piranhas and great white sharks, oh my!

[rbrooks715]

I would think it would mean something more along the lines of predator and prey.

an irish lass with sharp objects. would that be predator or prey?

[Scrapette]

an irish lass with sharp objects. would that be predator or prey?

Neither. sui generis.

[jeb1212]

Starting or buying a scrap yard is not something the average business person can be sucessful at. You need an excellent set of business management skills and deep pockets.

The business management skills include general management, financial management, inventory control, shipping logistics, negotiation ability, understanding of contracts, understanding of government rules and regulations, dealing with law enforcement and other government agencies and , of course, metal pricing.

Profit margins of scrap yards are not anywhere near as high as most scrappers think they are. Schnitzer Steel is a publicly traded scrap company. Here is what they say about ferrous profit for the last quarter:"Operating income per ferrous ton was $11 in the first quarter of fiscal 2012, a decrease of 49% compared to $21 per ton in the first quarter fiscal 2011." At average selling prices of $432 and $353 a ton, those are profit margins of 2.55% and 5.95%.

This website has scrap yards for sale: http://scrap-king.tripod.com/id2.html

One of them has sales of $56 million and profit of $3.3 million EBITDA. That is a 5.90% profit margin.

You need the deep pockets to hold inventory until you can sell it and you need to be able to survive the market slowdowns and downturns. Try to find scrap yard owners who will talk about how they got clobbered by the huge price drops in 2008. Schnitzer Steel (SCHN) stock went from a high of 119 in July 2008 to a low of 16 in November 2008. Undercapitalized scrap yards just went out of business.

Getting other people to finance a scrap yard business will be rather difficult. It would be easier if you had significant capital of your own. I wish you well with your endeavors.

[rbrooks715]

Neither. sui generis.

an evolved predator. even more dangerous.