It's been a crazy two weeks

Darkness Falls · May 5, 2015

I haven't been on the forums in that long. Once I started looking for scrap, put my name out there and made a flyer, it seems I've spent more time picking up scrap than I have scraping. I decided this past weekend that it was time to invest in a utility trailer from Home Depot. My Durango is officially evicted from the garage and I have stacks of electronics everywhere. My wife thinks I went insane! Within two weeks, I've received 32 desktops, 47 monitors, 2 laptops, 4 rear projection TV's, 1 DLP TV and some miscellaneous smaller electronic gadgets. I've officially went from putting the more common scrap in buckets to 55 gallon plastic drums. A local farm equipment store has food grade plastic drums for $10 each so it's not too bad. And now my secret of finding the scrap? Facebook yardsell groups and free only groups. I don't use Facebook for anything else. I just have a big list of groups that I'm a member of now and the electronic scrap has been coming in like crazy. The only money I'm out is the gas driving to pick it up but so far, my farthest trip was 6.9 miles one way. What's really crazy about all of this is I found this forum because I wanted to learn how to scrap gold. Along my journey, I've learned that not only is there gold in them electronics, but also silver, palladium, copper, aluminum, platinum, and all kinds of goodies. After tossing my first couple of tower cases, I found a local scrap yard willing to pay 6¢ per pound for the steel. This has been an amazing journey. I never thought I would get so involved with this hobby. Now if I can find out what to do with all of this plastic.

Pantherlikher · May 5, 2015

You're lucky Darkness Falls
Should I say I'm not so... I get to drive at least 1/2 hour 1 way to get anywhere and much of the time, it's over an hour drive 1 way.

I put a few ads on Craigslist.com and had quite a few requests to pit up small loads. A couple have panned out like the 1 bud 1 1/2 hour drive for at least 5 towers and parts. He picks up to rebuild and give them cheaply to special needs kids so gets alot of Pcs. Most he can't use so found my ad and calls every other week or so.

Locally I try and catch scrappers for desktops but that costs $2-3 / PC to make it worth it for them to save them from the $.06/ lb. steel at the yard.

B.S.

Darkness Falls · May 6, 2015

I had a member pm me about what I post that results in the amount of scrap I get. I thought I would share my current flyer that I post on Facebook and around the local community bulletin boards.

rewalston · May 6, 2015

Thank you

Rusty

Smack · May 6, 2015

Be selective on the big and bulky stuff, it takes up a lot of space. Offer to take it for a fee if your low on space, if they don't want to pay, you still have your space and no pain in your back. I quit taking anything CRT related, we have a local recycling center that takes them so they get a lot of referrals from me.

Darkness Falls · May 6, 2015

I still take the CRT's. I get a few low grade boards out of them and those large loops of heavy copper around the tube. What helps me out is where I live, they provide two 8 yard dumpsters for trash. If I get too much backlog, I can always process a few and toss them. It's true that those few will go to the landfill, but overall, I like to think what I do helps.