metal is great but may not occur often enough to make the cash flow.
when i first started scrapping i would search Craig's list hoping to stumble upon the
motherload.

I never bought anything, I just searched for stuff sitting on the curb
and sometimes I got lucky. Now inhale used Craig's list to get people to call me wanting
me to haul there stuff away. I scrap air conditioners they may not be easy
to tear down being that freon needs to be recovered first. Im sure that there
are many other things that can be bought cheap and torn and sold for higher prices
as individual components.

The best way to acquire a commodity such as a used appliance
or a/c is to go to the businesses that acquire them as a by product but have no intentions or
capabilities of processing them themselves. Many corporate schemes are put in place
to acquire commodities, but more commonly for resale, not scrap.

Today I spent $212 on scrap a/c's that will be worth roughly three to four times that value. When i first started
buying a/c's my initial investment was five dollars for two little air conditioners. You need to start somewhere

hmm, I took a different approach
I generalized my scrap as soon as I came here and started reading.
taking all different types of scrap allows me to sell different stockpiles at different times.
sure I'm not as in depth in knowledge on a single type of scrap or individual items like phone systems or computers/servers or in this case ac's and appliances, but being here allows enough knowledge to pass through my thick skull to learn a few tricks from the specialists.
I look at it like nature, the more specialized a creature is, the less adaptable it is to a change in environment...
but I'm half crazy:&

I agree that it's a good idea to specialize in something that you'll become really good at, but it's never a good idea to put all of your eggs in one basket.